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Innovative Options for Creating Color on Gym Floors

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    January 3, 2023 2:54 AM EST

    Innovative Options for Creating Color on Gym Floors

    The sports floor industry is seeing an increased demand for different looks when it comes to color on sport courts. To achieve these special looks, some contractors are now using pigmented sealers and finishes to add color to gym floors. Even though this is not a new idea, newer technologies are expanding what is possible on a wood floor.Get more news about sport floor paint for sale,you can vist our website!

    Customer demand was exceeding the limitations of traditional products, which prompted some manufacturers of gym finish products to now offer options that combine two products to create unique ways to achieve colors.

    With the newer processes with color, contractors are adding pigments to their coatings to suspend color in the finish. Some are using paints in their sealers or clear stain; others are adding stains to their sealers or finishes. Some of these combinations are creating vibrant colors, which, when added to sealers, build coats, or even topcoats, offer tremendous versatility.With manufacturers expanding their color palettes, contractors now have new possibilities to meet the customers' demand. The newer methods being developed are more fade-resistant compared to methods used in the past, such as tints and dyes that may have looked good on application but did not maintain their color over time.

    A gym world without paint?
    With these newer techniques, contractors can eliminate the need for traditional paint coats on a gym floor, and we all know that paint is generally at the core of many of the issues contractors run into when working on a gym: delayed dry times, bonding, peeling and bubbling.

    Another benefit to using these newer methods is that when the color is suspended in the finish and applied over a sealed floor, the pigment will not penetrate deep into the wood. This means you can save time by saying goodbye to sanding red stain off of maple, for example. And because it helps reduce sanding, it saves the life of the gym floor.We recently had an opportunity to show a contractor how to implement one of these new concepts. A school had contacted the contractor to refinish the floor and add updated graphics. Unfortunately, after evaluating the floor, the contractor decided the gym floor was too worn and could not be sanded again. It had been sanded too many times over the years, and now nail heads were visible throughout the floor. If the school wanted to update the look of the floor, the only option they had was to completely remove and replace the floor. Budget restrictions would not allow this replacement, so the contractor was forced to seek a different option.

    To show this contractor how he could update the floor through only a recoat process, we accompanied him to the job site. The first step was to thoroughly clean and abrade the existing finish. Next, we laid out the areas to be highlighted. The school system had requested the addition of a purple-stained look inside the three-point area. To accomplish this, we taped out the arches and created a ¾ inch reveal so the new color wouldn't be touching their existing purple game lines, helping to define them.