Putting Down a Dance Floor at the Blue Bird

My younger daughter has finally realized her dream of opening her own dance studio. Last weekend (actually Thursday through Sunday) I helped her get her special dance floor installed. It was more physical labor than I imagined and I am just now recovering from it. Her web site is http://www.bluebirddance.org/ .

We started off by laying a vapor barrier over the bare concrete floor and then topping it with 3/4" OSB sheets that had special dense foams block glued to the bottom. Since the OSB we used is designed for sub-floors, we had to fit the tongue of one sheet into the groove of the previous sheet and insure the edges were straight. This resulted in much pounding with a small hand sledge.


But after two and half days, we finally finished. All the sheets were down and everything was straight and fairly smooth.

The next day (Sunday afternoon) was to see the laying of the actual dance surface, a product called Marley, which is a heavy vinyl matt with a smooth surface.


In order to fit the 1.5m wide rolls so the seam in the Marley wouldn't be in the same place as the seam in the sub-floor, we had to cut a 38' piece lengthwise. That was a chore although a heavy duty box cutter made it much easier. And yes, that's me doing the cutting.

Now we had to flip the Marley so the black dance surface was up. The Marley is heavy and cumbersome, but the three of us (my two daughters and I) managed it without to much cussing and fussing.


But the final product of all our labor was worth it as the dance floor is now in and my daughter and her friend have been conducting classes all week.

And tomorrow I drive down to Hattiesburg for a small local gaming convention called HUBCON ( http://www.hubcon.org/ ). I'll play in a few games, buy some more miniatures, and renew acquaintances from across the South. A report will be forthcoming.