Commercial Gym Flooring Buyers Guide

The thickness of your rubber flooring depends on what type of fitness center you have. Industry-standard is 3/8” (8mm) thick or 5/16” thick material. ¼” material is too thin to sustain protection against constant foot traffic and dropped weights. It's best used for areas with light traffic, in studios where weights aren't being dropped on it, or in a cardio area where light floor covering is needed.

A 3/8”+ thickness is recommended for underneath cardio equipment and under some strength equipment. 3/8"+ thick mats will absorb shock from lightweight dumbbells, barbells, and kettlebells.

Rubber flooring is available in a wide variety of best selling colors. With over 20 colors to choose from, you’ll be certain to find the right color for your fitness facility.

Custom Branding & Graphics

So you’ve got your color selected, but did you know you could also add your facility logo to your flooring? Custom branding is a great way to make your rubber flooring go the extra mile, whether you add a logo, inspirational message, or any other graphic.

Rubber flooring is easy to install, but not a solo-project. There’s no reason to be a hero here – grab a buddy to help you out.

First things first—assess your subfloor. Rubber Flooring should be installed over concrete or wood (do not install over particleboard, chipboard, Masonite and lauan), and you need to make sure any old adhesives, roughness, defects, or irregularities are taken care of. Think of it like painting. Before you start, you have to prep.

Installing Rolled Rubber Flooring

You’re going to want to give yourself plenty of time to get this installed. Unroll all rolls and allow to relax overnight. A bare minimum of two hours is required for the rolls to rest. Lay the rolls down in a way that will use your cuts efficiently (it’s best to have this planned way before it’s go-time). Cut all rolls at the required length (if needed), including enough to run up the wall.

Place the edge of the first roll along your chalk line, and unroll. Continue rolling out the rest of the room and allow the rubber flooring rolls to acclimate to the room.

Make sure the rolls are tightly butted up next to each other and check to make sure they are straight and without any wrinkles or folds.

Installing Interlocking Tile Rubber Flooring

Interlocking Tiles are designed for easy installation so that a team of 2 or even just one person can tackle the install. Subfloor requirements are wood, laminate, concrete, existing resilient flooring, or very low pile commercial carpet.

Installation typically begins from the center of the room or area and then works its way out toward the walls. Take some accurate measurements, divide the area into 4 equal quadrants with a chalk line, and begin installing from the center. Interlocking or Puzzle Tiles interlock easily by gently tapping the tabs together (pro tip: use a rubber mallet to speed up installation vs. pressing them in by hand).

Installing Performance UltraTile Flooring

When it comes to installing Performance UltraTile Rubber Flooring, the process is similar to dropping in Interlocking Tiles, but you’re using adhesive. Performance UltraTile, like other rubber flooring, can be installed over most concrete, wood, and tile.

Determine your installation starting point by taking a look at the area you want covered. Is it wall-to-wall? Is it an irregular shape? The best starting point is often at the center—this ensures a symmetrical finish for tiles that may need to be trimmed around the perimeter. Installation is done by measuring and using a chalk line to set guidelines to install to.

Zogics Rubber Sport Flooring Cleaner & Degreaser – the best way to clean and maintain rubber flooring.

Your gym flooring is a big investment in your facility. Maintenance is easy with the right products and protocol, and imperative if you want your investment to last. Rubber flooring should be dry dust-mopped a couple of times a day; the more traffic you have, the more you should be sweeping, as dust and dirt will build up quickly.

Daily Cleaning

For daily cleaning, use a pH neutral cleaner/degreaser to apply to your flooring, let it sit for 5–7 minutes, then mop it up and rinse with clean water. Easy right? We’ve developed a cleaner specifically to maintain rubber sport flooring that will not only clean, but protect your flooring from unwanted wear patterns.

Weekly Deep Cleaning

Once a week, your rubber flooring should undergo a complete cleaning, so pull out those auto scrubbers! Using the same rubber floor cleaning solution, an autoscrubber will provide a deeper cleaning that picks up anything that you may have missed during your daily mopping.

You should allow the floor to dry thoroughly before introducing foot traffic, so try not to do a scrub down right before a class. Make sure you use the recommended cleaning products for your flooring type to preserve its finish.

Get more information on how to clean rubber flooring here. We put together everything you need, from products to process.

How do you decide between rubber tile flooring and rubber roll flooring? While the benefits are nearly identical, and both work for either commercial or home gyms, there are some factors that may weigh into your decision.

Where are you installing flooring?

To start, where are you installing flooring? Is it a large commercial gym with a huge footprint? Are you laying down some rubber flooring in your garage gym? While Interlocking Tiles are easy to install, covering a large area with them could be a bit time consuming and may not be the most efficient solution. Interlocking flooring tiles are best suited for smaller rooms in a commercial gym, or for your home gym.

Rubber puzzle tiles also work in a commercial facility where you are leasing a building and may want to remove the flooring if you relocate. If you’re looking to cover a large portion of flooring, we recommend rolled rubber flooring.

When to use rolled rubber flooring

Rolled rubber flooring is a standard in most commercial gym settings and works perfectly for installing large sections. Rolled rubber is available in wider variety of thicknesses, which also helps facility managers determine which type is needed by room. Custom cutting also is a great benefit, because we know “one-size-fits-all” doesn’t always apply. Combine all of that with a bigger selection of colorways and you can see how rolled rubber flooring is the most ideal solution for a mid to large sized facility.

1" Tiles are perfect for weightlifting platforms and strength training areas due to its thickness

When to use rubber tile flooring

When it comes to Performance UltraTile Flooring, keep in mind this is the thickest option, and thus the most costly. But, certain areas of your gym (or whole facilities specialized in strength training) demand a thicker flooring option. Deadlifting platforms, strength training areas, and sections of your gym that take the most shock and abuse require Performance UltraTile Flooring. Like Interlocking Tiles, you can cover large areas with Performance UltraTile Flooring easily—but it might not be the most efficient use of budget. Additionally, is your facility on the second floor? The tenants below you may not appreciate dropped bars and plates all day. Performance UltraTile Flooring is the most sound absorbing flooring type.

Overall, take a look at your facility and assess its size and traffic. Take a look at how big your cardioarea is, where your weightlifting platforms are, and what other types of training spaces you have. The best option may be a combination of a few flooring types, but don’t worry—our flooring experts are here to take that assessment off your plate. After working with thousands of facilities, gyms, clubs, and home gyms, we’re here to provide you with a partner in your flooring project that walks you through the entire process, making recommendations all along the way. That’s a lot you’re missing out on by just ordering some tiles online or at your local hardware store.

Unlike many competitors, who obtain unregulated flooring overseas, Ecore flooring is manufactured in the USA. While we don’t have to run through the long list of benefits of domestically-made products, the important things to remember are quality and efficiency—Ecore rubber flooring is undeniably the most premium quality product, from raw materials to the production process. Simply put, foreign manufactured flooring can’t compete.

You’ve made the decision to set up a home gym; the problem is, you don’t actually know how to set up a home gym. Sure, you can figure out what type of equipment to buy. But did you pause to consider the type of flooring you need?

DO NOT just repurpose some old carpeting or rugs you have in your basement. Your flooring protects both your equipment AND your body. It’s one of the most important steps in setting up a home gym, and one of the most often overlooked.

Rubber flooring is the best, safest, most affordable option for home gym flooring. The ideal thickness of gym flooring is 3/8″ (or 8mm). That’s thick enough to provide all the safety features you’ll need. It will safely support your squat rack, treadmill, rower, and other heavy machines. It will prevent these big items from moving and shifting around as you use them.

Interlocking Tiles are a great solution for home gyms, as they’re arguably the easiest to install and can be moved around if needed. Home gyms also don’t usually cover nearly the amount of square footage that a large or even mid-sized commercial gym requires. But don’t be fooled by cheap alternatives or a simple trip to the hardware store for generic rubber tiles. Quality means everything, and settling for anything less means a higher risk of injury and more times you’ll need to replace damaged flooring. What may seem cheaper in the beginning will cost way more when you’re on your fourth or fifth replacement.

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are a large group of chemicals that are found in many products in our environment. These chemicals “off-gas” into the indoor air we breathe, though you may not always be able to smell them.

But, simply put in the context of your rubber flooring, VOCs = “that rubber smell”—and who likes that? Guests and managers alike will agree that they’d prefer not to workout in a gym that smells like a tire. We pride ourselves in offering rubber flooring with extremely low VOCs compared to competing brands.

Additionally, we continue to service your flooring by offering eco-friendly cleaning solutions that are also manufactured with intentionally low VOCs. Zogics’ suite of cleaning products are concentrated to yield gallons of usable cleaning solution, all while promoting environmentally-responsible application. Our lineup is ECOLOGO approved and offers the diversity needed to meet a wide range of uses and specialities.

When it comes to commercial gym flooring, rubber, vinyl, and turf are the most popular flooring options for gyms. Rubber is the most common because it's relatively affordable, durable, easy to clean, and versatile as it comes in both tiles and rolled. Vinyl can give you the durability you need in the gym with a wood-grain look, and turf is perfect for function fitness training.

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