Gym Floor Care & Maintenance

DO’S

• Always protect the floor per your manufacturer’s specifications.
• Sweep your floor daily using a properly treated dust mop. This helps remove harmful dust, grit and other abrasive particles.
• Keep water off the floor surface, especially during inclement weather and at exterior doorways.
• Immediately remove any spills or moisture on the floor.
• Remove marks with an approved floor cleaner compatible with the floor’s finish. Use a non-abrasive soft cloth or a dust mop to clean. Feel free to contact us for a list of approved cleaning products.
• Before putting any rolling loads (bleachers, stages, lifts, etc.) on the floor, check with us for performance and safety issues. A minimum of ¾" CDX plywood must be laid on the floor first, as unprotected boards can crack.
• The heating/ventilating/air conditioning systems should always be functioning properly and set to maintain indoor relative humidity of 35 to 50%.
• Using any type of tape will likely damage the floor’s surface. For temporary lines, a light-colored tempera paint may be applied between screen and recoats, which can be wiped away with a damp towel. and washed off with water within a reasonable amount of time.

DON’TS

• Never shut down the ventilation system in your facility for a prolonged period of time.
• Never clean your wood floor using scrubbing machinery or power scrubbers that use water. Water is your floor’s worst enemy!
• Never attempt to modify or repair your wood sports floor without first consulting us or your flooring contractor.
• Never use household cleaning products or procedures on your floor. They can be harmful to the floor finish and to the wood and may leave floors sticky or slippery, which can make the floor unsafe for athletes. Contact us for recommendations on proper cleaning and maintenance materials.
• Never use tape on a wood gym floor. A light-colored tempera paint may be applied and washed off within a reasonable amount of time with water if temporary game lines are needed. Contact us if you need complex temporary game lines applied to the floor surface.

MOISTURE CAN BE TORTURE

SCREENING AND RECOATING

Shoes squeaking on a gym floor means your athletes are getting the proper amount of traction and are less likely to slip, fall and get injured. Properly preserving and maintaining your wood floor requires a Screen & Recoat each year (or bi-annually for high-use floors).

During a Screen & Recoat, we rough up the top layer of finish with a light abrasive screening disk which allows the new coat to adhere to the existing finish coats and prevents cracking or peeling. The floor is then tacked with a towel rag until clean and we apply a new coat of finish. The entire process – including drying – generally takes a little over 48 hours. We can do the work on Friday afternoon, and by Monday your finish is dry enough to play on!
A Screen & Recoat keeps your floor glossy while retaining appropriate traction to keep athletes safe. It’ll keep your floor looking and performing at its absolute highest level. Check out our Gym Floor Maintenance Program for discounted pricing on screening and recoating your gym floor.

Contact us if you're looking to get your floor screened and recoated.

Sports Floors, Inc. has maintained gym floor finishes for more than 25 years. The finish is not only what makes your court shine but also makes it safe for your athletes.

From the yearly maintenance of screening and recoating with new gym floor finish, to new construction, Sports Floors, Inc. is working on a gym every week. From Little Rock to Lake Charles to Birmingham to Memphis, Sports Floors, Inc. serves schools, universities, churches as well as entire parishes.

Sports Floors, Inc. use only the highest quality Maple Flooring Manufacturers Association (MFMA) approved seals and finishes and we use the same finish on all of our jobs, from NBA courts to elementary schools.

Making sure your gym floor is properly finished correctly is the key to a beautiful looking floor. Of course, we finish every new floor that we build, but we don't just set it and forget it. Sports Floors, Inc. is your partner for your court and your entire gym.

Since completing gym floors for the Memphis Grizzlies, LSU,University of Arkansas-Little Rock and the University of Mississippi we are able to cover the entire southeast region to make sure you get the floor you need. You can see more of our regional coverage on our territories page.

Even if you are meticulous in properly maintaining your floor, gym floors need to be refinished every 8 to 10 years. There are a lot of different terms used to describe this process: sand, refinish, resurface, etc. They all involve the same process of sanding the floor down to the bare wood and applying seal, paint, and finish, and they all restore the luster of the older wood floor surface. They are also essential to ensure the long life and performance of your gym floor. Not to mention, it is a great time to rebrand a gym floor’s image with new logos or a new floor layout!

A complete refinish involves sanding all of the game lines and finishing off the floor down to the raw wood. At this point, any boards or subfloor that are damaged can be repaired or replaced. Then the floor will be refinished with a ride-on sanding machine, with a minimum of three cuts using coarse, medium and fine sandpapers. All sanding dust and grit is removed from the floor surface before applying the seal and finish.

After the floor has been properly sanded, two coats of MFMA-approved seal should be applied. Now, the floor is ready to be painted or stained. Here at Sports Floors, we have an in-house artist who works with our clients to design a floor that both meets their needs while being aesthetically pleasing.

Once the paint is dry and prep’d, the floors should be tacked with a rag again, and then two coats of finish should be applied. The floor should be closed off from traffic and air currents that could carry dust and dirt until the finish is completely dry. The temperature should be maintained at approximately 65°F in order to facilitate proper drying and curing for the seal, paint, and finish.

Always remember: NEVER use tape on a wood gym floor!

GOT WATER DAMAGE? WE’LL WORK WITH YOUR INSURANCE ADJUSTER TO GET YOU BACK IN THE GAME.

Even if you’re taking the best possible care of your athletic flooring, sometimes the unexpected can happen. Whether by way of a hurricane or other natural disaster, or the result of a water line that has burst, water damage can wreak havoc on your gym floor. Fortunately, the team at Sports Floors is here for you in the event of an emergency.

Our team will work with your insurance adjusters to file a claim on the flooring, and work with you to create a plan to get your floor back up and operational as quickly as possible. If your floor has been affected by water damage, please don’t hesitate in giving us a call now at 901-235-9562 or toll-free at 1-800-881-6440. The more quickly you act, the less extensive the damage will hopefully be.

Designing the layout for a wood floor is usually our clients’ favorite part of the process because the paint is what everyone will see for years to come. It is your chance to give your floor a personality and it is something facilities take a lot of pride in.

The first step in designing your layout is to identify what sports will be played on your floor. Since tape is strictly prohibited on a finished wood floor, you’ll want to make sure each type of sport has the proper lines painted. If you have a sport that is only played once or twice a year and don’t want the lines painted permanently, we have temporary paint options available.

Once you’ve nailed that down, it’s time to work with our artist to come up with a design that meets your budget and aesthetic taste. Do you want a border? How about a center court logo? Any school or mascot names? Would you like to stain the three-point arc or maybe paint the lanes? Add a Sponsor’s logo? The choices are endless.

At Sports Floors, Inc., we have seen just about anything that can be done on a floor. Throw out your ideas and we’ll be glad to give you our advice. The only thing that cannot be done to your basketball court is putting tape on it!

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View Statements

Sports Floors, Inc. offers a Gym Floor Maintenance Program. This program is mutually beneficial to both us and our customers. We get the honor of having your business, and our customer gets the best coating products available and our outstanding service. During the contracted year, we will also touch up paint, replace broken boards, and repair fallen wall bases free of charge.

The Lifetime Warranty Program offered by Sports Floors, Inc. is available for new wood floors that we have installed. If Sports Floors is permitted to continuously maintain the floor by screening & recoating it every consecutive year, the original warranty will be extended for that following year up to 40 years from the original warranty date.

Any work performed on the floor by companies other than Sports Floors, Inc. shall void warranty immediately.

Wood sports flooring systems can last decades with proper gym floor care & maintenance – usually around 40-75 years! But, as with any product, gym floors do require care on a daily, weekly, and annual level.

The links below will show you how we can give proper gym floor care and maintenance for your floors, and special programs we offer to extend your floor’s warranty. We are proud of the floors we care for and we want to extend their lifespan for as long as possible. Follow us on social media to see more.

Important Note: NEVER use tape on a wood gym floor!

Floor Care Do’s and Don’ts

• Screening and Recoating
• Sanding
• Water Damaged Floors
• Painting & Striping
• MFMA Position Statements
• Care and Maintenance Programs
• Gym Floor Finishing