Flooring Revitalizes School Fitness Center

According to Dana Ridenour, director of Advancement at Calvary Christian Academy (CCA), a pre-K3-12 school located in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., “Everything starts with the flooring. Then you can start building and painting, but you have got to have a great floor first.”

The surface of the entire fitness center, which is housed inside a former warehouse adjacent to the campus, was concrete. Four surfaces provide safety, ergonomic and acoustic properties for the 3774-sq.-ft. space, which is used by more than 200 students and student athletes daily.

The academy had 1482 sq. ft. of Monster Roll installed in the weight lifting area, which features 14 racks with custom, in-laid platforms for Olympic-style weight lifting. Monster Roll is a 22.5-mm system designed to provide the firm footing desired in strength training with the ergonomic demands of aggressive functional training. “It’s going to save us so much on weights and other equipment, because all that stuff is no longer getting banged up,” said Ridenour.

Adjacent to the weight lifting area, 495 sq. ft. of Speed & Agility Turf was installed. This surface features a 3-mm tight nap fusion bonded to 12-mm performance backing. The result is a high performance surface that is ideal for CCA students’ sprint drills and sled pushes.

The multi-performance area—which is primarily used by CCA’s cheerleaders and wrestling team—had 869 sq. ft. of Bounce 2 installed. Prior to this, the floor consisted of wrestling mats on top of concrete. “This was very advantageous for the wrestling team, but the cheerleaders couldn’t do what they needed to do,” said Ridenour.

The new Bounce 2 surfacing features a synthetic wood-grain surface fusion bonded to a 5-mm performance backing. The surface looks like real wood, but is more economical, ergonomic, safe, durable and easier to clean.

The last type of surfacing installed was one of Ecore’s heritage products, 928 sq. ft. of Everlast. This roll good was installed in the cardio equipment area and at the entrance to the fitness center, and features a custom eagle head logo, CCA’s mascot.