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Removable wall padding was once a ubiquitous feature in school gymnasiums, but it has progressively fallen out of favor due to a multitude of safety concerns and maintenance issues. The primary issue stemmed from the fact that the padding was, by design, removable. This feature, while intended to allow for flexibility and occasional removal for cleaning or other athletic purposes, was often exploited by students who would deliberately take the pads off the walls. This not only left unsightly gaps and exposed hard surfaces, creating a risk of impact injuries, but also led to the pads themselves being damaged or lost.

The process of reinstalling the pads was also often carried out haphazardly, with little regard for proper alignment or secure attachment. This resulted in pads that were misaligned, loose, or even completely detached, posing a significant hazard to students engaged in physical activity. The constant removal and replacement also led to accelerated wear and tear on both the pads and the wall surfaces, necessitating frequent repairs and replacements.

Located in a historic district of Canada’s National Capital, the York Street Public School has been a fixture in Ottawa’s Lowertown neighborhood since it was built in 1921. Having been constructed in what is known as the Collegiate Gothic Style, even through decades of development that has taken place around the school, its original design still reigns true to this day. 

Serving more than 25,000 students, one of our recent projects landed us at Thompson Rivers University in beautiful British Columbia. The school, which offers over 140 on-campus programs and 60-plus Open Learning programs, continues to grow across its main campus in Kamloops and across its secondary campus in Williams Lake. 

In addition to its highly respected academics programming, TRU is also home to the Wolfpack athletics program, which has been making a name for itself in soccer, basketball and volleyball, among others. As part of their budding athletic programming, our team was contacted to help design some padding for use in the gymnasium at the Kamloops campus. Key stakeholders at TRU were looking to provide protection for their student athletes from collisions into walls below basketball nets; one of the most common areas we provide padding for in gymnasiums.

We’ve done a wide array of basketball systems over the years in a number of different locations. From private residences, universities, colleges and high schools to community centres and summer camps, we feel like we’ve truly seen it all.

One of our more recent projects allowed us to continue to expand our portfolio of basketball system installations, adding off-campus student housing to the growing list. Located in the heart of Canada’s Capital, the THEO is conveniently located close to both the University of Ottawa and NIHN. Serving students from both of these respected institutions, the THEO exists to provide a safe, fun and most importantly, an affordable place for students to live off-campus.

If you were lucky enough to have access to a time machine, you could head to almost any school across North America and you’d likely find a set of removable wall pads in the facility’s gymnasium. 

At the time, it was a great choice. Teachers and staff were convinced that giving students the ability to remove their own gym mats for use in gym class was a fine idea. And it was.

To a point.

The truth is, there are some facilities that still use removable padding on their walls. We manufacture and sell it ourselves, so we know it does still have a limited use out there in the market. In some cases, this solution is exactly what facility operators are looking for, depending on the specific programming that school or facility provides.

If you’ve followed us for a while now, you would know of our long-standing relationship with the good people at Boys and Girls Clubs across North America. We’ve helped a number of clubs get set up for athletic play in their gymnasiums, providing them with new padding solutions, basketball systems, gym dividers and much more.

Given our proximity to the Nation’s Capital here in Canada, we especially take pride in servicing our local clubs with new equipment and solutions whenever the need arises. Having a strong relationship with our local clubs, we’re proud to participate in improvements whenever they reach out to our team.

As the need for highly-specialized padded rooms continues to grow, so too does our custom padding department. Working once again with our partners at King Carpentry - with whom we’ve done many of these rooms - our latest project brought us to the picturesque St. Lawrence Seaway.

A call was placed from a high school in the area who saw our work in a neighbouring school and was looking to replicate the work. With a growing number of students in need of a safe and calming space to facilitate de-escalation and relaxation we were once again called to design and install a fire-rated safe room.

In a perfect world, every gymnasium would be identical, making producing the equipment and padding required for these facilities a breeze. What makes our work so fun and meaningful however, lies in the fact that this is not the case in any facility. 

Having worked with thousands of gymnasiums, schools, community centres and post-secondary institutions around the world, we know that no two facilities or projects are alike. Although we love the variety working in this industry provides us, we’ve also grown to have a unique affinity for customized projects. Whether it’s a new set of grandstands for a university, a new basketball system for a community centre or completing a unique padding project, we love taking on a challenge and watching the solution come to fruition.

Since it was established in the 1980s, Dovercourt Recreation has been a staple in serving the National Capital Region with recreational programming for children and community members. In addition to their overall goal of building a healthy, active and engaged community through recreation, it is Eastern Ontario’s first HIGH FIVE accredited organizations.

Currently run by the Dovercourt Recreation Association as part of the City of Ottawa’s recreational programming, representatives from the city reached out to our team with concern about some of the equipment located at the Dovercourt complex.

With the rise in mental health awareness, we welcome opportunities to participate in projects that foster such development. For one of our recent projects, we were proud to have been invited to lead a project at Canada’s largest research facility for mental health and addictions.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is the result of an amalgamation of four separate facilities - the Queen Street Mental Health Centre, the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, the Addiction Research Foundation, and the Donwood Institute.