Hello STW,

The time has come to replace the flooring in my man-cave. It needs to be tough for when I drop stuff, waterproof/resistant for when I spill stuff, non-stainable as it gets cat food all over it and preferably look half decent as it’s the only way out into the garden so is used for more than just tinkering. At the moment it’s wood but that’s suffered when I’ve had a couple of major spillages and doesn’t look too good around the cats bowl. Cost isn’t a major issue as it’s a pretty small area, although I’m not paving it in gold or anything! Any suggestions gratefully received.

Thanks in advance.

ive got laminate flooring in both of mine – for no reason other than i removed it from the house and rather than skipping it i put the insulation down and laminated the garage floors and despite getting covered in and grinding dust a quick sweep and a mop run over it and it looks fine.

whats under the wood? Concrete… just paint it then…

Black marble would be pretty pimp in a man cave.

but for authenticity just stick with raw concrete

Or hire a concrete polisher

It doesnt matter, no MAN cave shoudl ever have cat food on the floor. MTFU

Quarry Tiles

http://www.garageikon.co.uk/garage_flooring.html%5D

Tank it.

I’d be inclined to either paint it with a rubberised paint or stick down some interlocking tiles.

Just bought some decking for a mate’s shed – £7.49 for 1500mm x 120mm ‘ish, and on BOGOF … work works out £3.75 per plank. Pretty tough, and looks rather posh.

Big game animal skins.

http://www.google.co.uk/#q=resin+floor+paint&hl=en&prmd=imvns&source=univ&tbm=shop&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=UOUPUIbkFKLO0QXm74HICw&ved=0CHcQrQQ&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=168826209e5970cc&biw=1366&bih=603

Astro Turf

😀

Rubber! Spill and stain proof (including workshop type oils and solvents), soft for dropping stuff and easy to clean. Looks good enought to have in a kitchen and bathroom (we do).

http://www.therubberflooringcompany.co.uk/

Or can be had in black or black for cheap on ebay or similar.

I have mine covered in aluminium treadplate which looks wicked. only problem comes when trying to find a droped nut, bolt, washer or other silver small part.
Andy

The scalps of your enemys.

I have something similar to this around the workbench in my cave.

It makes the floor a bit warmer to stand on, adds a bit of cushioning and if you drop any nuts or bolts they just get trapped in the holes so you don’t spend half your time searching for them.

I just banged down some cheap off cut carpet on mine and then put a second layer on when i replaced my lounge carpet (and the underlay so it’s now nice and plush).

Mine has stains all over it but i look on them as things to be proud of (particularly the perfect chainring marks). There are oil stains and cat food marks all over it but it’s my garage so i really don’t care. It’s warm and comfy on bare feet and i can easily vacuum it once it gets too dirty again. If i need to make it tidier i’ll get another offcut or two for less than £100 and it’s good as new after 30 mins with a stanley knife.

Another bonus is most things tend not to break when you drop them on plush carpet.

Bare earth or it’s not a cave. And then in line with sparkyrhinos suggestion, a thin layer of enemy scalps to finish.

I have a mixture of cobbles and concrete. It’s not warm in winter but great for turbo sessions.

Spit and sawdust end of

Personally I’m going to paint my concrete garage floor white or some other lighter colour.

I might go as far as putting down a leveling compound first too, but the white finish would be to reflect more light and to make dropped washers, bolts, etc stand out better when I need to retrieve them…

Interlocking tiles is a good suggestion, there’s a few systems about available in various colours too I think…

no MAN cave shoudl ever have cat food on the floor. MTFU

+1

Next thread – what throw for my man cave sofa?

Current man cave has commercial grade ‘vinyl’ floor – the kind of stuff you find in offices / showrooms, etc, not B+Q kitchen / bathroom sort of stuff.
Oddly enough, it is standing up very well to the odd bit of oil, brake fluid, paint, etc.

New, if all goes to plan, man cave with be a stock standard garage, with stock concrete floor, that will get painted, possibly with that rubbery stuff…

Cheers for the suggestions, catskin would be my preference but they’re probably too small and mrs HD wouldn’t be very happy 🙂 Looks like there’s a membrane under the wood so I’ll check out the bare earth/concrete options under there.

Having to put a raised floor in mine, as its just earth below.

22mm chipboard which is then painted with weatherproof paint.

Looked at concrete, but from talking to a friend I’d have needed to clear the building totally and about £1500.

Just like Muke said: Astroturf! It even comes in colours:

http://www.namgrass.be/kunstgras/living-colours-kunstgras-producten 🙂

Now for real: ever thought of a cork floor?

How bored do you have to be to dig out a week old thread on shed/garage flooring?

The ideal for a garage floor- somewhat soft, so that items dropped don’t bounce away and get lost forever. But also somewhat noisy, so that when you inevitably do drop a tiny expensive bolt, you hear it bounce. And ideally, a colour that makes it easy to find dropped parts- black looks great and professional til you drop a tiny expensive black bolt on it.

More of Stable than a Man Cave I’d say – how does the Horse get on with the cat?

Artificial Grass?..

Rubber floor

I’ve had concreet and cork floors.

Concreet; dust everywhere and paint never seems to stick.

Cork; goes black if it gets wet and not polished regulalry and isn’t very hard wearing, had it inthe kitchen and bathroom and you could see clearly where peole walked regulalry.

I’d go for plain old boring lino or the cheepest wood laminate flooring, or cheep carpet.

I’ve got the same as Pinkster except without the holes. Its rubbery, warm to the touch, about 1/4 inch thing and goes together like a giant jigsaw.

Can’t tell you where its from though, it was already there when we moved in.

I’ve got the same as Pinkster except without the holes

Decathlon (other gym stores are available) sell it for freeweight rooms.

Vinyl that looks like hardwood fits the bill

Not wanting to start a new man cave thread, are there any good man cave websites? I’m wanting inspiration and links to decent looking but good value flooring, shelving, cabinets, lighting etc… I’m wanting to turn my old attached grotty garage into a nice, modern, insulated workshop.

Everyone loves a man cave so there must be good sites out there?

can’t help with that ^ but for flooring….a giant magnet so no screws bounce away 😀

Or more sensibly I would go with some of that lock together rubber matting on top of painted concrete so if you drop anything it won’t get damaged. I have a stone floor in my man cave/office which is mostly covered but I am still scared of damaging stuff on the stone floor.

I have ‘anti fatigue’ jigsaw stuff that I got in Costco, holding up well so far but it has only been 6 months, but then I don’t care about stains either, it feels like carpet underlay, nice & warm, but much harder wearing.

Cheers.