Boys and Girls Club of Kingsville

The Boys and Girls Club of Kingsville was founded in 1963.  They moved to their current location in the 1980’s.  In the 30 plus years since the move, the property has undergone numerous upgrades.  These included the addition of the first gym, a playground, cafeteria, and now the second gym.

The first gym had a pad and pour floor.  These types of floors should never be used for sports as they cause injuries.  Aside from not being suitable for athletics, these floors often wear quite poorly.  In this case, the floor was badly discolored.  These floors are also known to tear easily and to blister.  Either of these problems can render the floor unusable.

In 2016, Sport Court of Austin installed Sport Court® high gloss Maple Select.  This was placed on top of the pad and pour floor.  Removing the old floor would have cost upwards of $10,000.  So, putting the Sport Court® flooring right on top saved precious resources.

The new gym at the Boys and Girls Club of Kingsville would replace a smaller outdoor pavilion.  Additional concrete was placed to expand the pavilion’s concrete foundation.  This would create a larger footprint required for the new building.

Structural steel for the new gym was delivered in April 2020.  But, with the pandemic bringing the world to a halt, construction would be delayed.  Erection of the steel framework finally took place in February 2021.

These types of metal buildings generally go up pretty quickly.  Indeed, the overall construction process is usually fast.  This is aided by the fact that gymnasiums are big open spaces without much interior finish out.  And on this project, there would be no bathrooms, offices, or other smaller spaces within the new gym.  All of these rooms were already in the adjoining structure.

Despite the simplicity of the build, completion of the interior was delayed.  Electrical and HVAC components were not readily available in 2021.  So, what should have been a 2 month construction process, was stretched out to about 8 months (once the steel was erected).

We arrived to the Boys and Girls Club of Kingsville late in the afternoon on December 10, 2021.  Our goal was to install the volleyball sleeves that evening, so the gym would be ready for flooring the following morning.  During the layout process, we discovered that the basketball goals had not been properly aligned.  Each backboard was a few inches off center of the centerline of the court.  The installers must have overlooked this simple step.  Luckily we were quite experienced with these goals and were able to make the needed corrections.

Note: the basketball goals were attached to the wall at the correct location.  The installer’s error was not aligning the backboard to the court’s centerline before tightening the stabilizer bars.  This is a common mistake.  And, we’ve had to fix this problem on other projects.

The volleyball sleeves are installed by coring a hole into the concrete floor slab.  The sleeves are then secured with fast setting anchor cement.  This is process we often do once the flooring is installed.  However, doing this before the flooring seemed a better fit for this project.

On the morning of December 11, we poured the upper layer of anchor cement for the volleyball sleeves.  With this step complete, we started work on the new gym floor.  The first step is always to vacuum up loose debris and do some light scrapping as needed.  Once the concrete was clean and smooth, we then rolled out the rubber underlayment.  This gives the gym floor a cushioned feel and provides for sound absorption.

We began installing the Sport Court® gym flooring at center court.  From there we worked towards the goals at each end.  Once the center of the court was laid from end to end, we then built outwards towards the sides of the court.  At the baselines the flooring only extended to within about 4’ of the walls.  It extended to the wall along one side and stopped about 10 feet from the wall on the other side.  Not going all the way to the walls, saved a lot of time.  In fact, with a crew of 4, we were able to lay all of the rubber and the flooring in a single day.

The stripes were painted on December 12.  This is a lengthy process and one that involved a lot of time down on all fours.  Blue painter’s tape was applied for basketball and volleyball stripes.  Once the tape was laid, it was pressed down a second time to ensure good adhesion.  The tape was then cut out at the intersections as needed.  The final step before painting is to wash the floor, between the tape with acetone.  This final cleaning step removes anything that might compromise the paint’s bond.

We applied two layers of paint.  Black for basketball and white for volleyball.  We also painted stripes on some extra pieces of flooring.  These extra pieces can be used if a painted piece of flooring ever needs to be replaced.

The paint didn’t sit very long before we carefully removed the tape.  As with every project, this was nerve wracking.  Stepping in paint at this stage could have created a problem that would not have been easily corrected.

Clients who have had Sport Court® gym flooring, tend to choose it again.  That was certainly the case for the Boys and Girls Club of Kingsville.  Some of our customers like the safety aspect while others like the longevity and durability.  Either way, we’re happy being able to all of these needs.

Altogether, the installation was 2-1/2 long days.  This was only possible because the floor did not extend to all 4 walls.  This saved time by not trimming pieces of flooring to fit along walls.  We also didn’t need to install any wall molding or doorway transition pieces.  Had we needed to do these others things, the project likely would have spanned 3 to 4 days.  Additional flooring can be added later, if the club decides to extend the Sport Court® surface.

If you’d like to learn more about the Boys and Girls Club of Kingsville, please visit their website or their Facebook page.

To learn more about Sport Court® gym flooring or to get our expert assistance laying out your gym, please contact South Texas Sport Court.