Dear All, As it has only received a brief mention to my friends on Facebook, you probably aren't aware that we have been looking (for about six months) for a building to lease for use as a permanent JSA dojo. Well, it looks like the search is over! We have found a chap who is willing to lease out part of his warehouse which he intends to use for archive storage, and using a mix of bribing, begging, cajoling, lying and threatening, we have secured the front 2500 square feet for our dojo for not a great deal more than we would pay to hire a similar size of sports hall each week. While it is not 100% set in stone yet (we are still have to have legal bods look over the lease agreement etc), it looks like this is going ahead. Anyway, to keep interested parties 'in the know', I have set up a blog so you can RSS/subscribe/visit/whatever and see how we're getting on! We have uploaded some photos of the building as it is now, and also some renderings of what it will look like once we have it all JSA'ed up! Your thoughts, opinions and ideas would be highly appreciated at this early stage of planning. We have no doubt missed something out in our design process! Here's the blog: http://heijoshin.wordpress.com All the best, Scott
Here's an update for you all! THE DOJO IS ONE-THIRD DONE! Wooohooooooo! Check out the progress so far here: http://heijoshin.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/one-month-on/
It is 230 square metres (training area). No vinyl, just timber floor finish. No needs for mats, y'see... I would love to do this (I used to design central heating systems) but the area would cost us a fortune.
Decent size training area then Our place for 3,500sqf downstairs and upstairs gym was 1,200sqf We had a costing of around 75k to get it to a decent gym standard and that was with leasing weights etc and not buying!! I spent ages looking around for bargains as well, I bought a fair bit of equipment i sold on (most at a loss sadly) I had a few weight benches (powertec ones) sitting my my aunts garage. We found loads of mirrors on ebay from £5-45 depending on the size you wanted (not sure if thats your thing or not) We also found it cheaper to get things like bag brackets or any wall fixings made in lots of 10s and then find a local powder coaters to add them to the end of a job for a smaller fee as long as you didnt mind the colour (black, white or silver) Have you seen the wooden effect mats you can get? They are dirt cheap it goes down like laminate or jigsaw mats has the same effect as them so you can walk on them but has a small 1-2" padding under it so it softens some of the impact on the feet. I love projects like this even more so after ours went **** up
Not seen those mats, no - but we DO need a solid surface to train on - just not one that will pulverise the joints (hence the floating floor).
Have you looked at putting say XPS flooring under it? (dont know how thick your floor will be) but they retain heat so the longer you stand in one place the more that area heats up we have it under our oak floor in the living room. If you wanted to test it I can send you a few scrap boards we have left over its on 16mm thick (i think)
We would probably need 50mm minimum for the XPS and then more for the floating floor (as XPS has no cushioning) - and we are tight on ceiling height already (as ours is a sword art and need all the height we can get). We plan on heating the area using space heaters before practice. Once practice starts, we should be fine. Thx for the offer though.
I *might* have some warehouse 90kw heaters and infra red heaters someplace if I still have then would they be of any use to you? You wall or ceiling mount them (might be an issue if you need loads of height) ill check this weekend if we still have them and if you want them
I know its US again but I'm sure I seen it in the UK someplace http://www.zebramats.com/catalog/wood-grain-puzzle-mats
We could mount them above the trusses (which sit at 3.1m over the concrete slab). Yeah, have a look and let me know how much you want for them.
Ladies and Gents, We have an opening night date - 23rd July 2011, doors open 7pm. While we're not yet complete, we will be finished within a month - which gives us a few weeks to do minor works, tidying, detailing etc. Any MAP member who would like to attend our opening ceremony, demonstration and food/drink/party - please drop me a PM (limited spaces). The dojo is 15 miles north of Birmingham, just off the A5 and easily accessible via the M6 and other major midlands motorways.
Sounds great! Tell you what, send me the winning Tatts numbers, and I'm there! Er, we're not talking Hawaii or Barbados again, are we....?
A writeup about the dojo opening plus pics of the demonstrations are now on our blog: http://heijoshin.wordpress.com/ Thank you to all who attended the opening night, and thanks to all the well-wishes over the past few months! Enjoy the pics!
Looks fantastic! If I should ever find myself in your neck of the woods, I'll be sure to drop by and say hi... then be very sad when it's time to leave....