We recently received a very good question and wanted to share it with you!
Question:
We have a balcony around the top of our gym with bleachers on the top level. The floor on the balcony needs painted this summer. I was wondering if you could recommend a certain type of paint or any certain instructions on how to paint the floor so that it doesn’t create a problem when we go to roll the bleachers in and out.
The bleacher wheels tend to slip a little on the floor now and they roll in and out slowly sometimes or don’t roll in and out all the way on their own, and we have to push and pull them. When we paint this summer, I want to try and eliminate some of the issues we are having because of the floor.
If you have any advice, it would be greatly appreciated or if there is someone else to contact regarding this issue, please let me know.
Answer:
I feel that any quality floor paint that is properly applied is okay. Like always, you want it to adhere well and I’m sure you will do that.
The best advice that I can recommend to anyone with the problems that you describe, is to clean the floor more often.
Let me explain a little further.
Take a flashlight under your bleachers and shine it at an angle on the floor to see if you can tell where the drive wheels are tracking in and out. If you can see it, your drive wheels are running through this to get to the clean area in front of the bleachers where the floor is cleaned all of the time. This is true on forward or reverse fold systems and is usually worse on balcony reverse folds, since they are usually not used as often as a main floor set.
Years ago most, and some new bleachers yet today, are manual operation. Therefore, you need traction to push the bleachers closed. If you leave these bleachers open for any extended time, when you go to push them in they get heavier as they close and stack up Then, you start slipping a little when you are almost done with the heavy weight of the bleachers. When you get these bleachers closed, you use a dust mop to clean the gym floor really well. The floor under these bleachers can be a little dusty or dirty because you need the traction out front under your feet.
Now on to your situation with an Integral Powered Bleacher System:
Although most facilities make sure to clean their gym floors, the biggest place that is neglected is where the bleachers sit in the closed position. Some people close the bleachers and then open the skirt board and sweep around all of the wheels. This just pushes all of the dirt and dust right where you do not want it the most. Unfortunately, we cannot close the bleachers and lift them up and clean under them. What is needed on a regular basis is to open the bleachers, clean the floors really well where the bleachers sit in the closed position, and then close the bleachers.
When you are closing the power bleachers, row one goes under row two and pushes both under row three and then pushes all three under row four and so on getting heavier as they go. Once you have all of the rows closed under the others, except the last row or two, is when the bleachers begin losing their traction and need your assistance to close all the way. This is where the dust is causing the drive wheels to lose that traction. Now if it happens much before that, your wheels have picked up too much dust and are spinning in it creating a glazed smooth drive wheel instead of a gripping tire.
A reverse fold bleacher, such as your balcony bleachers that have a big heavy back panel creating a wall when the bleachers are closed, still has the same or similar problem as above. Look under rows 1, 2 & 3 and see if it is dusty. By cleaning this area you will always improve the overall operation. Are your balcony bleachers opened, used and then cleaned under as much as your main floor? Most people do not wish to crawl under the bleachers to get under rows 1-3 on a reverse fold bleacher to clean and this is evident by looking at most all facilities that we visit.
In this case, with a concrete floor, you can mop in front of the bleachers and leave it wet where the drive motors come out and it will help clean the drive wheels. Doing this a few times and cleaning under the bleachers where they sit in the closed position will help your case dramatically more than anything else.
I do not recommend adding anything to the paint to make it more coarse or trying to make a rough finish to get better traction. It will work in the beginning, but it will also chew up your drive wheels and decrease the life of them dramatically. I have been to some facilities that have had others talk them into installing a non-slip tread where the drive wheels finish closing. This is a bad idea because it sands the rubber off of the drive wheel. Drive wheels range from $100.00 each up to $2,100.00 each depending on the size (not including labor to replace).
A smooth clean floor is the best.
As always, Please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments and/or concerns that you may have.
Have a great day!
Regards,
Rocky
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