A Guide to Sprung Gym Flooring
Sprung gym floors are used in gyms to create fitness zones that deliver exceptional performance. These floors are characterised by a high level of shock absorption and energy return, which reduces user fatigue and improves safety.
Here’s everything you need to know about sprung gym flooring:
What is sprung gym flooring?
Sprung gym flooring is compressible gym flooring that absorbs shocks, giving it excellent impact resistance. Such floors are used in activity zones to protect the subfloor and reduce user fatigue without compromising performance.
What does a sprung floor feel like?
You can tell if a gym floor is sprung if it feels firm underfoot but squishy when weight is applied in a small area. If the floor compresses at a point (such as when you drop a plate on it) this matches the description of a sprung floor.
Sprung gym floors are firm under a large heavy object but compress when a small heavy object is dropped on them. This ability to compress under load gives sprung floors the ability to take repeated impacts without deforming.
Types of sprung gym flooring
The sprung floor itself is made from EPDM rubber. This will be comprised of a rubber underlay and a rubber top surface. The top surface can be made from either rubber matting (which is rolled out) or rubber tiles (which are glued down).
Rubber matting is ideal for large spaces and creating a seamless sprung floor. Matting is thinner than tiles so suited to lighter work. Tiles are thicker and heavier duty, making them a better choice for free weight and powerlifting zones.
What are the layers in a sprung gym floor?
A sprung gym floor starts with the subfloor. This can be made from either concrete or board. Board/ply subfloors are built when the existing subfloor isn’t level/stable. A board subfloor can be built over concrete, hardwood or tile.
Concrete floors are the most common subfloor. They do not absorb impacts as well as boards, so they require a thicker gym flooring system, however there is less to go wrong, so concrete is considered an excellent material.
Once a solid subfloor is in place, a rubber crumb underlay will be installed so that the EPDM rubber top surface has something soft to compress into.
The combined thickness of the rubber flooring will be in the region of 60mm (20mm underlay, 40mm tiles). However, this can vary depending on performance requirements.
Gym Floor Tiles
Choose between 30, 40 or 70mm thickness
Gym Floor Rolls
Choose between 4, 6, 8 or 10mm thickness