APSU’s Dunn Center floor receiving extreme makeover

Clarksville, TN – The Austin Peay State University’s Dunn Center floor is getting more than a facelift.

After seeing part of the floor twice replaced in the past decade, a whole new surface will be in place when the 2012 Austin Peay State University volleyball season opens this fall–call it Extreme Makeover APSU style.

After 13 graduations, including 11 from the local high schools, were concluded in late May, the floor project began with the removal of the entire existing floor in Dave Aaron Arena, to be replaced by a state-of-the-art PermaFlex flooring system.

The new maple floor itself–an anchored resilient wood system that has a rubberized base, helping protect athletes’ ankles and knees–comes from Connor Sports Floor, who provided the surfaces at both NCAA Final Fours this season and whose corporate headquarters are located in Elk Grove, IL. However, the actual flooring system and installation is being done by Sports Floors, Inc., of Memphis, TN the same company that installed the floor at the FedEx Forum.

After cutting channels for the conduit, floor boxes and related items, Sports Floors will lay a one-half inch plywood subfloor and then start installing the actual floor system.

It will lay that floor up to the lower-level bleachers, at which time workers will extend those bleachers before detaching them from the wall and rolling them onto the new surface. This will offer them access to the old flooring still under the bleachers. Sports Floors then will remove the remaining old flooring while also finishing cutting channels into the concrete and placing the conduit, eventually allowing it to tie into the building’s current electrical service.

Sports Floors also then will finish laying the new floor to the wall. At that point finishing work will begin on the floor, with a design similar to the previous one on Dave Loos Court.

Although a target date of August 1st exists, it is hoped the floor will be available for use after Summer commencement, August 10th.

The Dunn Center, opened in 1975, is considered one of the south’s top mid-major facilities.