New floor or 'indoor deck'

[Xenophya]

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice. I run my own business, a motorcycle design studio. www.xenophya.com.

We make clay models of concept motorcycles. To do this we have a large 6.5m x 1.7m x 195mm metal slab with a measuring arm on (called a surface plate) I think I have attached an image to the post if not you can see a photo of it here. http://s3images.coroflot.com/user_f.../original_45080_UjRUNcRos7HWDnIUTp5nwaWVt.jpg

Ideally you want the top of the surface plate level with the floor so that the motorcycle you are working can be viewed and evaluated at the correct height (not raised up).

Typically a pit is excavated and the surface plate is sunk in so it sits at floor level. The terms of our lease do not allow us to dig up the concrete floor. What I'd therefore like to do is build a timber deck around the surface plate to raise the height of the floor up 195mm so it is level with the top of the surface plate. The total floor area is 92m2

I was thinking I could use 7" x 2" joists with 18mm board on top and painted with workshop floor paint. My questions are, what sort of spacing do I need for the joists (as they won't be suspended) and what sort of board to deck it all out WBP, chipboard, block board etc. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Mark

 

[DAZB]

If you are going with WBP , which I would , then a joist spacing of 600mm would suffice. Plenty of noggins will also help.

 

[Xenophya]

Hello,

Once we have raised the level of the floor and decked it all out with ply I want to finish it with a hard wearing paint or resin. It is a workshop floor (we are a motorcycle design business) if you look here you can see our studio.

http://s3images.coroflot.com/user_f.../original_45080_UjRUNcRos7HWDnIUTp5nwaWVt.jpg

I was thinking we could use something like this would that work on top of a raised joist and ply floor http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....akeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en

Thanks in advance
Mark