---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Amy Wimmer <amywimmer@gmail.com>
To: organizers@lists.sharedweight.net
Cc: suzanne.girardot@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2016 13:29:56 -0800
Subject: Replacing dance floors
Hi All,
Suzanne Girardot sent a copy of her reply to a conversation here about
dance floors. My husband, Tom, and I are 2/3 of the organizers for
Emerald City Contra Dance in Seattle. As Suzanne said, the floor, when
we first started dancing on it, was linoleum on top of concrete.
Suboptimal, to say the least. That floor is still there, but we put a
new one on top of it.
One of our dancers spearheaded a fund-raising campaign, which included
about 1/3 funding each from the neighborhood center where we dance,
Seattle Folklore Society and the dancers ourselves. Another of our
dancers was a contractor who did the research about floors, organized
the volunteers (almost entirely dancers), and was the foreman to
install the system we chose. The installation took a week.
There are three layers to the floor. The bottom layer is 3/4 inch
sturdi-floor plywood with rubber sleepers (about 2" square) stapled to
the underside every 12". On top of that is screwed a layer of 5/8 inch
OSB. On top of that is engineered bamboo hardwood flooring. It has a
water-based finish that gets refreshed twice a year and sanded down
and redone every few years. We did this in 2004, and the floor is
still going strong and the best dance surface I know of in the city.
It doesn't get dusty as do many with other finishes. It isn't too
slippery. One can get a good, resonant "stomp" out of it.
The contractor sent a pdf of a cross-section drawing. If you're
interested in seeing this, or would like to contact him with
questions, I can put you in contact with him. He is happy to talk with
anyone about the project. He probably remembers the cost of the
project, too.
-Amy Wimmer
Seattle