[GSBN] resilience in floors

[Bob Theis]

Re: Dancing with Dirt

Agreed, it is the resilience of the total assembly that registers underfoot, not the surfacing material.  Let's ask John Straube if there is a laboratory measure ( UL Rating? )  for that. Psi certainly doesn't cover it. 

Ah yes, sprung floors. You all know about installing wood floors over a layer of sleepers? Back in the day, when we were specifying floors for dance studios, the finish floor would be installed over 5 layers of sleepers, stacked at right angles, if the subfloor was concrete.  That's the kind of resilience dancers are after!  Nowadays, the resilience is generally achieved with neoprene.  Much less fussy, though I worry a bit about that going brittle over time. 

After decades of frustration choosing between a wood floor, which didn't stand up well to grit tracked in from outside, and slab floors, which did, but don't feel great underfoot, and earthen floors, which require a research project for every new locale, I was delighted to find this industrial flooring called Fiberblock, made by Kaswell & Co.  It's 4" x 6" blocks of recycled nylon carpet chopped up and bound together with polyethylene. They will cut it to any thickness desired between 1/2" and 3" and you can glue it down in the thin versions, or just wedge them together in the thicker.   A blue grey color, unfortunately, but variegated enough to resemble slate when sanded and finished.  Sneers at moisture, too, so it's good for bathrooms. 

When we installed it for the first time, at 1" thick over a slab, I called up the president of the firm, Norm Kaswell, and was raving about how it felt underfoot. He replied, " You just used the 1" thick version. Wait 'til you feel a 3" thick floor. "

Maybe that's the next dance flooring...

Bob  
 
On Jan 10, 2012, at 7:51 AM, RT wrote:

> 
> 
> re: Dancers
> 
> It might be useful to mention the technique of creating "sprung floors" for wooden floor surfaces like those in gymnasia.
> 
> The "give" is not from the surface material (ie the hardwood) which you'll agree isn't very resilient ... just have someone smack you with a baseball bat or hockey stick if in doubt).
> 
> Also it might be worth mentioning the "barefoot running" phenomena that seems to be popular these days amongst "joggers", most of which one notes, are doing so in urban scenarios (ie pavement).
> 
> Don't ask me what's going on there. I stopped "jogging" decades ago and prefer cycling (easier on the old knees).
> 
> The "finding comfort even when sleeping on the rock of the Canadian Shield" which Woof-Man mentions:
> Here in Southern Ontario we call it finding a spot with "bum holes" ... hollows or indentations in the earth or rock which allow our bums to be at a different level than the rest of our bodies.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> === * ===
> Rob Tom
> Kanata, Ontario, Canada
> 
> < A r c h i L o g i c  at  Y a h o o  dot  c a  >
> (manually winnow the chaff from my edress if you hit "reply")
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