Installing Flooring in a Warehouse Space

[Craig]

This is a frequently asked question and I know that several clubs have recently performed renovations to dedicated space where they built a new floor for fencing.

What kinds of flooring did you use and any tips on how to choose materials and install it for the best longevity and ease of maintenence?

- Craig

[riceboy]

We recently opened a new club in sacramento, CA. Rather than going with the traditional sprung wood floor, we went with a rubber flooring material that has a bit more grip than the wood, but was much cheaper, quicker to install and a lot nicer on the coaches feet. I forget the name of the product, but I can ask my boss and let you know.

We just had to do some major rework on our wood floor (5 years old), as some of the supporting slats had shifted, and because a number of the boards had been worn down. The great thing about wood floors is that you can run all the floor wires under them, so you don't have wires running every which way. The rubber flooring in our new club, has alluminium strips and we just tuck the cords up next them.

[Craig]

Are you using sportcourt flooring?

Craig

[rcmatthews]

We used two layers of 1/4 inch plywood, running in opposite directions, on top of high density foam strips to give it some spring. The fist layer is glued to the foam strips, and the top layer is screwed into the first. It would have worked better with half inch plywood, but it has worked out so far (about a year and a half). We also used lower grade plywood, which caused a few issues with fitting seems to gether and the like, but that could be solved by buying higher quality wood.

[jfarmer]

Are you using sportcourt flooring?

Craig

Is this the stuff that looks like it has little raised circles on it? I fenced on something like that recently at a tournament in Rome, GA. I loved it. No slipping, not too bouncy, but not hard on the feet.

John Farmer
Coach, Oak Ridge Fencers Club

[riceboy]

Are you using sportcourt flooring?

Craig

I'm pretty sure we didn't. If I remember correctly sportcourt is a plastic tile material that comes in a couple of different textures? I used to play roller hockey on that stuff.

We used a recycled rubber flooring material, like the stuff used in weight rooms and gyms. (here's a link to what I'm talking about, we didn't use this company but this is the stuff http://www.greatmats.com/products/rolled-rubber.html).

It's pretty cheap as flooring goes, and it has the advantage of cushioning fencers' (and coaches!!) feet. We recently used our scraps to cushion the coaches strip at our older club; it's definetly easier on the feet. Unfortunately, it's also very grippy, and not at all like fencing on a wooden floor. I'm also not sure how well you could put grounded strips put on this material, since it gives a little (unless you want to go for the expensive aluminium strips.

[qatet]

Yes, sportcourt is the tiles. FAP has sportcourt over the rubber mats that riceboy discusses. Very nice solution! It's easy to clean with a mop, can be taken up entirely if something problematic spills underneath (we had flooding issues until recently), and - most importantly - is very nice cushioning for athletes and coaches alike.

The only cons that I can think of are that it gets a bit slippery when it gets wet or dirty (but what doesn't?) and it does build up a good static charge in the drier weather.

One very nice thing about sport court - it comes in lots of different colors, which is good for laying out strips or otherwise dividing up the space in the room. Not sure if they make it in a metric version - which you'd need for accurate strip measurements. We used some kind of serious tape (had to be applied with a heat gun) to mark the middle, en garde, and 2-meter lines.

[tlucente]

We built our floor, designed by our Head Coach, ourselves over 3+ days. It ended up costing about $6000 to cover 4200sqft of the 5250sqft total Club space...leaving room at the front and back for seating, storage, armoury, office, and concessions.

It consisted of 2X4 floors laid flatevery 2ft, over pneumatic rubber pads spaced every 8" (if I remember), covered with toungue and groove OSB.

It'll make alot more sense if you review the pictures here:

http://richmondfencing.blogspot.com/...g_archive.html

We've been in the space about 18 monts now, hosted numberous tournaments and practice 4-5 days a week, and the floor if holding up well.

[VorpalCat]

(Possibly) dumb sidenote: Although the Club Corner screen shows that a comment was posted on 3/23, I don't see it when I actually go into the thread. The last comment I see is qatet's 2/22 post. Can anyone else see Tom's comment or is it just me? (More a point of curiosity than anything else since I've seen his club's floor and lurve what they did. )

[campb1pr]

Depends on your sub-flooring material.

If you are building directly on a hard surface, then the best example I have seen recently is what the Richmond Fencing Club did about a year and a half ago... scroll down to the bottom and work your way up at: http://richmondfencing.blogspot.com/...g_archive.html

This leaves you a nice wood surface.

If you are building on a wood surface, then sportcourt is a great idea (www.sportcourt.com) depending on which product you use.
Other good rubber flooring products include:

Mondo www.mondousa.com

Kiefer Floors www.kieferfloors.com
We used Kiefer's Tuff-Roll in our new facility, which had been a high school gym with a 30 to 40 year old wood floor that was pitted and could no longer be sanded and repainted or stained because of age and thickness. http://www.kieferfloors.com/store/tuff_roll.html
we love it, as the floor already had decent give, but the tuff-roll added a bit, plus a great surface. It took a few weeks to go from seriously tacky grip to a slight slickness, but it still grips well, but doesn't trip you up walking. It is also paintable, as we had all our strips painted on it, and our rec sports person knows of some product that can be painted on it to do a top finish coat that allows for even longer life.

Another nice option if you have money is Proline

http://www.kieferfloors.com/store/proline.html or http://www.prolinespf.com/main.htm

Any of these solutions can be put on top of the existing wood floor, or a self-built like RFC, and some of them could even go directly on concrete with proper padding.

I would recommend calling or writing to a number of these companies. Most of them have local contractors in larger cities that will come do estimates, or at least give you advice. If not, you can take pictures and send them in with dimensions, and you can get very accurate estimates.

[tlucente]

(Possibly) dumb sidenote: Although the Club Corner screen shows that a comment was posted on 3/23, I don't see it when I actually go into the thread. The last comment I see is qatet's 2/22 post. Can anyone else see Tom's comment or is it just me? (More a point of curiosity than anything else since I've seen his club's floor and lurve what they did. )

For some reason, I'm having difficulty posting to this thread regardless of what PC I use, etc. Craig is working on it. Thanks to Paul (campb1pr) for posting about the floor we built in Richmond.

[tlucente]

And...apparently it's fixed.

[VorpalCat]

And there was much rejoicing.