Rec Room Flooring

[Joe Carrick]

I am converting my wood shop to a Rec Room. It has a concrete slab floor and I will be putting a Pool Table and Ping Pong Table in it along with some other games.

What do you think I should use for finish flooring? I was considering a 12" square ceramic tile but then I thought about the possibility that a billiard ball would drop on the floor (that might shatter the ball or crack the tile) and so maybe I should use a commercial grade glue-down carpet of some kind.

Darts would also get damaged if the points hit on a hard ceramic surface.

What would you use?

[Alaskan Son]

Consider a high quality laminate. The stuff can be pretty indestructible.

[arcadian]

Just finished designing a home gymnasium. We used Flotex carpet glued to concrete floor. Carpet is specifically designed for heavy office use / gymnasium situations.

Andy Smith
Arcadian Design

[Joe Carrick]

OK.laminate's one I was considering but I also might want to have a "putting" area (maybe between the ping pong and pool tables) for which a hard surface just wouldn't work. Would a good commercial carpet work for the ping pong use? I know it would be fine for billiards, but I'm a bit concerned that it would be less than ideal for ping pong.

[Joe Carrick]

Just finished designing a home gymnasium. We used Flotex carpet glued to concrete floor. Carpet is specifically designed for heavy office use / gymnasium situations.

Andy Smith
Arcadian Design

Hi Andy,

Did you use the Tiles or the Sheet Flotex?
Did you have it installed by a Contractor?
What did it cost?

[lbuttery]

Joe:

just a thought...

what about cork - to provide give on the feet while playing games ???

Lew

[Joe Carrick]

I just checked the Table Tennis Association rules. It appears that a hard surface such as hardwood is required for International Tournaments but otherwise there are no real restrictions. Apparently you could set up a Ping Pong Table on a shag carpet or on a sandy beach - not a good idea, but not prohibited.

[Alaskan Son]

I just checked the Table Tennis Association rules. It appears that a hard surface such as hardwood is required for International Tournaments but otherwise there are no real restrictions. Apparently you could set up a Ping Pong Table on a shag carpet or on a sandy beach - not a good idea, but not prohibited.

Are you going to be holding professional tournaments?

[arcadian]

Joe,
Sheet Flotex, installed by a flooring contractor.
The cost in New Zealand won't be relative to your side of the world...
Cost was part of the building contractors full contract price.

Andy

Andy Smith
Arcadian Design

[Joe Carrick]

Are you going to be holding professional tournaments?

No, but I don't want to use a surface that will be difficult to move on or that will wear out too fast. I'm really leaning toward a real good commercial carpet that's designed for athletic use - dense glue down with excellent wear characteristics.

[joey3032]

Think about using VCT.

http://www.armstrong.com/commflooringna/products/vct

[Chris Brown]

Hey Joe, how about rubber flooring? See this site http://www.contempofloorcoverings.co...rubber-floors/

[Rickt1962]

OK I bite ! LOL since im slow at work LOL

Not much to go on with ur spec's

Is it a walk out basement ?
Does it have southern windows or northern ?

Does it have its own heat and cooling source ? ? ? ? ? ?

Can u take a piece of plastic and tape it to the concrete 1' x 1' area to see it sweat ? ETC ETC ETC ETC LOL

Pool tables can not be installed over carpet so figure out ur layout to have it over Tile.

Ping pong or Darts or Slot machines Etc ! over carpet is the warmer solution. For flooring ! If you have no MOISTURE problems and Cold temp i would put down homesote then pad and berber.

[Joe Carrick]

OK I bite ! LOL since im slow at work LOL

Not much to go on with ur spec's

Is it a walk out basement ?
Does it have southern windows or northern ?

Does it have its own heat and cooling source ? ? ? ? ? ?

Can u take a piece of plastic and tape it to the concrete 1' x 1' area to see it sweat ? ETC ETC ETC ETC LOL

Pool tables can not be installed over carpet so figure out ur layout to have it over Tile.

Ping pong or Darts or Slot machines Etc ! over carpet is the warmer solution. For flooring ! If you have no MOISTURE problems and Cold temp i would put down homesote then pad and berber.

Yes, it is a walk out basement.
It's a northern exposure.

It will be connected to the Forced Air HVAC that services the rest of the home.

The floor slab does not sweat - the home was built with good drainage on the uphill side including a large french drain to preclude any moisture from getting to the basement. I live in the San Diego area of Southern California so it's pretty warm and dry anyway.

I disagree with your statement about pool tables. Dense commercial carpet without a pad installed using the glue-down method is a very common for pool tables.

[Raymond Rood]

Joe what about mixing carpet where needed and tile where needed, my kitchen and family room is a large open area and I have tile in the high traffic area's kitchen walking area out to swimming pool area and then carpet in area where family room is for separation and comfort