What Type of Coating Should You Use for Your New Gym Floor?

Summary: New gym floors are a beautiful investment to add to your school or athletic facility, but a freshly installed floor needs special attention and care to get the most out of it. While dust mopping and gym floor covers are a great way to protect the floor, the products you use are equally as important. During the first two years you want to choose the right product that will complement and move with your flooring to get the most out of your new investment. If you’re thinking about a new floor or want to make sure you’re taking proper care of your new gym floor, then you’ll want to read this article to find out more about these products!

When you take pride in your basketball team it shows. Especially when you take excellent care of your gym floor and get that beautiful shine only proper upkeep can do. While regular dust mopping, quality gym floor covers and keeping a regular re-finishing schedule is a no brainer for school custodian veterans, new gym floors are a bit of a wildcard. So to help you better understand your new gym floor and the products to use on it, here are some tips.

For starters, there are really only two product choices for gym floor coating – a water based coating or an oil-modified coating. After installation, you want to do your absolute best to keep water from touching the wood for a few years. Wood is notorious for shifting as it is still a breathable and ‘living’ surface that swells, contracts, etc. so you want to pick a gentler product for the first few years.

Solvent-based oil modified urethanes are the most recommended for the new gym floor. Covers and finishes need to be softer in the earlier years to accommodate this sort of movement. The first two years are also critical for getting that smooth even surface, so an oil-modified urethane should be implemented to fill in the grooves while still being movable with the floor. You may even wish to invest in a high quality gym floor cover if your gym is multipurpose, as it will help to cut down on tracked in soil and grit that can damage the finish.

After the first two years is when you have figure out what product will work best for you. This isn’t necessarily an easy choice though; as whatever you pick you will really want to stick to if you want to get the most out of your floors. Mixing products is not recommended, and neither is skimping out on a quality brand if you want to get the most out of your flooring. Investing in high quality products and durable gym floor coverings will see years more use out of the floor.

For years oil-modified products have been seen as the best floor finish but that has been changing in recent years as water-based finishes have gotten better. There is also the consideration of the new volatile organic compound (VOC) restrictions which are making oil-modified products harder to use and less durable.

Because water-based acrylic polymers contain less VOC’s, it can allow you to recoat the floor and use it the next day, making it a strong choice for very active gyms. As oil-modified products have a slower drying time it can often take about a week before the floor is usable again demanding that the refinishing occur during a break period where nothing can be on the floor, even a gym floor cover.

Whatever you opt to pick, just make sure it’s a quality brand you intend to stick with. Using many different brands is actually counter intuitive, as a brand makes their products to work in harmony for a better result.

Considering the hefty investment of a quality gym floor make sure you do everything you can to extend its life and integrity. Make sure you’re using floor matting, regular dust mopping and even gym floor coverings to protect your investment and keep that glossy shine for years to come.

Start protecting your investment today!For high quality gym floor coverings that look great and will help to protect and extend the life of your flooring, All Court Covers offers a bunch of options to suit your needs.

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