Slight Floor Slope in My Workshop Anyone Work Around This?
LeniGaston
| Posted in General Discussion on
Hi folks,
I’ve been working out of a small garage shop for a while now, and recently I started noticing that my workbench and a couple of stands don’t sit completely level. After checking with a level, I realized there’s a very subtle slope in the concrete floor—probably nothing major, but just enough to affect precision when I’m doing fine work.
I spoke to a concrete contractor who was doing some patio work next door, and he said it’s not unusual for older slabs to settle like that over time, especially if they weren’t perfectly leveled during the original pour.
I’m curious if anyone here has dealt with this and what kind of fixes or adjustments you’ve found helpful? Is it worth trying to level the equipment, or do some of you just work with the slope as-is?
Thanks in advance!
Replies
A perfectly dead level slab is probably pretty rare. Actually a dead level anything is probably pretty rare. The construction of something like the Super Colider maybe. Your machines are square to themselves ,your bench is flat. Constructing something on your bench square to your bench top will be square. Parallel to your bench top is parallel..Set your saw at a 45 degree cut it will be 45 degrees . Unless your floor is so far out of level that it causes vertigo I don't see that it's any kind of problem at all. Oh, your pencil might tend to roll off the table from time to time. Things that need to be level, like a pool table maybe come with adjustable feet. Woodworking machines tend to not so i dont think its ever been a problem for anyone. If it bothers you there are self leveling compounds that you can apply over your existing slab.
Most basements slope to a low point and most garages slope towards the door for drainage. I'm in a basement with everything on wheels except the bench and the drill press which are shimmed to level.
Garage shop here. Yes the floor is sloped towards the door. Drops about 4" over 20ft. The workbench, tables saw and outfeed tables are on the same plane (relatively) so the bench can serve as a helper when sawing sheet goods by myself. My bench is shimed on one side to make it level. I added leveling blocks to the table saw and built them into the outfeed table. The end of the outfeed table is about 3" higher FFF than the bench. I decided long ago I didn't want long boards catching or flopping around while using the table saw.
Around here garage floors slope 1/4" per foot toward the door. I had leveling feet on my fixtures in my garage shop. If the fixture was long like a bench I would put a strip of plywood under the low end and then level the feet.
My shop floor has a mild slope to it as well. I thought it was designed that way, so that rain intrusion would run out of the garage rather than puddle inside the garage. All I have done is use some wooden shims where needed so that the workbench doesn’t rock. It is subtle slope like yours and hasn’t been a problem for the past 10 years.
As others have said, garages and basements are built with intentional slopes to move water a certain direction.
You'll need shims, adjustable feet/wheels on tool stands, etc., to compensate. It's just part of garage and basement woodworking.