If you have any affiliation with High Schools or Colleges, you are heading into the honored tradition of Summer Break. The time of year when students are gone from school and you all get a chance to catch your breath, reflect on the past year, and make plans for the next school year.
That is not reality here at The Ohio Floor Company, and the other flooring contractors across the US. This is our “busy” season. We have about three months to get all the gym floors ready for next season. In the years past this seemed like a long time, but as youth and college sports have grown over the past few decades these three months are full of camps, and summer practices. Those long summer months have shrunk as the demand to use your gyms over the summer has increased. So, summer break is no break for us here at The Ohio Floor Company.
We have 5 – 7 gym floor replacements scheduled for this summer. A gym floor replacement is when we come in and remove the old gym floor and install a completely new floor system, from the ground up, so to speak. This is a large process that includes removing the old floor system and prepping the old concrete to receive the new floor system. Installing the new floor system, sanding the new maple flooring, painting lines and graphics, staining where required, and applying finish.
We also have 40 – 45 resands. A resand is where we come in and sand the existing floor, taking all the finish, paint, and stain off. In the process, giving the school a virtually new floor. We then can update the look of the floor by painting/staining new lines and graphics giving the floor an updated look, finishing the job off with fresh finish coats, and giving a safe floor for the athletes.
This may sound like a full summer, but here at The Ohio Floor Company, we are just getting started. Along with installing replacement floors and re-sanding many floors, we also supply between 275 and 300 maintenance recoats for our clients. A maintenance recoat is where we come into a school and clean, prep, and coat the floor. In this process the existing paint and graphics do not change, the floor's finish is refreshed giving the floor a good, safe surface for the athletes using the floor for the next season. All these maintenance recoats will add up to around 3 million square feet of finish applied.
So, as you can see, Summer Break for you is Summer Rush for us. It is all hands on deck here at The Ohio Floor Company for the next three months. But even though it is a very busy time for us, we enjoy this time of year as a company. We take great pride in the fact that we can help schools in three very important ways.
- Supplying them with a brand-new floor system, one that is safe and gives their athletes the best possible gym floor to play on.
- Help a school change the look of its facility. Creating a fresh look that the school and community can be proud of.
- Helping them maintain their facilities, preserving the life of their floor while providing a safe environment for their students and athletes.
While you are enjoying your well-deserved Summer Break, remember The Ohio Floor Company crews as they travel across the state helping to improve your facilities, and helping you get ready to tackle another year.
