Hanger Floor Finish

jnmeade

jnmeade

Cleared for Takeoff
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Jim Meade
What makes a nice hangar floor finish for a small, unheated hangar? It might also get some use for general machinery. Just a trowel finish, or add some kind of treatment or finish?
 
SoloEqs said:
Put down a couple of layers of floor paint, then scatter a lot of sand on the wet paint. Once the paint is dry, give it the third, final coat.
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That makes it very difficult to pick up oil spills..

my hangar is polished cement/concrete and liquid floor wax. every thing simply wipes up, sweeps clean, and with a damp towel over a floor broom picks up all the dust.
 

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Tom-D said:
That makes it very difficult to pick up oil spills..

my hangar is polished cement/concrete and liquid floor wax. every thing simply wipes up, sweeps clean, and with a damp towel over a floor broom picks up all the dust.
Click to expand...

How do you polish the cement?
 
SoloEqs said:
Put down a couple of layers of floor paint, then scatter a lot of sand on the wet paint. Once the paint is dry, give it the third, final coat.
Click to expand...

I can understand the concept you're getting at but a small hangar with an airplane in it really doesn't present a big slippage hazard because well, the airplane pretty much occupies most of the space. So I don't know if the effort to do what you describe would be worth it. I did work in a very large hangar at one time and they decided to paint the floor white to improve the ambiance (just had to throw a French word in there) and I'll tell you it was down right dangerous because any water or oil spill was INVISIBLE.

The guy across from me put down those inter-linking vinyl tiles you can buy and they were nice for awhile but in the end they collect (actually trap) dust and dirt and are a tripping hazard, plus they don't age well.

So my advice is just plain old concrete or asphalt that can be easily swept, blown or even hosed out clean. The main trick is to keep stuff off of the floor and keep it dynamic so that anything that ends up on it can be moved out with your favorite leaf blower.
 
When my floor is complete I had considered putting nice shiny floor down. However my builder talked about how slick it can be anytime there is moisture on it. Here in Colorado that possibility can exist 4-5 months in a row.

I'm definitely open to suggestions other then just brushing the concrete to provide some traction.
 
If you must here is the best..

Hard deck

http://www.airtechcoatings.com

It ain't cheap, we put it down on the Navies engine shop floor in 1996, when I left in 2007 it still looked new. The engine build stands were all on steel wheels and rolled over it with no problem, and even wet it was not slippery.
 
Mine is polished (it's heated too, but I have the same finish in the garage which is not).

If I just had an existing slab, i'd use one of the epoxy finishes. As long as it is warm enough it's hard to screw it up. My neighbor put it in his hangar. On a scale of 1-10 in difficulty, he rated it a 2.
 
I vote for a non-skid finish. One shop I worked at, the floor was dangerous when wet. It had been sealed and was downright slick.
 
Side benefit of epoxy if lighter colored is better "brightness" with fewer lights.
 
I rent T hangar. The concrete floor originally was a broom finish. Sometime after the floor cracked it was epoxy coated. It cleans up okay and isn't slick. Of course it'd clean up better without the broom grooves.
 
Tom-D said:
That makes it very difficult to pick up oil spills..
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A polished hangar floor makes it really easy to pick up oil spills . . .with your shirt, your hat and the back of your pants.

Myself, I'd rather put in a little work with a sponge mop or kitty litter rather than risk taking a header onto concrete because of an oil spot no larger than the tread on my shoe.
 
'Polished concrete' is not particularly slick unless you seal it with a laquer type substance.

Epoxy without a friction component can be extremely slick.
 
weilke said:
'Polished concrete' is not particularly slick unless you seal it with a laquer type substance.

Epoxy without a friction component can be extremely slick.
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All smooth troweled slabs are slicker than **** when wet.

Olympic makes a stain called "rescue it". It's for use on both badly cracked wood decks and concrete patios. It has just a touch of "grit" in it which provides better traction on troweled concrete, I used it on a small southern exposure, but covered, barbecue patio here at the house and it's held up well for two years now.
 
timwinters said:
All smooth troweled slabs are slicker than **** when wet.

Olympic makes a stain called "rescue it". It's for use on both badly cracked wood decks and concrete patios. It has just a touch of "grit" in it which provides better traction on troweled concrete, I used it on a small southern exposure, but covered, barbecue patio here at the house and it's held up well for two years now.
Click to expand...

A non skid floor wax does wonders.
 
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