Anybody else work on dirt floors? Can you send photos to me? I am just now getting into a pole barn for cover and it beats out in the air but no concrete just dirt. Has anybody added gravel later? Or crushed limestone? I would appreciate photos of low budget shops, thank you, Paul in Mississippi
- Thread starter ncpapaul
- Start date
JAY EDDLESTON
New User
OH YA,REBUILT A FARMALL A IN THE DIRT.THAT SUCKED,DROP A SMALL PART,FORGET IT.SO FOR THE NEXT REBUILD,I GOT SOME PT 2X6"S LAID THEM DOWN FLAT,THEN GOT SOME 3/4 PLY WOOD NAILED IT TO THE 2X6.WORKED FOR ME,CAN"T AFFORD A REAL SHED WITH CONCRETE FLOOR,YET
old
Well-known Member
- Location
- Camdenton Missouri
A cement floor might be nice but I will not and can not have one. I have a bad back and cement and my back and knees do not mix. Back when I built my shop I did put down creek gravel and I use a piece of 3/4 inch plywood so as to have a flat solid place for jacks etc. Ya at times cement would be nice but I would not last long standing on it. Oh by the way my shop cost me less then $300 to build its built from salvage stuff. Mobile home I-beams and used roofing etc.
Hobby farm
Hobby farm
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
Worked on all kinds of floors - nice thing about dirt - no need for floor dry! Just don't drop any small parts.
dave guest
Well-known Member
Hey Old, I got concrete too. I collect all the old carpet(clean is better) that I can and put down 3 or 4 layers and work on that. I got bad back certified and knees. It sure helps. Keep fire extinguishers handy. I am 65. Sometimes a good day in the barn and another good day or two in the bed with heating pad. Do what you can. They say if you ever stop, its all over. Hang in there.
john in la
Well-known Member
If I remember I will get a picture of my shop floor this weekend.
It was a dirt floor in the past but loosing small parts was a pain.
About 20 years ago I worked a job that was installing a parking lot out of 4x4x4 cobblestone pavers.
All the chipped; and extra pavers left over after the job were free for the taking.
I now have a free concrete paver floor in my shop.
It was a dirt floor in the past but loosing small parts was a pain.
About 20 years ago I worked a job that was installing a parking lot out of 4x4x4 cobblestone pavers.
All the chipped; and extra pavers left over after the job were free for the taking.
I now have a free concrete paver floor in my shop.
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
I know you are looking for something more economical but you just cannot beat concrete. About 6 years ago my shop flooded and I had to do something so I put in new finished concrete. Cost me about 3500.00 at the time. It is the best thing I ever did. I enjoy shop work more and I now keep it clean and organized. It is wonderful. Best $ I ever spent.
I built a 30x30 shop and still have a dirt floor and plan on never putting in concrete. In my case putting in concrete would raise my taxes. As it is, the appraisers just consider it a barn or a shed, by putting in concrete they would have considerd it a bussiness and taxes would eat me alive. just make sure you have gutters to deture the water away from getting in side and flooding the floor. I have built many engines in the shop and even hada guy paint a car in there, just take a pump sprayer loaded with water and spray the floor for dust control and a tarp can always come in handy for engine over hauls and min.bolt&nut loss.. just stake it down and keep it tight.. sorry, no pictures , its a mess!!! hope this helps . D.G.
Lost plenty of parts in the dirt. It's especially bad at night. But you pick up lots of lost parts with a big magnet, and they're real cheap. A roofing nail sweeper magnet works best, but those cost $50. Best to go with a $5 magnet from the local hardware store. It's saved me plenty of times.
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
I wouldn't know how to act on anything else other than a dirt. I do lay down some cappet when I need to go underneath. I also keep a supply of cardboard. We have a shop with a cement floor, but my brother has had it tied up for about 4 years with a pickup motor problem. He is never in much of a hurry. I split my JD 5020 in the dirt that was interesting. Stan
I have a dirt floor in my shop (pole barn with tobacco tiers in 3/4 of the main part, feed bunk on one side with 12' lean too over the bunk).
I just keep a few rolls of old carpet around and toss a 4'X4' piece under what ever I am working on. When it starts to get nasty toss it, when the pile gets small just be on the lookout for some one doing some re-model'n.
It won't help much if you have to split a tractor or roll around a engine hoist but alot of people round here put down old mine belt that falls off the back of trucks round here. I have a few small chunks but not near nuff to cover my working area. (Things are starting back up round here and I do have several orders for some!!)
Good luck.
Dave
I just keep a few rolls of old carpet around and toss a 4'X4' piece under what ever I am working on. When it starts to get nasty toss it, when the pile gets small just be on the lookout for some one doing some re-model'n.
It won't help much if you have to split a tractor or roll around a engine hoist but alot of people round here put down old mine belt that falls off the back of trucks round here. I have a few small chunks but not near nuff to cover my working area. (Things are starting back up round here and I do have several orders for some!!)
Good luck.
Dave
I got my shop partitioned off in a big pole barn.
build it as a quik make do after purchasing my ranch. house,shop and pigbarn where all burned to the ground.
i planned on building a new shop,but it never happened. so i still use that sorry excuse of a shop with dirt floor,no windows and bad insulation. i rebuild many an engine,and had lots tractors all apart in it over the years.
It's probably considdered a biological hazard with all the oil spilled on the floor,but that keeps it dust free.The biggest problem is using a rolling floor jack.
build it as a quik make do after purchasing my ranch. house,shop and pigbarn where all burned to the ground.
i planned on building a new shop,but it never happened. so i still use that sorry excuse of a shop with dirt floor,no windows and bad insulation. i rebuild many an engine,and had lots tractors all apart in it over the years.
It's probably considdered a biological hazard with all the oil spilled on the floor,but that keeps it dust free.The biggest problem is using a rolling floor jack.
That is always fun.
I used to be on a crew that ran a Lewis-Mola "chikcenbine" and I don't know who the engineer was who drew that thing out but seemed like ever hydrolic line on it you had to get under it to change. That along with table changes and boom belts were a hoot aswell. Did not take long for use to keep an extra head belt in the truck to use as a redneck creeper. Once you roll around in a broiler house covered in hydrolic oil, the term "tared and featered" takes on a more powerfull meaning.
Dave
I used to be on a crew that ran a Lewis-Mola "chikcenbine" and I don't know who the engineer was who drew that thing out but seemed like ever hydrolic line on it you had to get under it to change. That along with table changes and boom belts were a hoot aswell. Did not take long for use to keep an extra head belt in the truck to use as a redneck creeper. Once you roll around in a broiler house covered in hydrolic oil, the term "tared and featered" takes on a more powerfull meaning.
Dave
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
No dirt for me! Plywood, plastic, loopcarpet, on a good machine, or small gravel. I'm getting too old for this! P.S. a dry mudhole is my lift, hate rain halfway through a job. It's no wonder I drink!
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
I rented a shop a few years ago and it had cement on one side and dirt on the other side.
We scraped the dirt down a couple of inches to clean and level. then we added stone dust and watered and packed with vibrator and added some concrete to the mix and compacted again with water. It turned out pretty good not perfect but you could walk on it and drive trucks and equipment on it as long as you didn't sit in one spot and turn the wheels back and forth alot. We didin't loose to many small parts either and the mud and dirt could still be swept up. The floor jacks would dig in if lifting something heavy. we used the concrete side for anything that needed to roll. It was cheap and pretty good.
We scraped the dirt down a couple of inches to clean and level. then we added stone dust and watered and packed with vibrator and added some concrete to the mix and compacted again with water. It turned out pretty good not perfect but you could walk on it and drive trucks and equipment on it as long as you didn't sit in one spot and turn the wheels back and forth alot. We didin't loose to many small parts either and the mud and dirt could still be swept up. The floor jacks would dig in if lifting something heavy. we used the concrete side for anything that needed to roll. It was cheap and pretty good.
glennster
Well-known Member
new place i bought a couple years ago has a 60x120 morton building, had a 30x60 graveled shop on one side, rest of the barn is dirt floor. seems i work more on the dirt than the other, tractors are parked on dirt. what i did as a temporary is got some big pieces of carpeting that somebody threw out and laid them on the dirt. a lot easier working on that. am in the process of graveling that side of the barn. maybe next year i can concrete the shop area.
Yes and it pretty much "sucd". Every spring the floor would thaw out and turn to liquid soup and everything inside would sink several inches. Put a transmission in a car once during the mud season and had it sink down while I was under it working. Pretty scary! If you do put down stone, stay away from limestone. Everything inside will start to rust worse than it would if you use regular river or unwashed/ unscreened glacial gravel or "pit run" as they call it here. Has some dirt/clay but mostly sand and gravel together so it does pack. One thing that may help with mositure is to put down plastic sheeting before the rock. I now have sealed concrete and LOVE IT! I did a lot of engines and what not on that dirt, but the concrete sure makes things easier to keep clean.
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