Darkroom Floor

[William Whitaker]

Today I had a bedliner sprayed in my pickup truck by Line-X. I've read of people building wooden darkroom sinks, then having the bedliner material applied to the interior to create a waterproof and leak-proof sink. So that got me to looking at some of the other applications Line-X was touting.

The one that caught my eye was their industrial flooring product which they brand under the Aspart-X (http://www.linex.com/pages/2010/residential/index.php) name. Turned out I was standing on it at the time. It's a professionally applied product which appears similar to their bedliners, but is intended for garage floors, decks and apparently just about anything other high-wear, high-traffic application you can think of. So I thought of darkrooms.

Has anybody here used this product?

Once I can ever get relocated back to my house, I'm going to have a darkroom to construct and this stuff looks ideal, depending, of course, on the price.

[BarryS]

I've completely covered my darkroom floor with foam anti-fatigue pads and it makes a huge difference. I'm less concerned with floor stains than the constant shocks to my body from working on concrete flooring. Costco sells big packs and they're cheap.

[William Whitaker]

I agree wholeheartedly about the value of anti-fatigue mats. I used them when I had a darkroom set up before. In that application my slab concrete floor was painted with with floor enamel. It was perfectly satisfactory and I would do it again. But the Aspart-X product looked even better. I'll have to track down a price.

[jeroldharter]

For the average darkroom, it is hard to beat sheet vinyl. Inexpensive, low dust, and easy to clean.

I have a linex bed liner also and it is great. But it has a texture which is good for traction, not so good for cleaning a floor. Many floors are wood subflooring with degrees of shifting, and seams between the board that vary with temperature and humidity. I would think bedliner material would develop cracks. Maybe their flooring product is more elastic? In any case, linex is anything but cheap. And it is black. More expensive still to colorize.

[William Whitaker]

The product I saw was not the same product that was sprayed into the back of my truck. It was developed specifically for floors and comes in a variety of colors which don't include black. The texture is very smooth unless a texture layer is added. The floor in the showroom was made of the stuff and appeared quite nice. Seamless, too. One of the characteristics the manufacturer advertises is the ability of the material to elongate with the floor, so if there is movement, it doesn't crack.

I just wanted to find out if there are any people who have direct experience with it. I'd like to try it in my [eventual] darkroom. If not, I'll get another can of floor enamel and some fatigue mats.

[Kevin Crisp]

Costco fatigue mats! And under those sheet vinyl or stick on squares.

[jeroldharter]

Do you know a square foot price for the LineX product? Your secription sounds good, but I doubt it is cheap.

Another question is whether it holds static moreor less than vinyl with anti-fatigue mats.

[EdWorkman]

I built a resilient floor
Two layers of 1x2 flat, lowest layer on blocks, grid intersections between blocks, 3/8 ply, sheet vinyl.
IIRC it's similar to gym floors
Actually have done two. The second one was stick on tiles- I recommend NO seams, use sheet.
The first one, with inexpensive light color sheet vinyl is still just fine, after 23 years of use spills drips and leaks.
I had a floor installer put it in, who made me sign a paper saying it wasn't his fault if it didn't work- he felt how resilient my subfloor was.
The vinyl runs up the wall a coupla inches so that accidents don't run off the edge [except at the door
Oh, since I wanted a none solid floor but not bouncy enlargers, I wall mounted the cabinets and enlarger
No regrets at all and the surface is easy to mop and or sweep

[Bruce Watson]

The one that caught my eye was their industrial flooring product which they brand under the Aspart-X (http://www.linex.com/pages/2010/residential/index.php) name.

Not that brand, not that I'm aware. But I did hire a guy (15 years ago?) to paint my darkroom floor with poured acrylic. He offered an option to mix in some special sand to make it non-slip, which I took. Stuff is impervious to any darkroom chems I've spilled on it so far. Any spills I can just use a squeegee to push to the floor drain. I had him come up the walls about four inches (to match the toe-kick space under the cabinets. That, and it being a seamless application, the darkroom floor should be absolutely liquid tight (except for the floor drain, but that's a good thing).

Then on top of this, you can add the anti-fatigue mats. Hard to beat that combination.

[William Whitaker]

Do you know a square foot price for the LineX product? Your secription sounds good, but I doubt it is cheap.

Yes, it does sound expensive. And it's hard to pin them down without an on-site estimate, but I finally got a figure of between $5.50 and $6.50 per sq. ft. It's tough stuff; no problem moving around a 10x10 Durst enlarger on it or a counter/sink with full print washers. Of course, if I build the sink in first, it would be directly on the concrete slab which would have the added benefit of using less product. A "chip layer" can be added for traction, which would be a good idea for a floor which could become potentially wet and slippery from spills. I'd still plant to use fatigue mats, however, especially with my feet.

The rep is going to get back to me with more specifics.

[jeroldharter]

It would be nice to have a floor drain so that you could hose it down. Please post photos if you go that route.

[William Whitaker]

I do have a floor drain in that room. I was just thinking that I need to make sure it's working properly.

[jp]

I have a floor drain in my laundry room but not the darkroom. I do have to add some water to it once in a while to keep the trap clean and full. Maybe someday I will take the room over for a darkroom.

[Wayne]

My darkroom is carpeted. Yeah, yeah, I know. But my darkroom is carpeted. And it was free.

[jeroldharter]

My darkroom is carpeted. Yeah, yeah, I know. But my darkroom is carpeted. And it was free.

That's old school.