By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

The Ocean Pines Community Center will soon have a new gym floor after a pipe break in February caused water damage to the current hardwood.

At a meeting earlier this week, the Ocean Pines Association’s Board of Directors unanimously approved proceeding with the staff recommendation to pay $62,300 to Dynamic Sports Construction for a new community center gym floor. The decision follows a situation in which a leak caused water damage to the existing hardwood surface.

Dynamic Sports Construction has been selected to replace the current floor with a DynaForce System. OPA Recreation and Parks Director Debbie Donahue said the new installation would be a poured floor with padding underneath.

“DynaForce is a hybrid system of multipurpose athletic flooring that provides support and durability for all athletes,” the vendor’s website reads. “It merges the best attributes of sheet and poured systems to deliver truly amazing basketball court flooring… DynaForce is about superior performance, safety, and flexibility.”

According to Donahue, this system, which has been implemented at spots like the Salisbury Salvation Army, is shock-absorbing to the body and helpful when playing sports like basketball.

“We have proposed that we move forward with a poured floor,” the recreation and parks director said. “There’s no seams, there’s no padding on the top that can get ripped from chairs or anything of that nature. It is, to me, the best option. If we have the water problem again, it will roll out, and we will mop it up. It’s not anything that will cause this type of damage.”

The contractor’s website says a benefit of the planned flooring is that the seamless, non-porous surface can enhance performance, durability, and sanitation.

A pipe break occurred over a weekend when the building did not receive many visitors, so the situation was not discovered until several days later, exacerbating the problem.

Donahue said the problem the gym’s radiant floor heating system.

“There has been some misunderstanding about what happened [to the gym floor],” she said at the March 29 OPA Board of Directors meeting.

 “It wasn’t coming from outside; it isn’t a massive leak underneath the flooring; it was an O-ring in the piping that runs the water to the radiant heat. It was a minor thing that, once in the wall, could not be detected until, unfortunately, the water was on the floor.”

Donahue maintained that the community center’s radiant heat system is beneficial despite the leak.

“We do have radiant heat in every room in the community center, which is a great thing actually to do it that way because of yoga ladies and Pilates, and when you’re on the floor, it makes a huge difference in being able to do those exercises and do those classes,” the recreation director said.

OPA General Manager John Viola added, “There is radiant heat throughout the [community center] because of a lot of programs, with people laying on the floor, and the floors were cold.”

OPA staff reviewed options to fix the gym floor and talked to people in recreation departments and schools “from here to Illinois about their experiences with flooring types and companies.”