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Hardwood athletic floors have beenhardwoodmuchlonger thanthey havebeenathletic.

Todays high shock-absorption, resilient floors are vastly different than the subfloor assemblies prominent in the late 1800s when basketball,squash andvolleyball were being introduced. Floors used for athletic activities during that time period were really designed for warehouse andindustrial settings, and carried over to serve as gymnasium floors for many years to followwith no added cushioning below subfloor assemblies.

Even with the emergence of cushioned floors in the 1950s, the industrial use of non-shock absorbing floors from the turn of the century continued to be installed in gymnasiums well into the 1980s.

Hardwoodathletic floorsinstalled in todays gymnasiums are apt to include some type of resilient pad or foam cushion support. Sport floor systems thatare provided and installed byindustry professionalstypically include high levels ofshockabsorption. Shock absorption is measured and verified by third-party, independent laboratories that have equipment designed to measure characteristics that include force reduction,verticaldeflection andbasketballrebound.

One of the benefits of hardwood floors is longevity. Hardwood floors can provide wear-life lasting upwards of 70 years. Due to hardwoods longevity, there are many gym floors still in use today that are based on the 100-year-old warehouse orindustrialfloor designs. The rigid response to athletic impacts when playing on such floors still in usetodayare the same as when playing on such non-resilient wood floors long before the NBA wasformed.

When was the last time you watched a track event raced on cinder tracks? Do you notice the small, rubber infilled granules sprinkled to the surface when watchingfootball on artificialturffields?Advancements in thosesports surfacesareobvious and can be seen by the human eye.Thecombination of elastic components and subfloor configurations below todays hardwood athletic floors is nearly limitlessbutalways concealed.

The long life of maple flooring offers numeroussandings, after whichyouare left with a clean slate. The floor can be finished with basic gameline uptowhat sometimes look likeworks of art using a mix of stains, paint anddifferent floor grades. The design component is true whether youare on a hardwood floor system going back generations and designed for industrial applications, or on a true hardwood athletic floor designed specifically for sports and recreational activities.

The sayingYou cant tell a book by its cover especially pertains to hardwood athletic floors. You could be playing on the most advanced resilient hardwood athletic floor available or on a rigid floor system designed well before the introduction of the jump shot andglass backboard.

Randy Randjelovic is the technical advisor at Aacer Flooring with over 40 years of experience in the hardwood floor industry. For more information, email randyr@aacerflooring.com.

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Hardwood Athletic Floors, Then and Now - Campus Rec Magazine

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