I am trying to build a dance floor for ballroom dance on top of painted concrete. We have a wopping 2600 sqft that we have to put dance floor on. Can anyone help me with the least expensive way of going about this? I have researched sleepers, marley floors, gerstung, rosco the whole nine and am thouroughly confused!!!!
If you have concrete, you have to have a floating floor or your knees will be killed. Check out www.stagestep.com . They have every kind of flooring and ways to save money by doing it yourself. Anyway you do this, it is going to cost some bucks. Ideally you should have a floating floor with marley over it. If you can't afford it, just do the floating wood floor.
Good luck!
Nearly all ENGINEERED hardwood floors can be installed directly over concrete. You have to put down rosin paper first though. Also, the same is true for laminate floors, and all they require is underlayment. You can get laminate flooring for 99 cents a foot all the way to 4.00 a foot. The thing to remember here, though, is that you get what you pay for. I have had great luck with Pergo laminates, but I have bought cheaper floors and had luck with them as well. Try a cheaper floor if you are on a budget. Run your keys across the finish to make sure it doesn't scratch easily, then buy one box of it and try putting it together by the manufacturers instructions. If it goes together without raised spots where the pieces join, it will be fine. If the finish lifts up in the cracks, eventually, it will come off with traffic, take that back and try something else.
Well, even laminate floor and engineered floor can be installed directly above concrete floor, I prefer engineered one though. Due to high traffic of a dance floor, laminate floor can't stand it.
But, if budget become number one consideration, just re-check local store for any discounted engineered wood floor first before you decided to go for laminate floor.
I'm not sure what the least expensive way of installing your floor would be. With that much square footage, just about anything you do won't be "inexpensive". I have, however, included a link that compares all the floors you have just researched. I don't know if this helps, but maybe it will clear up some confusion. Good luck!
