Special Supplement:
Recreation Management’s Complete Guide to Sports Surfaces and Flooring
By Margaret Ahrweiler
And while a little skepticism of marketing materials may be healthy, don't shy from manufacturers' educational and research programs, pros advise.
TMP's Bean and architect Dave Larson both say they have benefited from manufacturers' seminars. Much of the latest research being conducted on sports surface is coming from the manufacturers, Mayo adds, and those in the market should take advantage of that body of knowledge.
Major sports facility conferences occasionally touch on the subject as well, with seminars on sports surfaces taught by national sport facility gurus.
In the meantime, though, both surfacing industry and design professionals need to focus on improving communication and marketing to help clients better understand the science and construction of sport surfaces.
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Which came first, the budget or the floor?
Learning a little about the science of floors will help make choices clearer when it comes time to work out your flooring budget. No one will deny that money matters when choosing a flooring system—Moose Sports' Cottingham puts it in her top three factors in her ranking plan—but a tight budget shouldn't put the floor on the bottom of the quality list even in cost-conscious facilities such as schools.
"You can always make room in a budget somewhere so you don't have to put down vinyl composite tile," Bean says. "You can cut back in mechanical rooms, in secondary areas or on utilitarian access stairs for emergency use. Sealed concrete is fine. But you want to have as good a gym floor as you can possible afford."
For gymnasiums, which can eat up the largest proportion of flooring costs, the choice boils down to wood or synthetic.
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