Installation of Malabar Intermediate School’s new hardwood gymnasium floor is nearly complete and students will be using it soon.
“They will put another finish coat on the floor this week and possibly a second one,” said Bob Booth, Mansfield City Schools director of operations before school began.
Installation of the floor, which began soon after school was out in May, is being done by The Final Floor of Sugar Grove under a $126,572 contract. Students begin their day with an assembly in the gym but Principal Andrea Moyer said they have moved the auditorium for morning announcements and the Pledge of Allegiance until the floor is finished.
The hardwood replaces the original gym floor installed when Malabar was built as a high school in 1962. Steam pipes which ran beneath the old floor had contributed to humidity and caused buckling of the old floor.
Booth said that problem has been eliminated. “Those pipes are no longer operational. The new floor also has a vapor barrier beneath it, rubber strips between the plywood base and the hardwood,” he said.
In addition to the regulation basketball court, the gym will accommodate two volleyball courts. The gym also is getting a new $159,982 heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system installed by the Gardiner Service Co. of Solon.
Malabar ended the 2017-2018 school year with an enrollment of 769 in grades four, five and six.
Source, Photo: Mansfield City Schools
