This week, a new White Paper was released by Vertical Solutions which presents observational results of inspections performed on commonly used bouldering floor cover materials to determine their performance under several important criteria. With the indoor climbing industry continuing to grow at a fast pace, it became clear to The VS Team that bouldering’s popularity will continue to tax flooring systems used at various gyms, and highlight the shortcomings of certain commonly used materials. The Bouldering Floor Material Performance White Paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of important performance qualities of commonly used flooring materials. The qualities analyzed in this White Paper are:
The paper explains the most common problems, using procedures used to replicate those problems in a controlled environment, and observational results. The paper is offered entirely free to the public as a downloadable PDF on their website. A full photo-set with high resolution images is made available as a supplementary download within the document, in addition to material spec sheet appendixes linked-to online.
The core audiences for Vertical Solutions’ White Paper are new climbing gym owners currently in the product planning phase, and existing gym owners planning an expansion to additional facilities or looking to replace their current system. For both audiences, the focus is often on maximizing the value of their investment, as flooring systems can commonly reach 50% of the overall costs for climbing-specific products and services. This cost is even more significant when considering the possibility of early replacement due to the unique wear and tear from bouldering usage. For these reasons, understanding the characteristics of cover materials is important to planning for the life cycle and related costs of bouldering flooring.
The Bouldering Floor Material Performance White Paper is intended to assist climbing gym owners/operators by expediting the extensive research required to determine what products will meet their needs, by providing an understanding of material performance to make a cost-benefit determination. Although there is no one “silver bullet” material, an understanding of the qualities of the common materials will aid climbing gyms and other users in making decisions that best fulfill their goals.
The Bouldering Floor Material Performance White Paper is available as a free download from Vertical Solutions. To learn more about Vertical Solutions offerings, including the ones mentioned here, visit the VS Climbing website.
* The White Paper does not provide testing as to any fall impact or other safety qualities of the materials.