I reworked two ratty 60 year old oak laboratory tables in my workplace shop multi-purpose room (lunch, work, etc.) . I cleaned up the ugly painted tops, installed oak edge boards, followed by loose-lay vinyl plank flooring. The flooring will take moderate abuse and is cheap ($36) and easy to replace when banged up too bad. I didn't want the tops to be so nice that I would be afraid to use them as work surfaces.
I made the trim from 1/2" red oak routed with a round edge, stained to match the flooring, with home made wipe on alkyd varnish. The vinyl plank flooring from Menards is 6" wide and cuts easy on a table saw. I tried to find flooring with the least amount of embossing/wood-like relief, but it is still a bit too rough to use as desktop writing surface.
While it looks nice here, it is intended to be used for "moderate level" work usage.
I made the trim from 1/2" red oak routed with a round edge, stained to match the flooring, with home made wipe on alkyd varnish. The vinyl plank flooring from Menards is 6" wide and cuts easy on a table saw. I tried to find flooring with the least amount of embossing/wood-like relief, but it is still a bit too rough to use as desktop writing surface.
While it looks nice here, it is intended to be used for "moderate level" work usage.
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