Management and customers at a busy community leisure centre are delighted after the installation of two Taraflex sports floors replaced their ageing wooden surfaces.
Not only was the management committee at Whitburn Community Education Centre thrilled with the results, but delighted that Gerflor’s exclusive Eco-Fit System meant the new floors could be laid quickly over the old ones, reducing closure time and loss of income.
Contractors from Kirkton Flooring Ltd, of Livingston, took just a week to lay 450m² of Taraflex Sport M Evolution in Blueberry in the main hall and 250m² of Taraflex Multi-Use 6.2 in Wood Natural in the smaller space.
Kirkton director Gordon Burns commented: “It was a remarkably short timescale. We’re not using anywhere near as much adhesive [with the Eco-Fit™ System] and it’s a terrific product; the fitters liked to use it, liked all the Gerflor products.”
West Lothian Council, which runs the community centre, 20 miles west of Edinburgh, in conjunction with the management committee volunteers, wanted something with better shock absorption qualities than wood and which would also give users the confidence that the floor could provide the required
level of safety and comfort.
International flooring specialist Gerflor has provided Taraflex sports floors to every Olympics Games since 1976. While wooden floors are ‘area elastic’, deemed safe for certain types of impact and loading, other impacts, particular for lighter weight users such as children, are uncomfortable due to the hard surface. Taraflex’s ‘point elastic’ flooring has a higher comfort factor than ‘area elastic’ floors and reduces the risk and severity of injuries arising from falls for children and adults.
The Taraflex Sport M Evolution in the main hall is used particularly for 5-a-side football, badminton and netball and centre coordinator Janette Wood commented: “The reaction has been fantastic. It’s still a firm surface, but there’s more ‘give’ – the footballers have said it’s gentler on the knees and much better to run on.”
And the footballers are not the only ones who’ve adapted quickly: the Taraflex Multi-Use 6.2 is used for everything from Zumba and Judo classes to roller-discos, but some of the biggest fans of the new surface are members of the Old Time Dancing group who were used to stepping out on a wooden
floor. Janette Wood added: “They were really surprised at how good it was, they found it very flexible.”
One bonus for the volunteers managing the centre is that they no longer need to sand back and revarnish 700m² of wooden floor regularly, but the icing on the cake was a 4m² community centre logo designed by a local child and created specially by Gerflor from nine different colours and inlaid in the centre of the main hall.
Taraflex Sport M Evolution is suitable for all types of sport and leisure activities. Available in 17 colours and two wood-effect designs, it has P1 category, 25 to 35 per cent, shock absorption and is 7mm thick.
Available in five wood effect designs, Taraflex Multi-Use 6.2 also has P1 category shock absorption, indentation resistance two times greater than required by EN Standard 14904, abrasion resistance three times the Standard’s requirement and excellent resistance to static and rolling heavy loads – meaning it can cope with tables, chairs and stages without extra protection.
Both surfaces are supplied with Protecsol and Sanosol surface treatments. Protecsol offers safe grip, reduced risk of friction burns and easy maintenance, while Sanosol guards against bacteria and mould.
