Osu, Maybe 6 or 7 months ago, there was a thread from one of our UK karate MAPper about the refurbishing of his new dojo. The dojo was a stand alone building originally designed as a garage; many pictures of before, after & in progress were posted; the floor was engineered with foam blocks and plywood to give it some spring and give under the puzzle mats; the window were replaced, the doors too; mirrors were installed, etc... Could someone help me find this thread? Thank you so much, & sorry for posting a new thread for such a trivial question. Osu!
Hi 'Old_kyokushin', If you want any advice please ask - I can let you know what was good and what was not about the solution we went for.
Hi, It's a bit too giving for the Tai Chi but fine for Karate Jutsu with its rolls and falls. I used 25mm thick foam under 3mm thick hardboard (with the hardboard doubled up for four inches either side of the seams.) If I were doing it again, I'd use either 15mm foam or maybe plywood instead of hardboard - not sure. Also I have a mixture of mats, 25mm jigsaw mats at one end and foam mats over most of the floor - if I could afford to replace the foam mats with jigsaw mats I think it world be firmer and better.
Osu, Thank you Robert for these explanations. - Have you found that the hardboard is too weak? (3mm doesn't feel like much) - have you glued the HB to the foam? - have you found that the 4" overlap can be felt through your mats? I was also going to ask why you don't practice TaiJi outdoors, but I remembered that you are in the UK... OSu!
I was also going to ask why you don't practice TaiJi outdoors, but I remembered that you are in the UK... OSu![/QUOTE] MUD JITSU .....or RAIN WASHED JITSU if you want to train outdoors in the UK !!!! Happy new year gents Smurf
No it's not too weak (so far). No not glued. No - sorry should have explained better... Originally used butt joints and Duct tape - however the tape ripped if you stood just to one side of a seam. So we got a few more sheets of hardboard cut into 8" strips and placed the strips below the seams - stapled them in place by using a staple gun with 14mm staples (3mm + 3mm = 6mm but 8mm staples didn't wok - never figured out why...) Then taped over the seams again and laid the mats on top. I think the method used was fine given the size of the room (500 sq ft) - If I was doing a bigger area I think I'd look at a more professional (and more expensive) method.