You want to take up roller skating but have trouble finding out what type of floor is best for roller skating? Or simply want to know more about this topic but do not know where to find out?
To build a satisfactory skating rink, the floor must be the most important aspect. But when you start to look into the information, you feel confused and can not shape what is the best option?
If you are puzzled over thousands of researches you have found, don’t worry, this article will help you to get a head start on this problem!
What Is Roller Skating?
Roller skating is a way of moving around the surface with skates. In fact, no one knows for sure about the introduction of unique skates with funny wheels. Did you know the famous European figure skating type? The shoes feature a horizontal iron piece, a blade on the bottom for skating on ice. That is the inspiration for the formation of roller skating and development to this day.
Roller skating started in 1935 but then until the 1960s – 1970s, when skaters performed roller skating on a disco background, it became the trend and hobby of American. In 1981, thanks to the improvement of Scott Olson, this sport reached out to the world and became popular everywhere.
Roller skating is a great way to build up your physique and increase your body’s endurance. Taking time to skate 20 to 30 minutes a day will help to release toxins accumulated inside you for a long time and enhance your health.
Moreover, this sport will help you relieve stress, like other sports, roller skating helps you operate completely from head to toe. It will create new energy, improve positive mood for the body to continue working and learning more effectively.
Scientifically proven: Roller skating is a great way to improve heart health, help to burn 600 calories one hour and reduce 50% of the strong shock on joints, compared to running, jumping, cycling, ect. Avoiding joint damage when in middle age!
What Type Of Floor Is Best For Roller Skating?
In order to choose the best option to build the right roller skate rink that meets your needs, understanding the properties of each type of floor is very important. In the following section, we will make a discovery on four basic types of floors
Concrete Flooring
If you want to save a bundle, this one is right for you!
The pros of the concrete flooring is that this is the cheapest one on this list and also the easiest roller skating floor to install. Make sure that during construction, the concrete is poured evenly with a deviation of no more than 1.4 inches.
What about the cons? Because of the material, you must always maintain a certain level of slippery and smoothness to ensure the safety of the player, which means that you need regular maintenance.
You should choose a flat surface like rubbed concrete, it is best to be covered with a specialized paint that helps reduce scratches when falling but still ensure good drainage, especially sweat or small water droplets penetrating through the floor to avoid slipping and falling.
Unqualified pavement can cause people to slip easily when toppling. Besides, the surface of the floor is uneven so skating will not be smooth.
One more thing to notice is that concrete flooring is suitable for the professional skaters who like to do the spins and power skating than the non-professional.
To maintain the cleanliness and smoothness of the concrete roller skating rink, we suggest a few options: grease, wax, venci, varnish, curing compound, sealant and oil . To get the best effect, you should use it in a small area first to see which material will suit your needs.
Interlocking Rubber Floor Tiles
This type of floor is made from Polypropylene and in the form of small pieces with the size is 304.8mm * 304.8mm * 12.2mm and a variety of colors. Not only suitable for roller skating, this floor type is also suitable for basketball, volleyball, badminton.
The process of building and assembling is extremely easy and fast: just use a hammer to fix the floor joints together without nails or glue. The installation can be completed in a very short time.
On the composition of the product: there are holes on the surface, which is a combination of drainage and heat radiation. When it is sunny, the hole will allow heat to escape and vice versa in the rain, it will help the rain water to drift away. The pillars at the bottom are used to support the raised floor surface.
The strength of this product is that it is odorless, waterproof and were made from eco-friendly materials: does not contain heavy toxic metals and service life up to 10 years.
With a colorful and safe surface design, this floor is suitable for children and beginners to roller skating.
Skate Court/Versacourt Flooring
Skate court and versacourt will also be an option when you start searching for suitable skating rinks for roller skating.
But in terms of its surface properties, this sliding floor has no high adhesion and no roughness in the structure, so it is not suitable for basic skaters. Many players say they have difficulty achieving the desired speed when skating on the Skate court floor and are prone to skin burns when falling.
Unless you want to invest in a hockey roller and derby roller court, this might be a good choice
Hardwood Maples Flooring
Hardwood maple floors will be much more expensive than other floors on the market, but you get what you pay for! Compared to all of the above options, this is always the best option for the best type of floor for roller skating, let’s have a look at what makes it so popular:
Hardwood maple floors have much higher adhesion, polished and more durable. They also hold better humidity and are easy to maintain, which can last up to 50 years.
This floor is easy to clean with a walk-behind scrubber. Still, please make it a point not to let detergent damage the polyurethane coating and be careful when you skate as the wheels can leave scratches on the surface of the floor.
In a nutshell, you need to pay attention to the preservation of shoes and wheels to minimize damage to hardwood maples surfaces.
This is the only floor type suitable for all levels of players. In addition, it has a soft surface, so when you fall, you also feel less pain and leave unscratched. Professional skateboarders say they prefer to skate on hardwood floors because it is always softer with ankles, knees and backs upon landing.
The main attraction in every rink is the skating floor. Hardwood maple floors are the best skating surface because of its natural beauty, durable, unbreakable and fine-grained surface. These great properties will take you on thousands of hours of joyful skating.
The only weakness is that the wooden floor will not be completely waterproof, so when you put it into use, make sure to clean it with extra care. Tripping and taking a nasty fall just because the floor is still wet would be the last thing you want.
How To Install A Roller Skating Wood Floor?
Because the hardwood maple is the most popular skating rink and the best choice of all, we will help you in building a complete skating floor system.
The installation process of wooden flooring can last from 7 to 10 days
including time to remove old skating floors. Below is the most typical route:
- Eliminate the existing skating floor.
- Put a plastic sheet and foam cushion.
- Installing subfloor.
- Cover the extra floor with felt.
- Install new hardwood skating rink.
- Sand floor three times ( Low, medium, large )
- Clean and remove all sanding dust.
- Apply two layers of floor sealer.
- Apply two layers of floor finishing.
- Wait until it’s dry and you’re done!
After a successful installation, remember to regularly clean and preserve the wooden floor so that it is always in the best condition. Maybe during the use of the skaters, the wheels of the roller skates will cause scratches on the wooden surface but don’t worry, it will not cause a great impact on the smoothness of the floor.
Just follow the basic rules of preservation, the use time of hardwood floors will last very long and cause no unnecessary losses.
In Conclusion
Good facilities must be brought to the forefront when you set to work on roller skating rink business. Making a perfect plan to build a reasonable skating rink will be the best of both worlds when it not only brings good profits to you but also provides roller skaters the best experience.
Hopefully, with the suggestions above, we’ve helped you answer that question of what type of floor is best for your roller skating.
