This is where it all started a few weeks ago. Round and round and round we go... sanding down till it's as white as snow.Ok, ok... I never said I was a poet! But it's true. Pete Wood and Josh Jozwiak of TRIAD RACING and SUNRISE ROLLERLAND work on the floor preparation several days before they even think about pouring the floor. Usually this process is done with the typical floor scrubber but it has more stringent pads with a heavier grit to sand more of the floor off instead of just "scrubbing the floor" to clean it.
Pete has been doing the Sunrise floor now for over 10 years and has it down to a science. Along with the floor sanding that must be done at least on two different occasions, the rink staff must vacuum constantly throughout the week prior to coating the floor.
It's amazing the amount of dust particles that float through the air that we can't even see with the naked eye and yet if you are not 100% prepared to take care of them and get rid of as much as you can, your newly coated floor will show every imperfection and lack of preparation you did or didn't do!
Once the pre-vacuuming has started and all of the walls are done and the carpet down the side isle and in the snack bar has been done every night for the 7 nights preceding the beginning of the coating process, it is time for the wet towels and drag board to come out. When using the scrubber it is also using water to help keep the sanding even as well as the dust down. But you must get the freshly sanded material off of the floor as soon as possible. With clean hot water and several new towels that have been pre-washed, you get them completely wet, ring them out in a bucket used only for the skating floor (not the snack bar... can you imagine the cotton candy or soda that might still be in that bucket!!) and lay them out. next putting a very large, heavy board across them with a rope that is used by two very strong people to carefully pull the floor. Making sure that it is done evenly. Once they have completed a full time around the floor, the board is taken off and then towels are completely rinsed, rung out and they are relayed about 4-5 feet over the previous lap and they go again. Round and round they go.... until their finished (wasn't that better?) This process is done TWICE that night. Then it's back the next night (after Saturday afternoon sessions and the Saturday evening sessions) to do it all over again. This process usually takes about 3-4 hours if you want to do it right. If you have a "hot" date for Saturday night, you could probably bang this out in about an hour. But come time to skate on it... you would be wishing you wold have spent the time to do it right!!
Mind you while Pete is working until 2 or 3am I am comfortably sleeping. Ahhhh....
Next comes Sunday. It is the BIG day. We must purchase new black markers for the start/finish lines and for all 7 (yes SEVEN) tracks that we have on our floor. I am somewhat anal about making sure that all of the black marks that we use for speed are BLACK and not light black or missing some of the color all together. Once the morning and afternoon sessions are over the club who has given up their practice time, comes in and starts scrapping all of the gum off of the floor. This is a HUGE job. Although no gum chewing is allowed.... you wouldn't know it by what we find all over the floor. We also try to take up and scuff marks made by boots, toe stops (something we don't use) and by skaters doing hockey stops. This process also takes about 2 hours. While this is going on, Pete is repeating the wet dragging of the floor. The sanding is over, but the dragging will continue until the towels come up clean. Then we get to sit down and eat rink pizza and soda while the floor get s good and dry!!
This year we had a mom who had nothing better to do than make us some fantastic BBQ's chicken that you could scoop up and onto large rolls!!! I was in heaven!! I don't cook unless it comes in a can or a bag!! So I was really excited.
Now they set the buckets out on the floor to help mark the floor off so that you use only the 5 gallons alloted for that area. Because of the size and width of our floor we need to have at least 6 rollers and about 4 "spotters". Spotters are the ones constantly telling the "rollers" where they made mistakes..... LOL If someone cannot take comments like "Hey Jane... you missed a spot over here... a little further, no more to the right, up further, now to your left...." for 4 hours, they better put their roller down and go home!!!!
Pretty much that sums it up.... but when you end up with a floor that runs as tight and as fast as ours is..... it is worth every single second that is spent on it. For us... our floor runs best at week 3 to 4. Many of you know that the national floor is coated usually 24-48 hours before competition starts. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. It states that the product is dry and can be skated on within 12-18 hours, and usually it is. Most rinks coat their floor one week before a meet. But with our weather, our altitude (sea level), we have found that if we coat our floor 3 to 4 weeks before the meet, it will be one of the fastest floors you will run on by the time the meet starts.
I kind of went on longer than I had planned, but many people do not realize the amount of labor and time that goes into producing a great floor.
Some operators just roll their stuff out and don't worry about cleaning the floor or the carpets prior to laying the plastic. Although our speed club does all of the manuel labor, we prefer it that way. There is no one more concerned at how the floor will turn out than us!!! This is the ultimate reward .... right here!
