I am building a dance floor for an Irish step dancing school. The floor is simply 3/4 AC plywood laid onto 2×4 sleepers and screwed together. They want to treat the plywood with something that will be durable and slip resistant. Such as a paint like material.
I am not really what to use. Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Smart construction decisions and material choices can significantly improve occupant safety and survival in the event of a fire in the home.
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Dig into cutting-edge approaches and decades of proven solutions with total access to our experts and tradespeople.
Start Free Trial NowGet instant access to the latest developments in green building, research, and reports from the field.
Start Free Trial Now
Replies
bri,
may I suggest shellac?
many reasons to do so..
first it's extremely durable and scratch resistant.
second it goes on extremely fast and dries even faster. you could be dancing tomorrow
Third it's a real easy do-it- yourself project
fourth it's far cheaper than other finishes
fifth it can be repaired without any sanding if damaged or scratched.
sixth, it's safe, you've been eating shellac for years in the form of pill coatings and candy coverings
seventh It's an infinately renewable resource and biodegradable
Oh well there's a lot of other reasons but perhaps I bore you?
If you'd like a nice step by step directions and hints ask and I'll be glad to help.
frenchy,Thanks for the advice. My only concern would be the shellac would be slippery. Also can you get a darker shellac. The idea is they want the floor to look like one unit. They don't want to see the individual sections of plywood.
bri,
Shellac comes premixed in two colors from Zinsslers, clear or blond and amber. Clear is normally stocked, Amber is available, but why wouldn't you stain the floor first?
as for slippery.. This is pure speculation so I honestly don't know but every dance floor I've seen has had a wear/patina from all those feet. That's what provides the required traction IMHO.. My own shellaced floor which I run and jump etc. all the time on isn't slippery.. My 150 pound newfundland who absolutely refuses to trim his toenails doesn't find it slippery. You should see him run back and forth when he's excited.
If you'd like to see a picture of my floor go to 86920.13 and I think 8666.13 has some pictures of my dogs claw marks denting the wood but if you look closely the finish is still fine..
I can't imagnie that plywood would make an attractive dance floor.
There are companies out there that make special stuff just for dance floors. It comes in rolls that you lay out and tape together. I helped do a dance floor a while back with the stuff.
Unfortunately I don't recall a brand name, but some searching should come up with plenty of options.
I'm building my wife and daughter a 28' x 28' dance studio in the back yard and we'll be using 1x4 clear southern yellow pine from a guy who mills and dries it just down the street. I think I'll give this shellac idea a try. We're going to seal it before we put it down so it'll come straight from the mill and be sealed as it comes off the truck and go stright down on the concrete slab on PT sleepers w/ 6 mil poly over the sleepers to keep the humidity from trashing the pine.
I have a few pictures of it during construction here (scroll all the way down)http://www.chandlerdesignbuild.com/files/PoleBarnOutbuildingsDetail.pdf
Not anywhere near finished yet, need to find some cool glazing panels in a 6' x 8' format for my two 7' x 10' sliding barn doors. I've seen some green house glazing with a square tube kind of spacer that I'm hoping will be available in that size. The doors face south so it would be great to soak up a lot of sun through those doors in the fall and winter.
There will also be a closet for amp storage for my ever expanding bass amp and PA collection. So it'll also be a jam shed for me as well as a dance space for my bride and an aerial acrobatic studio for the kid, she does aerial silks like in Crique de soleil, thus the 3.5" x 24" microlam ridge beam.
------------------
"You cannot work hard enough to make up for a sloppy estimate."
The floor is to be used as a practice floor for a irish dance academy. Function is more important then looks. Right now they dance on a concrete floor with a mat on it. So, they wood should be a little more forgiving.
he's right, use a dedicated dance floor mat, like those from Harlequin company
dancers get "shin splints" dancing on hard floor with no spring to them painful, can be permanent damage not worth doing it on the cheap when injury can be caused
good dance floors have beer spilled on them, which over time gives the required patina and tack. Since this is Irish Step dancing, you should spill Guinness and Harp.
Shellac comes from bugs and is harvested by children in India and Thailand. By using it you are exploiting child labor.
hmj
I've watched whole families harvest shellac, Some were children but none appeared exploited.. I suppose that you could have them go into the sweat shops to earn money but I don't think that we can make ther statement that all shellac is harvested by kids..
I'll be honest and admit that I've never watched every single branch stripped but even if every single word you say is 100% true and we ignore the cultural differances between our nations..
Faced with using something that comes basically from an oil well and a test tube or using bug juice, I'll opt for bug juice.
lighten up, it was a joke....
"3/4 AC plywood laid onto 2x4 sleepers"
Ouch! Not good. Imagine a dancer lands with feet 8"-12" apart, one foot lands over sleeper, the other in the middle of the span.
Better to buld a sprung floor. Lay 1x2 or 1x3 sleepers 16" OC. Cross those with clear 1x3's 16" OC. Glue with a large blob of PL 400 and one screw.
Glue and screw a 3"x3"x3/4" block to the top of the springs between each sleeper. Glue and screw your 3/4 T&G ply to the blocks. Band any open edges of the sprung floor leaving a 1/4" gap under the banding.
Adding another set of springs under the blocks makes the floor twice as impact proof against breaking a spring or bone.
SamT
As a start, I found this. http://www.geocities.com/dancefest/Articles/Floors.html
I think you need to talk with the director of the dance studio--shellac would probably be very slippery if it got wet (dancers sweat a lot!) Also, I suspect that different types of dancing require different surfaces--if they truly want a non-slip surface, aren't there floor paints that have sand in them specifically to make them non-slip?
I'll second the poster who talked about the sprung floor. This should be discussed with the director to see if they could possibly afford the additional work and materials. I'm involved with gymnastics rather than dance, but the details of the surfaces can make an incredible difference in what the gymnasts are able to learn.
Good luck.
Kathleen
katiewa,
Most floors are slippery if wet.. shellac no more so than other finishes that i've noted.. (I had an airconditioner overflow on mine) as for sanded floors?
no dancer would ever want to dance on sanded floors slideing their feet is part of dancing even something like the OP is suggesting calls for a limited amount of slip in the floor..
I've seen some floors topped with 1/2" OSB and several coats of poly, sanded between - the screws just disappear, and it's not a bad look - hides a lot.
I think one guy's attic office in FH used this
Forrest
What timing. I just started on a rescue mission for a dance skool that decided it couldn't afford my original bid so they would be their own G.C. ..................It didin't work so good.
They have a sprung dance floor they built themselves and will be adding more to it. I will try & take pictures of how it is built ( I gotta remember the camera) & also find out the name og the roll out cover & where they got it.
These guys - http://stagestep.com/StageStep_floor_tools.php are the pros. Used their products for an instructional dance floor for an independent school (Alvin Ailey troupe teaches there).
Jeff