Working with that Maple Floor

So, I spent some time down at the community center gym not long ago. They’ve got this old, but really solid, hard maple wooden flooring. You know the kind, shiny, looks great when it’s clean. It needed a good deep clean, maybe a bit more, and I got roped into helping out over a weekend.

First thing you notice is just how hard that maple is. Scratches don’t come easy, which is good. We started by clearing everything off. Then came the scrubbing. We used these big machines, but also did a lot of detail work by hand, especially around the edges and painted lines.

Now, the interesting part for me was dealing with the aftermath of daily use. You see all sorts of marks. But the ones that really stood out were from the rubber volleyballs they use for the youth leagues. Not the fancy leather ones, the basic, tough rubber kind.

• Those things bounce like crazy on the maple. Good consistent bounce, which is why they use this wood, I guess.
• But man, do they leave marks. Little black scuffs, everywhere. Especially where kids practice serves or spikes, hitting the floor hard.
• Getting those scuffs off was the real chore. Some came up with the regular cleaning solution, but others needed some serious elbow grease and a specific cleaner.

We spent a good few hours just targeting those rubber marks after the main cleaning was done. It made me think about the materials. That softer rubber grinding against the hard, sealed maple finish. It just wants to leave a little bit of itself behind.

After we finished, the floor looked amazing. Gleaming. But I knew, give it a week of volleyball practice, and those little black rubber kisses would start showing up again. It’s just the nature of the beast, I suppose. You choose hard maple for the performance, you live with the rubber marks it attracts. Still, solid floor. Built to last.