Flooring Suggestions Please

[jldx2in2000]

We are remodeling and I am very close to having my very own home gym.

The room is small (11.5' x 10') and will be in the basement with the floor as ceramic tile over concrete. Obviously the flooring is not suited for working out! My plan would be to use the room for everything: aerobics, weight training, and treadmill.

I read Cathe's Fit Tip on shock absorbent flooring for ideas on making the floor suitable.

I was initially looking into the Encore Elite flooring from Aeson; but, in corresponding with them, they told me that the Encore flooring is only suitable for aerobics and not weight training. Oddly enough they did tell me I could put my treadmill on the Encore flooring but really should do weight training on rubber mats that are installed separately from the Encore flooring. I found that odd that the flooring could withstand a super heavy treadmill but not my weights.

Anyway, I guess I am back to square one on what type of flooring to install since it doesn't seem practical to install one type of flooring in half of the room and another type in the other half. Plus as everyone knows, some of Cathe's cardio routhines require a lot of traveling space and I don't want to have to watch my step from Encore flooring to rubber mats.

Does anyone have experience with using the Encore for weight training (despite what the Aeson rep suggests)?

Any suggestions on another type of flooring to install over the ceramic tile that would suit all the Cathe workouts?

I know several people work out on just puzzle mats, but I have tried that and do not pivot well on rubber so the vinyl surface of the Encore flooring appealed to me. Also, I already have knee issues and am afraid that the puzzle mats just wouldn't provide the same shock absorbency as a suspended floor.

Any ideas/help are greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much!

PS Sorry for the super long post!

 

[Ly10up]

Hi Julie,

I went through the same dilema last year after working out on puzzle mats for years.

This is what I ended up with and I can't tell you how pleased I am with it.

http://www.greatmats.com/products/tileflex.php

Good luck!!

 

[jldx2in2000]

Ly10up - Thanks so much for the response!

I looked at this but wasn't sure it would offer enough shock absorbency. I am glad you are happy with it and now I may look into this more again.

One question, what did you install the TileFlex over? In other words, did you keep the puzzle mats down to add more shock absorbency or did you just use the rubber underlayment on top of your concrete floor?

 

[Ly10up]

I used 2 layers of the rubber underlayment. The padding is very thin (1/4 inch) So it's concrete, 2 layers of padding and then tile. I was amazed at the give. I had the same concerns, especially with my 48 year old joints. After discussing it with the customer service department regarding the number of fitness centers that had used the product for aerobics, I was relatively convinced and have been happy with the decision.

My workout room is in the basement with low ceilings so the height of the floor was an important factor for me.