dance floors

[shopper-lisa]

has anyone made their own dance floor? We wanted to put down a wood floor in an area of our basement but don't have any idea where to start

[DWise1]

Our instructor put one in the attached garage of his apartment. He got these interlocking 1/4-inch laminated panels at CostCo and laid them down over a layer of foam (essential for cushioning). Looks good and looks like it would be durable. I think he said that materials for the entire one-car garage cost him $200-300. No special tools are needed, just a wood saw. Each panel is about 4ft x 1 or 2 ft (memory's getting a bit hazy here). Took him a few hours to do the job.

[shopper-lisa]

are those panels made of wood?

[DWise1]

Processed wood, as I recall. Like a very fine-grained fairly dense particle-board (a compressed mixture of sawdust and glue). If you recall the quarter-inch wall panelling that was popular a couple/few decades ago, the wood-floor finish on top was printed/veneered on. It did look good. And while he had gotten it at CostCo, I'm sure that it's also available at the various home-improvement stores, like Home Depot.

Next time I see my instructor, I could ask him about that and what it's called.


EDIT:
He could not remember the name of the product, but it's the only one they have at CostCo.

[Hank]

Concrete is pourous and wicks water from the ground into the basement. Thus, basements are notorious for being cold and damp, and water is the enemy of wood. You'll need to make sure the wood floor you choose is specifically designed for installation in a basement, and it almost certainly requires a water barrier. An example of one such water barrier is a product called Delta-FL: http://www.deltams.com/deltafl/

[Sagitta]

I remember that this topic has come up before, but for the life of me I cannot find it. :? I know that in that topic Vince A. had some good advice. Pm him.

[Chris Stratton]

The moisture issue is a concern for longetivity of the floor. But you also need to think about longetivity of the feet, and put something under the wood that will have some spring. The foam mentioned above is a possibility, though I don't think of plastic foam as being very springy. Some rubber foam like products might work. Or the traditional method is to have 3 layers of relatively thin wood strips in a crosswise grid, so that flexing of the wood gives the floor 'spring' (3 layers with offset intersections so there is no direct vertical path to the concrete).

[Doug]

We have a dance floor in the house. Because we are Lindy/Balboa dancers, it was very important that the floor be fast. Thus none of the commercial dance floor products - Marley, various synthetics, pressed wood - etc were acceptable. We checked them all out. What we ended up with was a classic oak hardwood floor.

Creating a floated floor will not only make it easer on the feet, but will get the floor off of direct contact with the basement floor and allow room for vapor barriers etc. And if you do use oak an another hardwood, don't put on a polyurethane or other similar finish. The purpose of nearly everything called a "floor finish" is to make the floor slow & somewhat sticky. Think of a gym floor. I finished ours with several coats of a penetrating oil (Watco furniture finish - which says "Not for floors") and sanded down to the hardwood between coats. The idea is to dance directly on the smoothly sanded hardwood with the penetrating oil finish helping bind, fill in and - sortof - protect the floor.

Ya. This was a big deal, replete with trial and ERROR, and from the time I put down the floor until we were dancing on it was nearly 6 months. But now we have been dancing on it for nearly 3 years and absolutly love it.

[shopper-lisa]

Ok... I am REALLY new at construction... Do I just go to home depot and buy some foam and some wood and then set the wood on top of the foam and then wala, I'm done? Do you know of any step by step guides or the best first step to take?

[tsb]

Ok... I am REALLY new at construction... Do I just go to home depot and buy some foam and some wood and then set the wood on top of the foam and then wala, I'm done? Do you know of any step by step guides or the best first step to take?

i have a dance floor in my home. following were the issues/concerns foremost in my mind when i built it:

- durability (minimize scuffing, etc.);
- feel (in terms of friction as well as 'give');
- comfort (which relates to the amount of 'give');
- expense/affordability;

to have any sort of cushioned/floating feel, your surface can not be securely attached directly to the material underneath your new floor. so parquet or any sort of tiles are out. because of that as well as the desire to have a smooth a surface as possible, it follows that the floor construction must interlock in some way into a single piece resting on top of whatever separates the floor from the foundation underneath. the cushion can be solid (like foam) - or air. the problem with air is that any piece of flooring of any significant size will sag so bracing underneath will be required. and of course foam eventually compresses as well.

i discarded materials such as pergo and other laminates because i didn't like the feel, parquet was out because it would have to attach directly to the floor. while oak was a great choice, i ended up choosing bamboo - it's as hard as oak, but more flexible & turned out to be about the same price as oak - and it's very distinctive in appearance and being a lighter color helps keep the room from looking too dark (which i imagine is more of a consideration in the basement). instead of trying to build a grid to lay the floor upon (which would have raised the floor a significant amount above the height of the floor in the rest of the house) i chose to use a layer of foam between the floor and the foundation.

when i pulled up my carpet it turned out i had a linoleum floor which i kept because it functions both as a moisture barrier, plus it helped guarantee that i had a flat surface - which can be an issue if you're trying to lay a floor on top of concrete. any unevenness that is not addressed is likely to lead to soft spots in your floor; i helped install the floor in a friend's studio and it turned out that as little as a 1/2" dip has led to discernable soft spots in the floor.

another alternative is to purchase portable dance floor. i have master dance floor which i use outside to increase the amount of dance space for parties. it's not cheap, but it's simple to assemble & provides more flexibility in terms of space usage. and i was able to purchase used panels (which theyd rented out for various conventions, etc.) which made it much more affordable. if you can get used panels i'd recommend that highly. the only problem is that master dance floor changed their design & IMO the new design is inferior both in construction & material.

[twodance]

As an owner of a studio I have put down all of my own floors. The cost is 1/3 of having someone else do it. In the basement you want to first lay down a vapor barrier. This can be plastic sheets or roofing felt. This keeps the moisture from going into the wood. The next step is to lay down either a layer of foam or wooden stringers. I prefer the wooden stringers. Take 1x3s and lay them end to end across the floor. The next row should be 16" on center. Take plywood and lay on top of the stringers and screw into the stringers. (or lay on the foam) Place wood dance floor on top of plywood and nail down. If your stringers are running East to West, place the wood planks North to South. This gives you floor added structure. The height of the floor is about 1 1/4" to 1 1/2" depending on the thickness of the plywood and flooring used. Hope this helps.

[twodance]

Sorry ...one more thing. This is called a floating floor, the spaces between the stringers are where the floor is 'floating'. You can dance all night without your feet getting tired (right :roll: ) The draw back in using foam is that over time it goes flat. Then you are left with the wood resting on the concrete which has no cushion at all.

[shopper-lisa]

Thanks!