Construction of sprung dance floor?

RickH · 2009-12-31T22:08:30+00:00

I dance 3 or 4 nights a week on the Willowbrook Ballroom dance floor.It is a 6200 square foot bare maple floor constructed in the early1920's. It has had dancers on it continuously since then dancing toall the great swing bands of the 20's through 50's and continuing tothis day.It is an amazing floor, it is mechanically sprung like no other floorI have ever been on. It has a wonderful thump, smoothness and bouncethat is unheard of in these days of banquet halls where some dumb-assrestaurant owner simply applies some prefinished flooring to concreteand calls it a dance floor.The Willowbrook floor is referenced in this wiki article about floorconstruction, but is not detailed enough for my project:My dream is to install this same kind of floor in a building I own. Iwould love to see exactly how the Willowbrook is constructed, but thatwont be possible. I've danced on sprung floors over foam, and it issimply terrrible, like landing on sand, there is cushion but no returnin energy, foam sucks. The Willowbrook floor is somehow sprung usingwood.I will finish the with 1 inch T&G bare maple just like Willowbrook.Of course over 90 years of dancers feet does more amazing things tobare maple, which can never be replicated in ones lifetime.Does anyone here have any knowledge on how the amazing dance floors ofearly the 1920's were constructed? In terms of the under structure?Possibly any old-timers who installed basketball courts in the 1950's,might be similar?If you have knowledge like this, please share this lost art in thewiki article before you die.