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One of the biggest investments many gymnasiums and indoor athletic facilities make is with their gym flooring. For every 100 gyms that feature a hardwood court surface, an estimated 95 of those are constructed of highly priced northern hard maple. As one can imagine, constructing a floor surface with high-grade material such as maple can be quite costly.

When it comes to protection, nothing beats the protection of a durable, vinyl gym floor cover. These covers are designed to protect gym flooring surfaces during non-sporting events and pay dividends to operators over the long run.

Gymnasium flooring is a large investment and as facility operators and managers, we want to protect and maintain our flooring as much as possible to extend its lifecycle. While most of our gym floor covers provide more than adequate protection for gyms hosting special events, dances and assemblies, there are a wide variety of other exercises used in gyms around the world that are in need of a more customized solution to protecting their investment.

In the spring of 2014 the Canadian Armed Forces approached us to design and fabricate a solution for use in tandem with some of their mandatory training exercises. As part of a new fitness standards program, one exercise requires participants to drag and pull multiple sandbags for over 20 meters. Over time, the gym floor in the training facility suffered major damage as a result of this exercise.

Your gym floor is one of the biggest investments you will make and leaving it unprotected during non-sporting events will prove to be one of the most costly mistakes you inevitably make as well.  When we originally set out to design the industry's best gymnasium floor cover, we aimed to provide a superior protective cover that would not only save our clients money, but also give them an opportunity to make more money.  

Our floor covers are manufactured of the toughest vinyl coated polyester reinforced  fabric made to withstand the test of time, and lower your facility's maintenance expenditures year over year.

By now, most of us have learned the many ways a Gym Floor Cover can save and even make your facility money in the long run, but something that is often overlooked is the proper care of the floor cover itself. A gym floor cover has many uses, and depending on the facility can log many hours protecting your gymnasium floor. The question remains is what to do with it while it is not in use, and exploring safe and cost-effective storage options for your cover.

We spent some time listening to our customers, and a solution to this problem was in dire need, as facilities were finding their covers ended up improperly stored, sometimes resulting in damage to their covers they expect to protect their gym flooring.

By now, most of us know and realize the true value a gymnasium floor cover can bring to your athletic facility. We’ve heard countless time as to how these floor covers can save and even make your facility additional revenue due to their extreme durability and versatility.

At this point, it comes down to simply choosing the specific type of floor cover you think will suit your facility best. While not seemingly a terribly difficult question to answer, there are a few factors to consider, mainly being what exactly it is you plan on doing with your cover, and how many times a year you plan to have it in use.

Let’s look at the two products offered by Sport Systems, and go over the differences between the two to help you make the informed decision prior to your next purchase. We carry both a heavy duty and an ultra heavy duty protective cover product which we find serves most facilities we service quite well.

Sport Systems is proud to offer a range of sports equipment solutions to meet the diverse needs of our clients, including finding custom solutions to unique facility problems. We know that no two projects are alike, and we routinely put our knowledge and experience to work for our clients order to develop the right innovations for their unique facility.

From our individualized wall padding options to our customizable telescopic bleacher systems, to everything else in between, Sports Systems is committed to finding the right solution for every client every time.

On April 1st of this year, we were proud to partner with the Canadian Military in order to find an innovative and practical solution to their latest training challenge.

As you may expect (or as you possibly known first hand), the Canadian Military demands the highest level of physical prowess and athletic ability among their ranks. In order to ensure success in the field, service men and women must first complete a rigorous training program followed by a performance test to confirm readiness for duty.

Cabin fever is no joke, and at this point in the winter season it is becoming a very real sentiment for a lot of people. When it’s cold outside, it is hard to feel motivated to stay active and moving. Sometimes just leaving the house feels like a workout this time of year! So how can you fight the winter blues without turning blue?

Community sports facilities and recreation centers are a perfect solution for frigid couch potatoes. Have fun and stay active, without getting frost bite!

If you manage a facility like this in your town, you know the importance of gathering people together to strengthen the community. Organizing winter activities for kids and families at your facility does a great service to combat cabin fever.

When we think gymnasium flooring, we immediately think basketball, volleyball, badminton and other sports played in indoor gymnasiums. The fact of the matter is, the gym floor in your institution is often used for so much more.

Today, gymnasiums have transformed into multi-use rooms, hosting sporting events, pep rallies, assemblies, dances, drama productions and more. The unfortunate reality is these non-sporting events are much harder on your gymnasium flooring than the day-to-day sporting activities typically housed in gymnasiums.

While traditional traffic from sports like basketball and volleyball indeed adds wear and tear to your gym floor surface, additional damage is done when the gymnasium is used for other events. The dragging of chairs, tables and other furniture combined with increased traffic of patrons without clean footwear, lead to unnecessary deterioration of your gymnasium floor surface.

Gym Floor Covers - University Of Kentucky

Most gym floor cover systems comprise of multiple pieces allowing your gymnasium some versatility when covering your floor. This article will briefly go over a few adhesives that we recommend and a few that do not belong anywhere near your gymnasium floor.

Glues & Other Adhesives

We highly recommend against the use of any glues or other residential or industrial grade adhesives for use on your gymnasium floor or cover. Glues and adhesives are prone to leakage and can be extremely difficult to loosen or remove from covers and gym floors.

Tape

The Maple Floor Manufacturers Association does not recommend the use of masking, theatrical, construction, electrical, duct or any other adhesive type tape found on the market today. The reasoning is simple; it is highly likely that the tape, when removed, will peel away layers of the floor’s surface finish.

So you've invested in a new gymnasium floor and high quality bleachers with SSCI, and while the quality of the product and customer experience left nothing to be desired, you may have one or two final concerns. 

How can I help protect my investment from unnecessary wear and tear? 

Before your athletes take to their basketball court, batting cages, or tumbling routines, be sure to go the extra step and install high quality mats from Sports Systems. Our interlocking floor mats help protect the court surface (and your investment) when activities get more intense. 

We manufacture a complete line of interlocking rubber floor mats, gymnastics tumbling mats, wrestling mats and all-purpose gym mats. Our custom weight room flooring provides a solid foundation for serious workouts while protecting the floor from the damage of heavy weight. 

Our mats are also great for martial arts and wrestling per the standards of those competitions.