“Free-Floating” floors?

As you’re aware, wood flooring comes in a number of different species, but what you may not be so familiar with is the various constructions that hardwood floors come in. I want to quickly touch on those constructions that are most often seen in fitness applications because the construction has a lot to do with how your floor can perform.

Let’s first look at the construction of the boards themselves.  In this market, there are two main types of hardwood flooring – solid and engineered.  Solid flooring is a pretty self-explanatory term, indicating that the boards are made of solid pieces of wood.  The advantage of a solid floor is that after years of use, the floor can be sanded down and refinished a number of times.  These types of boards are often nailed to a subfloor, or “sleepers”, which are 2” X 3” strips of wood that are laid under the hardwood.

As I mentioned, the other type of flooring is an engineered product.  Until a few years ago, this was more commonly referred to as a “laminate floor”.  Basically, about half the thickness of the board is made up of plywood, with solid pieces of hardwood glued to the top of it.  Installation of an engineered product is referred to as “free-floating’ since the boards are installed simply by being glued to the adjoining boards, and not secured to the subfloor.  Thus the floor is considered to be “floating” above the subfloor, typically over a foam layer or strips.  One of the great things about a floating system is that it is allowed to move up and down on the foam, making it more resilient. 

Our wood systems are unique, in that they take the best parts of a solid – the ability to be refinished a number of times – and are assembled in a way that it is still free-floating – which is more resilient.  Our boards are held together by using a removable installation clip, which also firmly holds the boards to each other, but also allows you to take up and relocate your flooring without loss of your initial flooring investment.

Sound perfect for group exercise?  Well, that’s what the testing seems to tell us.