27 plus years into this, and I will certainly tell you that the flooring is the most overlooked part of a gym. Often enough people still use hard, black rubber, with no real shock absorption and that offgasses. Which means
it smells, which is especially what you get when you buy flooring online.
Most real gym floors are thicker, and so the first major mistake is always Radiant Heat.
But sometimes, we end up with people who are not even using gym flooring in their workout space. The frontrunners in this competition of errors are wood, concrete, and carpet. None of these are good solutions for a fitness room.
WOOD) A wood floor obviously has no give, so it's not great in terms of the biomechanics. It also transfers sound like crazy. And if you drop a dumbbell or a plate or a bar, it's going to dig into the wood floor and leave a permanent mark. Wood floors are often expensive, and gym equipment ruins them.
Sometimes clients will take a wood floor, and put mats underneath some of the equipment, but those black mats then take up off about a large part of the room, and they're nowhere near as effective for blocking noise or in terms of cushioning.
We can use
Bounce2 or other Ecore flooring with a wood look that is easier on the joints and damage resistant, like this floor below from Osterville.
CONCRETE) Concrete is another one that has no give whatsoever, though when we have concrete we're normally in the basement and we don't have to worry quite as much about noise transfer. Again, this is one that we often end up putting area mats underneath so that the equipment doesn't get smashed directly into the concrete, but it's more to protect the equipment than it is to protect the floor. And again, it is really hard on the joints. However, we often put
Rally Flooring down on concrete, which is what they use in half a dozen NFL weight rooms. Looks great, no offgassing, and has an amazing biomechanic.
What I mean by that is that it absorbs a lot more impact, like a good treadmill and good sneakers. So many people don't understand that the flooring of the room can help their joints.
CARPET) Carpet is another area that we often end up ripping out and replacing with real flooring. Carpet obviously absorbs a little bit of impact, but it also builds up a static charge for some of the cardio equipment, especially treadmills. It also shows marks from rubber, absorbs sweat, absorbs oil from barbells or some of the strength equipment or the treadmills. So a carpeted gym normally picks up odors a LOT faster. Carpet also wears heavily in the areas people use the most.
We have a VERY popular flooring called
Ebb& Flow that has a woven look, but still has that softer underlayment.
Here is a studio up in Hampton, NH, using Burleywood color Ebb& Flow.
This looks woven, and is very elegant, but it is actually nearly indestructible gym flooring, with a lot of give and easy to clean.
BEST CASE) Stacked Gym flooring, which ConnectFit recommends, can have over 3x the vibration and impact absorption. It also has next to zero offgassing, as it is used in schools and hospitals as well as gyms.
This is why over 700 build and design experts in the Boston region work with ConnectFit and trust us whenever they are designing a gym or wellness space.
If you want to email or talk with us or Chat, we are here for all your gym design needs. We're local experts who have designed equipment and gyms for decades, with in-house delivery and service, with thousands of clients. We're the opposite of purchasing online.
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