First Mexican Baptist Church Chooses Sport Court®

The First Mexican Baptist Church was hit by a hail storm in early June, 2019. The hail fractured the skylights above the gym and allowed water to enter the building. The incoming rain quickly destroyed the hardwood gym floor. But, flooring replacement would not be as quick. Indeed, it would be over 2 years to get everything put back together.

Our initial site visit was on July 1, 2019. At that time, the hardwood floor was partially removed and fans were placed to help with the drying process. Everyone assumed that the remediation would begin right away. But, that assumption was wrong.

The church’s insurance company initially denied the claim. It took a team of lawyers and a lengthy court battle to get the insurance company to pay. During this time, the First Mexican Baptist Church was unable to rebuild. The gym, which also served as an auditorium, remained closed, unable to be used for anything.

In the summer of 2021, the insurance company was ordered to pay the claim and the restoration could finally begin. It had been a full 2 years since the hail storm and rain had done their damage.

First Mexican Baptist Church
201 Meredith Drive
San Antonio, Tx 78228
210-737-6113
Website

Floor Prep and Concrete Ramp

The hardwood gym floor was built with 2×4 sleepers that sat on a layer of tar. We referred the church to Clean Air Flooring Removal to get rid of the tar and smooth out any rough areas on the concrete. Clean Air has worked on dozens of our projects, often utilizing diamond grinders to remove humps in the concrete floor slab. On this project, they removed the tar before we started our work and then also removed some high spots that we discovered while installing the new floor.

The new Sport Court® gym floor would sit about 2” lower than the prior hardwood floor. To eliminate a the trip hazard of a 2” step along the side of the court, we designed a concrete ramp. The First Mexican Baptist Church hired a local concrete crew to form the ramp and pour the concrete to our specifications.

Sport Court® Gym Flooring

The First Mexican Baptist Church chose Sport Court® Response high gloss Maple Select gym flooring. This would provide better shock absorption than the wood floor while reducing costs. Sport Court® gym flooring is also better in it’s ability withstand moisture and humidity. And, since the gym’s HVAC system was inoperable, humidity would have been problematic for hardwood flooring.

Cost, safety, and resistance to moisture damage are certainly factors in choosing the right gym floor. But, other things must also be considered. In this particular gym, the floor would be used for basketball and volleyball. However, this space is also an auditorium. So, the floor had to have multi-purpose capability. Check out this article to see what floor may be best for your gym.

The First Mexican Baptist Church chose Sport Court® Response high gloss Maple Select gym flooring. This would provide better shock absorption than the wood floor while reducing costs. Sport Court® gym flooring is also better in it’s ability withstand moisture and humidity. And, since the gym’s HVAC system was inoperable, humidity would have been problematic for hardwood flooring.

Cost, safety, and resistance to moisture damage are certainly factors in choosing the right gym floor. But, other things must also be considered. In this particular gym, the floor would be used for basketball and volleyball. However, this space is also an auditorium. So, the floor had to have multi-purpose capability. Check out this article to see what floor may be best for your gym.

The flooring was installed on October 19, 2021. However, our work was halted as we decided that the carpenters should replace the plywood in front of the stage. This needed to be done before the flooring was laid up to the stage. We also discovered a few raised areas in the concrete that needed to be removed.

We returned on December 1 to resume our work. We trimmed the flooring pieces that would fit along the new concrete ramp and then installed the rest of the flooring. Once this was done, we put in the new sanitary cove molding and painted the game lines.

The flooring was installed on October 19, 2021. However, our work was halted as we decided that the carpenters should replace the plywood in front of the stage. This needed to be done before the flooring was laid up to the stage. We also discovered a few raised areas in the concrete that needed to be removed.

We returned on December 1 to resume our work. We trimmed the flooring pieces that would fit along the new concrete ramp and then installed the rest of the flooring. Once this was done, we put in the new sanitary cove molding and painted the game lines.

Basketball Goals

The gym at the First Mexican Baptist Church was set up with 6 basketball goals. All of these were wall attached, except for the goal in front of the stage. This goal was a heavy portable unit that had to be moved around every time the gym was used as an auditorium. The church took our recommendation to replace this portable goal with a permanent ceiling mounted goal.

The new basketball goal was manufactured by Gared Sports and installed by Texas Sports Equipment. It was equipped with a forward folding backstop, to allow the goal to be folded up to the ceiling when the gym is used as an auditorium. The 6 foot glass backboard has an anodized aluminum frame and a collegiate breakaway rim.