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Cam Hartman

Member
G'day Everyone and a Happy New Year to you all,

For the last year or so a mate and I have had two RV8 tailkits under construction in temporary premises.

A more permanent location has become available and we'd welcome any advice concerning construction of the floor. The floor will be a concrete slab but won't be part of a hangar. The decision is closing in a machined type finish but the decision as to paint or not still has to be made. If anyone has experience or ideas about this please send them through.

I was pleased to get good advice last time we asked about lighting, placement of the air compressor, powerpoints etc but with the new venue we'd like to get the floor right from the start.

Thanks in advance,

Happy building and safe flying,

Kind Regards,
 
A tiedown,

....eye in the floor. I can't remember how many times I've needed to hold an airplane down. You're building an -8, so you have to hold the tail down while jacking under the tie down rings or the tail comes up. With a tiedown eye embedded and flush with the top of the slab, it's out of the way until needed, using a steel hook and a short length of chain.

Have fun above all,
 
G'day Gents,

Thanks for the replies.

Pierre that is a sensational suggestion; a tiedown eyelet will definitely be going in the floor.

Anyone out there with an opinion on whether to paint or not?

Thanks in advance,
 
RE:paint

I Painted my garage floor and it has been easy to clean, easy on the eyes, easy to find dropped parts......


Frank RV7A......NDY....bgc
 
I think lighting is a big deal and if you paint your floor white you'll be surprised at how much easier it is to see things because of the reflection.
 
Thanks for the replies,

This might seem like a not-too-bright question but does anyone have an opinion on colour? The point about lighting being critical is a very well made one but there would be a point at which the colour is good for bouncing plenty of light around but bad for creating too much glare; I thought light grey might be okay? Any thoughts?

Thanks again,
 
Cam Hartman said:
Thanks for the replies,

This might seem like a not-too-bright question but does anyone have an opinion on colour? The point about lighting being critical is a very well made one but there would be a point at which the colour is good for bouncing plenty of light around but bad for creating too much glare; I thought light grey might be okay? Any thoughts?

Thanks again,
Click to expand...

White! Unless you are going to put lights on the walls or angled down from the corners. No need to let the walls or ceiling absorbe any of the valuable light. I'm going through this right now, setting up a new shop for the next RV build. The light bill is going to be huge, but well worth it.
 
Here's a minority opinion:

The only painted floor I have worked on got very slippery when wet or when walking on it with shoes that had wet soles. It was like trying to walk on ice.

Water on the floor may not seem like a problem, but the car brings in water, shoes come in wet, rain blows in. Get used to being on a surface with traction, then all of a sudden you find yourself on the floor with a broken elbow or wrist. Not worth it. And if you are in dry country, you will forget to watch out for a wet floor and be even more surprised when you find yourself looking up at the ceiling. Unless I could be assured it would not be slippery when wet, I would never paint a floor.

Paint the walls white for light, but not the floor.
 
I used Rustoleum's epoxy based garage kit which can be purchased at Lowes or Home Depot. It is a light gray color with white, black, and purple chips that get sprinkled in. The epoxy surface is completely water proof, so it is easily to clean up water and oil spills. The light gray isn't any darker than the original cement and the chips provide additional traction. It took about 15 hours for prep and install on an old and dirty 25X22 surface.

Chris
 
Lower part of walls grey

Cam Hartman said:
Thanks for the replies,

This might seem like a not-too-bright question but does anyone have an opinion on colour? The point about lighting being critical is a very well made one but there would be a point at which the colour is good for bouncing plenty of light around but bad for creating too much glare; I thought light grey might be okay? Any thoughts?

Thanks again,
Click to expand...

I did a mix.... white walls, with a medium grey from about 42 inches to the floor.
This is the area of the wall that would get dirty, banged up the most, and most of it is probably going to be covered by workbenches, etc. so reflectivity is less useful here....

Put in a black plastic baseboard and it even looks color co-ordinated...:)

gil A
 
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