Choosing a Floor Design | Sports Floors, Inc.

Any time you start an important project, the number of flooring options can be intimidating. At Sports Floors, Inc., we know that you want a durable floor system designed for your specific needs. When it comes to choosing the best design for your flooring project, there are several important factors to keep in mind.

How The Room is Used

Floor designs are as unique as the activities a room is used for. There’s no one size fits all solution, so it’s important to take some time to consider every way the floor may be used. A floor that is used for sporting events, as well as events that require heavier equipment such as a concert or tradeshow, will have different requirements and needs than a floor used only for basketball or volleyball. Here at Sports Floors, Inc., we can help you design the floor that perfectly fits your unique space.

Arenas: Arenas are generally used for more than just sporting events. From concerts to graduations and trade shows, you need to be prepared for heavyweight loads that could potentially damage your floor if you don’t plan accordingly. While traditional fixed resilient maple floors are great for sporting events, they’re not great for uses that require heavy weight loads to be put on the floors. Our Focus flooring system is a great option for arena floors that will be used for a variety of events. This system is anchored and features a unique subfloor that allows it to withstand heavy loads without damaging the surface of the floor. This system is DIN certified, so it’s still ideally suited for athletic events as well. Portable flooring systems are also a good option for arenas because they can simply be taken out and stored somewhere else during other events. Conner Portable Floors are the official floor of the NCAA Final Four.

High schools: Choosing the right floor design for your High School gymnasium is essential because the type of floor used can directly influence the safety of the young athletes using it. The right floor can improve traction and reduce the stress put on young athlete’s joints and muscles as the floor absorbs impact. This can reduce the number and severity of injuries, which is a high priority in this context. We offer high-quality high school level options such as ARS, DIN, Focus, and Alliance systems.

Fitness Rooms: Fitness rooms are unique situations because they’re used for so many different things. These rooms need to be ready for dance, yoga, weight machines, free weights, basketball, racquetball, and jogging. With such diverse impact and weight levels, choosing the right floor design is essential. Floor systems such as NeoShok, SportGrain Plus, and PowerDek, are versatile enough to handle all of these different uses. We’ll help you choose the floor that works best for you while helping you avoid floors systems that wouldn’t work as well for you.

Multipurpose rooms and community centers: These types of rooms can be used in very diverse ways, from rec league sports to dinners, children’s programs, and church events. You may also be concerned about affordability as well, and want to make sure that you’re getting just what you need and nothing you don’t. Synthetic floors like Sportgrain Plus or affordable wood options like our Kirby Special or Duracusion I can be a great option in this situation.

Universities: While the game floor is important when it comes to college sports, the practice floor might be even more important. Players will spend as many as 4 or 5 hours a day on the practice floor, so having a system designed to fit your needs is crucial. Proper cushioning beneath the floor is essential to minimize injuries and the strain your student athletes experience. Additionally, matching the subfloor used in your practice floor design with the one used for your game floor provides a significant advantage during home games. For basketball and volleyball, our DIN certified anchored resilient wood floors such as the RezillChannal, Permaflex II and Focus Systems are some of the best available. Our padded synthetic floor systems such as ElastiPlus and ProTraxx are ideal for indoor tracks, weight rooms, lockers rooms, and aerobics and exercise rooms.

Environmental Factors

Just like high-quality wooden furniture or musical instruments, wood floors are affected by the environment around them. Moisture is the most important factor to consider. In the Mid-South, humidity is a significant concern. If humidity levels fluctuate too much, it can cause the floor to warp and cup. In humid environments, it is essential to make sure there is proper ventilation to avoid any moisture getting trapped under the floor, or fluctuations in the humidity in the room. In some instances where the humidity level is hard to control, a synthetic floor system might be the best option.

Sealing the floor correctly with the right materials is also necessary to make sure that environmental changes don’t negatively affect your floors.

Additional Design Considerations

In addition to floor design itself, the design of the room will affect your floor system. Wood floors specifically require special consideration in order to continue to perform at their best and meet your needs.

Wood floors need a specific vented cove base for the walls. This allows airflow underneath the floor to prevent moisture buildup, which can damage the floor.

Wood athletic floors also need special transitions, specifically at doorways. In a new facility, this is easy to do, because we can recess the concrete slab to accommodate the height of the floor. In these instances, we’ll only need an aluminum threshold. For renovation projects, the height of the new floor might not match the height of the slab. If this is the case, we’ll use ramps to make up for the height difference. We offer rubber and wood ramps to give you exactly the look you want.

When you trust your project to Sports Floors, Inc. you can be confident that every part of your floor design will be taken care of.

Whether you’re looking for a new floor for your arena, high school gymnasium, fitness room, community service room, or university practice facility, or anything else, the experienced team at Sports Floors, Inc. can help you choose which of our wide variety of options will work best for your needs.