How do you clean a gym floor? What causes peeling? How often should you resand a gym floor?
Choosing the perfect floor can be stressful and full of questions. At Foster Specialty Floors, we want to alleviate some of that stress by answering some of your most commonly asked ones.
You ask; we answer.
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Most Commonly asked questions about "Caring for your floor"
How do you clean a gym floor?
There are stark differences between the daily maintenance of a wood and synthetic gym floor. We do not recommend the regular use of a power scrubber on a wood gym floor, yet this is the preferred method of cleaning for a synthetic gym floor. Dust and dirt will damage the finish and affect the safe playability of any sports floor. Therefore, routine removal of any debris and dirt is necessary to protect your investment.
For a wood gym floor, we recommend daily sweeping with a non-treated microfiber dust mop to remove any large debris. Next, depending on usage and cleanliness, we would recommend the use of a treated microfiber mop with an approved gym floor cleaner. A cleaner that has been formulated by the specific gym floor finish is strongly preferred. This process can be done once every few weeks or more if required. We recommend a wood gym floor be abraded and recoated once a year.
For a synthetic gym floor, we recommend daily sweeping with a non-treated microfiber dust mop to remove any large debris. When necessary, perhaps once a week, clean the floor with a walk behind auto scrubber using a neutral based citrus cleaner. Again, a cleaner that has been formulated by the specific gym floor manufacturer is preferred. The auto scrubber should have a red or blue scrubbing pad on the rotating heads; this may vary based on the type of synthetic floor you have. We do not recommend the use of brush heads.
See: Hardwood Maintenance
See: Synthetic Maintenance
How often should you resand a gym floor?
The Maple Flooring Manufacturers Association, the governing association of most maple gym floors in the United States, recommends a maple floor be resanded to bare wood every 8 – 12 years.
During normal use, seasonal changes, and annual recoating of a maple floor the playing surface of a maple floor takes a lot of abuse. Resanding the floor to bare wood will remove ambering finish, slight board cupping, line rule changes, or peeling finish. Over time, even under perfect conditions, gym finish will begin to peel. This usually doesn’t happen until 12 to 15 years of use and recoats. With today’s dynamic floors, a decade, or more, of finish build just doesn’t have the cellular strength to flex without breaking down at somepoint.
Very generally, the cost to sand to bare wood, repaint, and refinish a maple gym floor is $1.90 to $2.50 per square foot.
See: How much does it cost to resand a gym floor?
What causes peeling gym floor?
Gym finishes need to have an adequate chemical and mechanical bond for a new finish coat to adhere to the historic coatings. This requires the existing finish to be properly cleaned, adequately abraded, tacked clean, and a compatible new finish applied in a timely manner. Peeling finish is usually a result of one of these processes being ignored.
Peeling finish is caused by one or more applications of new finish not adhering to the surface molecules of the existing coatings. This can be minor, such as just at the edges of boards or catastrophic with large sections of finish peeling off painted areas or the floor in general.
In some cases, there was a contaminate accidentally applied to the floor and not removed prior to the recoating the floor. This condition can only be remedied by resanding the floor to bare wood and starting the finish and painting process fresh.
Over time, even under perfect conditions, gym finish will begin to peel. This usually doesn’t happen until 12 to 15 years of use and recoats. With today’s dynamic floors, a decade, or more, of finish build just doesn’t have the cellular strength to flex without breaking down at some
point. This is why the Maple Flooring Manufacturers Association recommends a maple gym floor is resanded every 10 years or so.
We do not generally recommend recoating an existing water base finished floor with new oil modified finish.
Peeling finish in large areas is a safety issue, and should be addressed as soon as possible
See: Hardwood Maintenance
See: What does it cost to recoat a maple gym floor?
See: How do you clean a gym floor?
See: What does it cost to resand a gym floor?
See: How often should I resand my gym floor?