workshop floor

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Planning on a cow panel/ sheet metal quonset hut work shop and being underfunded I am seeking an option to concrete flooring. Cheap, ridged, light colored, and non dusty; maybe limesstone and Elmers glue or peacock droppings with a steam roller? What kind of ideas do you have?

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), July 04, 2001

Answers

My friend mixed lime into the soil and then rolled it down...after a couple rains, the stuff was as hard as concrete...hope that helps a little! Joe

-- Joe (threearrs@WCNet.org), July 04, 2001.

... or cement powder on the ground, scratch it in with a rake, tamp or stamp it down, then water it and come back in three or four days. Try this on a square yard - I think you'll find it's good enough. if necessary, experiment with different square yards with different amounts of cement.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), July 04, 2001.

Try Flyash, They use it as a cheep filler in concrete when someone dosent want to spend as much. Its nasty stuff in a mix its sticks to the inside of the drum real bad. We have hauled it dry to job sites where they add it to a dirt parkinglot to keep it from forming pot holes and ruts. Its so fine it pours like water. If i understand it, its the ash left from burning coal. Try contacting the local readymix plant and see how much a load would cost. we haul it in a readymix truck and pour it with chutes. once you spread it out I'd rototill it in ( wear a mask you dont want to inhale the stuff) level it out. then mist it with water. Then let it harden.

-- MikeinKS (mhonk@oz-online.net), July 04, 2001.

I have never heard any stories of bad experiences with the peacock dropping floors and if you feed them (the peacocks) M&M or Smarties you can get a lovely speckled coloured effect.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), July 04, 2001.

See if your concrete company has sloppy seconds? Basicly the concrete left in the truck after a pour. If your flexable on look and number of pours and are around near the house every day to wait for a truck then its can be pretty cheap. I poured a support for a tower 3x3x6 and paid nothing for the concrete except a pepsi for the driver.

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), July 04, 2001.


Don, would that be motar mix or concrete mix? And as for flyash, coal is not burnt here in Florida, the transporation cost is too high.

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), July 05, 2001.

Mitch, I'm not real clear on your US terms. What I meant is straight cement - the sort to which you'd add sharp sand and aggregate and water (& REO) to make a slab. You've probably seen the result I'm talking about outside somewhere where someone has washed out a cement mixer. We're not talking rocket science here - we're talking good enough and cheap - anything which stabilises the earth would do, and that would include lime, or thin sloppy concrete. Or peacock droppings, I guess - but I'd view the M&Ms as of dubious value - I don't think the aesthetic result would justify the expense, and since you'd have to import Smarties from Australia or New Zealand I'd expect them to be of even less value - check exchange rates though. Heck, people make cow-dung floors in mud-brick homes, and that's all the cow-dung is doing - stabilising and binding the earth. Do you want to think about that? They seal it with linseed oil (a drying oil - paint base) maybe thinned with mineral turpentine.

P.S. Do they have Smarties in the UK? Trans-Atlantic freight rates would likely be less than trans-Pacific.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), July 05, 2001.


Don, the mortar that is used between stones or concrete blocks with sand is called cement. The other stuff used with sand and rocks is called Portland Cement, there is a formula difference; I think the peacock droppings are bleached!!

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), July 05, 2001.

I really don't think it would matter - like I said (or tried to imply), just something that would bind the soil - more or less waterproof, doesn't give off dust, fairly resistant to wear. It's probably better if it's not rock-hard - if you drop your chisel, it's a lot easier to fill a hole in the floor than to re-grind the chisel. Not rocket science - just good enough and cheap - hey, come to think about it, that's what I'm aspiring to - I'm already cheap.

BLEACHED peacock poop - please re-assure me - you're kidding me - yes? I really don't have the background to know - there are so many really ODD headlines that we see originating in the USA.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), July 06, 2001.


Don, in that peacocks are not too plentyful here you would only find their droppings in the most important places like the space industry or government projects; where as turkeys are pleantyful here, and have larger bodies, and are much more subject to an American hobby known as spreading the B.S. (Basic Stuff!!). Its dry, no make that arrid humor that you have been exposed to. We only use turkey and peacock droppings as fertilizer and possiabily as food addatives. You missed the "cue", the double explination points behind the original statement here is the same as a sly wink, or a poke in the ribs.

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), July 06, 2001.


Well, I think I'll watch these postings for a while and see if I get "unconfused" and learn something. I have never heard of Portland cement. The only names I have heard used were cement and concrete so I'm trying to figure out the differences now.

-- Terry - NW Ohio (aunt_tm@hotmail.com), July 06, 2001.

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