Does any one have anyadvice on the best way to clean old gym floor so it can be used for hardwood flooring. Is there anything I should watch out for that could cause problems in the future?

-- Dave Doering (sunridgefarm@yahoo.com), March 28, 2001

Answers

before using used lumber tap each piece with a small hammer ythrough the full length; any sound that is not a solid "ring" disqualifies that piece; any "tracks" visable, usually white or light colored on the out side of the lumber indicates termites, the tracks are pathways for termites and are about one eight inch wide indicating: kindling.

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), March 29, 2001.

One of the problems I know of with recycling hardwood flooring is that because of being sanded more in some places than in others - the boards are different thicknesses. Like for example, high use areas like near entrances would be ones that may be quite a bit thinner. So if you are going to be doing a pretty small area (100 sq ft or so), you may be able to solve this by using flooring out of the same area of the gym. Hope this helps, Dennis

-- Dennis Speer (farmsteader@gvtel.com), March 29, 2001.

When our house was built the entire ground level floor (except the bathroom) was covered with an old gym floor. We didn't build the house so I don't know how to clean it but I can tell you it still looks nice after almost ten years. We've never had a problem with it.

-- Hoosiermom (hdnpines@kuntrynet.com), March 29, 2001.