Opinions on Darkroom Flooring?

ac12 · Aug 12, 2016

Steve Smith said:
Another option is vinyl floor covering which is continued up the wall about 4" instead of skirting board and sealed at the corners to make it easy to clean and to contain any spills.

Steve.

This would be my choice. The solid vinyl material will/should keep any spills from getting to the wood below. Wood rot is not fun to deal with.
On top of the sheet vinyl, you can put foam comfort pads were you stand a lot.

Ronald Moravec · Aug 13, 2016

ac12 said:
This would be my choice. The solid vinyl material will/should keep any spills from getting to the wood below. Wood rot is not fun to deal with.
On top of the sheet vinyl, you can put foam comfort pads were you stand a lot.

Best choice in my opinion unless you concrete it and seal with epoxy and you have made it permanent then. Plus the floor will need reinforcing for weight.

A vinyl sheet good floor will need pro installation.

Another option is underlayment, vinyl tile, and a mat for standing. Tile will not stand up to spills for a long time. Just depends on how long you will live there and the condition you wish to leave the home in.

sepiareverb · Aug 13, 2016

100% agree. A vinyl floor will be completely waterproof, and basically maintenance free. The Excelon tiles require finishing after installation and on a wood subfloor the seams will never be liquid tight. Vinyl sheet will never leak through unless you make a hole in it. I've put down several vinyl floors recently, very simple to do, and very forgiving. Check your local smaller shops, around here they often buy large rolls of overstocks from the big makers to compete against the box stores. I just did a long bathroom floor with a piece that was only $60. Some quick You-Tube video tutorials will explain making a template out of paper which makes the cutting extremely simple. Working in an empty room is even simpler than doing a bathroom, no tub, toilet outlet etc to cut.

You could also only seal the vinyl to the walls or only seal the vinyl around the edge of the floor, this would make removal much easier should you need to remove it. I've done floating sheet vinyl floors as well as semi-glue down, with a double-sided tape. A very forgiving material.

StephenT · Aug 13, 2016

If I were doing it again, I would use ceramic tile, 12x12, less than $1.00 each from big box stores. Not knowing then what I know now, and not knowing how to lay tile then, I chose something else. If you want to go first class, then use porcelain tile for about $2.50 to $3.00 a foot. Laying it your self you will save $5.00 per square foot easily, and it is not that difficult - if you have good knee pads.

If you have wood under the carpet, then lay hardiboard first. Use the acrylic modified mortar.

paul ron · Aug 13, 2016

linolium is the best thing you can get. it goes on in one piece so spills n water wont have anywhere to go. mop it with some spicnspan to keep clean. home depot sells it cheap.

sepiareverb · Aug 13, 2016

paul ron said:
linolium is the best thing you can get. it goes on in one piece so spills n water wont have anywhere to go. mop it with some spicnspan to keep clean. home depot sells it cheap.

Home Depot/Lowes doesn't sell linoleum, that's a very different product- more expensive, made of jute and linseed oil. My darkroom floor is linoleum, and I recommend it, but not on the cheap, unless you get very lucky and find a remnant like I did. Sheet vinyl is the more common material.

paul ron · Aug 14, 2016

hahahaha your age is showing.

i have been calling all sheet floorings linolium, old habbit.... sorry.

think the youngins know the difference?

linolium is a far superior product though and wears so much better.

mshchem · Aug 17, 2016

Sheet vinyl (you will never get it up once it's glued down ) I had it in my last darkroom. Get the cheapest stuff. I would seriously consider a simple water based polyurethane porch paint. Water beads up, it's cheap and the next guy can just cover it with carpet.
Spend your time and money printing and buying more used darkroom equipment I'd rather have a nice 8 ft sink than 800 bucks of cheap vinyl.
Mike

ozphoto · Aug 17, 2016

paul ron said:
hahahaha your age is showing.

i have been calling all sheet floorings linolium, old habbit.... sorry.

think the youngins know the difference?

linolium is a far superior product though and wears so much better.

Hmm, I should have used "lino" instead of vinyl - that's what I've always called it here in AU, and I don't consider myself old, just yet.

GRHazelton · Aug 17, 2016

Steve Smith said:
Another option is vinyl floor covering which is continued up the wall about 4" instead of skirting board and sealed at the corners to make it easy to clean and to contain any spills.

Steve.

That should be excellent! A comfort mat here and there. I'd suggest a very light color to maximize room light and to make it easier to find little gubbins somehow dropped....

darkroommike · Aug 17, 2016

Currently have bare concrete floors, the darkroom needs a serious makeover anyway, I need to somehow find room for 2 6 ft darkroom sinks, and a Multigrade 600H/D5 combo. Anyway I'm using industrial kitchen mats right now and my feet like 'em a lot but the dust and crud that builds up in the holes is just nuts. I'm planning to paint the floors with two part epoxy garage floor paint and then replace the rubber mats with new ones. Will try to keep up with the dust with a HEPA vacuum running outside the darkroom with just the business end inside the door.

M Carter · Aug 17, 2016

Duplex converted to one house - I get the upstairs kitchen. Looks like 80's era linoleum from a large roll (no seams).

I really am sold on it though; chem spills could get in the seams of floor tiles I suppose. I had a jug of Dektol (not diluted) and the Dektol ate through the jug and seeped from a cupboard onto the floor. It did sort of "burn in" to the flooring but just the glossy surface. Having the flooring curve up to be its own baseboard is really nice for mopping. Our "real" kitchen has a concrete floor - pretty, but man, don't drop anything.

As for floor drains - kinda overkill unless there's one there already. Had those in our Detroit basement and big centipedes always came out of it (I remember having family in town as a teen and I had to sleep in the basement for a weekend. Came home at three AM with some typical teenage "pharmaceutically augmented reality" going on. 6" centipede came out to say hi. Jesus H. Christ). A mop should handle most spills.

I'd think the biggest, most terrifying worry is any DIY plumbing you do, particularly a supply pipe failing. Yeah, you need a floor drain then! Our upstairs water heater is in a closet in my darkroom, and had no pan or outside drain. The framing under it looks like it's been replaced before (found this redoing the kitchen below) - how stupid are people anyway? A water heater leak destroys your floor joists, you repair them - and NEVER ADD A DAMN PAN AND DRAIN??

I added a pan and found a way to snake a drain hose to the outdoors (since I can tear the hell outta this room if I want).

ac12 · Aug 17, 2016

GRHazelton said:
That should be excellent! A comfort mat here and there. I'd suggest a very light color to maximize room light and to make it easier to find little gubbins somehow dropped....

+1 on the light color.
My darkroom at my parents house was all white, and the white floor was definitely good.
Fast forward to my time at the local community college darkroom, and that was a black hole. With many enlargers going at the same time, they painted the darkroom BLACK, and that was not as pleasant. Made me appreciate my white darkroom even more.

Old-N-Feeble · Aug 17, 2016

If/when I ever get another darkroom together the floor will be plane old cheap white linoleum... easy to clean and cheap to replace. I've used those floor pads and hate them. They're a PITA to keep clean and they begin to stink after some use... never again.

sepiareverb · Aug 17, 2016

paul ron said:
hahahaha your age is showing.

i have been calling all sheet floorings linolium, old habbit.... sorry.

think the youngins know the difference?

linolium is a far superior product though and wears so much better.

Yes, I've climbed the hill, don't believe I've gone over yet tho...

Lineoleum is hugely superior in many ways, but common (modern) sheet vinyl is equal (or better) in the most important ones for a darkroom. I once set down a 1 gallon plastic jug of distilled water on my darkroom floor before heading out of town for the weekend, Came back, unloaded the exposed films from the trip, and went back to work for the week. I came into the darkroom to run films and lifted the jug to find it had leaked a little bit, nothing awful, but it had created a huge swollen, water soaked lump in the linoleum (the jute/linseed oil variety). Three days later it had dried up and was invisible, the floor back to perfect normal. Modern vinyl would have not been effected at all - totally impervious to all - tho I bet there'd have been a puddle to wipe up.

Old-time linoleum is used in operating rooms because it is naturally antiseptic, (anti-fungal too?) because of the linseed oil. Also anti-static. And it comes in much nicer patterns, like marbled paper and in vibrant colors. No fake terrazzo tile or slate. I'm afflicted with a need to make what I make aesthetically pleasing, and linoleum fit the bill.

adelorenzo · Aug 18, 2016

I used plywood in my darkroom. Ripped it into 8 inch boards, stained and nailed them down. Four coats of a really good varathane floor finish.

This is also our laundry room and I think it looks nice in the house.

GRHazelton · Aug 18, 2016

sepiareverb said:
Yes, I've climbed the hill, don't believe I've gone over yet tho...

Lineoleum is hugely superior in many ways, but common (modern) sheet vinyl is equal (or better) in the most important ones for a darkroom. I once set down a 1 gallon plastic jug of distilled water on my darkroom floor before heading out of town for the weekend, Came back, unloaded the exposed films from the trip, and went back to work for the week. I came into the darkroom to run films and lifted the jug to find it had leaked a little bit, nothing awful, but it had created a huge swollen, water soaked lump in the linoleum (the jute/linseed oil variety). Three days later it had dried up and was invisible, the floor back to perfect normal. Modern vinyl would have not been effected at all - totally impervious to all - tho I bet there'd have been a puddle to wipe up.

Old-time linoleum is used in operating rooms because it is naturally antiseptic, (anti-fungal too?) because of the linseed oil. Also anti-static. And it comes in much nicer patterns, like marbled paper and in vibrant colors. No fake terrazzo tile or slate. I'm afflicted with a need to make what I make aesthetically pleasing, and linoleum fit the bill.

Do know that linoleum has different installation procedures than sheet vinyl. As the owner's rep on several public library building projects, we spec'd linoleum for the reasons stated above, and on one job the general contractor let a sub without the proper training do the installation. An expensive failure, and the contractor had to eat the costs and get a qualified firm to redo the botched work. An educational experience! I'm not at all certain that linoleum installation is a good idea for the DIY amateur, although carefully following the "rules" could well tide one over.

IIRC linoleum needn't and or must not be waxed, and cleaning is little more than damp mopping. Those factors i find appealing, being naturally lazy....

Ai Print · Aug 18, 2016

I'm working on purchasing some commercial property that is zoned for my needs as a darkroom. It will have 180 Sq. Feet for a darkroom and a super clean basement space of 150 sq. feet for archival storage and mounting. Both are tiled so I am thinking of using vinyl in bathtub style to cover the darkroom tile.

pbromaghin · Aug 18, 2016

darkroommike said:
. Will try to keep up with the dust with a HEPA vacuum running outside the darkroom with just the business end inside the door.

Have you thought to turn that vacuum around and blow filtered air into the darkroom instead of sucking dusty air in and filtering it on the way out?

Bob Carnie · Aug 18, 2016

For my next darkroom I think it will be polished concrete with a low end to floor drain. This way its easy to clean the floors, any flood issues are gone, and I would put a series of super thick hard rubber surrounding all the sinks and where I stand for printing.

I have seen pretty much every combination over the years , and the polished concrete best suits me.

This is a really old thread I wonder how Monty likes his darkroom?

DREW WILEY · Aug 18, 2016

If I wanted a rubberized floor, I sure wouldn't use anything vinyl or linoleum, but something rated for chem resistance. My lab was previously a
commercial gunsmith shop, and bits of gunpowder nitrate residue got into the slab, causing serious bonding issues for anything atop. So I treated the
slab with a penetrating marine epoxy and then just ordinary acrylic floor paint, since even a true epoxy floor paint might blister due to the contamination. This keeps things smooth for mopping, and the necessary routine paint touch up is real easy without risk of any nasty fumes. To keep
my feet comfortable I use true rubber anti-fatigue mats beside the sink etc. These can simply be taken outside and hosed off from time to time.

GRHazelton · Aug 18, 2016

mshchem said:
Sheet vinyl (you will never get it up once it's glued down ) I had it in my last darkroom. Get the cheapest stuff. I would seriously consider a simple water based polyurethane porch paint. Water beads up, it's cheap and the next guy can just cover it with carpet.
Spend your time and money printing and buying more used darkroom equipment I'd rather have a nice 8 ft sink than 800 bucks of cheap vinyl.
Mike

Sheet vinyl can be secured with glue only on the perimeter. This would also facilitate removal of a damaged piece; I imagine that the pros do it this way.

DREW WILEY · Aug 18, 2016

Mike - no hepa vac is going to provide sufficient air volume. They're expensive anyway. I should know. I sell hundreds of em each year. And no, you're not going to find them at some big box Cheapo Depot outlet. What those guys call HEPA aren't. There is no such thing as a true HEPA Shop Vac
or Hoover vac - fine dust will go right through them. Neither the filters, the perimeters seals, or the motor construction are adequate to the task.

gphoto120 · Aug 18, 2016

DREW WILEY said:
If I wanted a rubberized floor, I sure wouldn't use anything vinyl or linoleum, but something rated for chem resistance. My lab was previously a
commercial gunsmith shop, and bits of gunpowder nitrate residue got into the slab, causing serious bonding issues for anything atop. So I treated the
slab with a penetrating marine epoxy and then just ordinary acrylic floor paint, since even a true epoxy floor paint might blister due to the contamination. This keeps things smooth for mopping, and the necessary routine paint touch up is real easy without risk of any nasty fumes. To keep
my feet comfortable I use true rubber anti-fatigue mats beside the sink etc. These can simply be taken outside and hosed off from time to time.

Drew, what did you use to clean your concrete... Did you acid etch first or just apply the epoxy over a washed/cleaned floor? I have an untreated concrete floor and hope that I don't have to mess with acid etching as most diy suggest. I might just wash and clean the floor and see if one of the floor epoxy paints might work.

darkroommike · Aug 18, 2016

I'm using the HEPA vac to clean the darkroom, not to ventilate it.

Opinions on Darkroom Flooring?

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