Photo Credit: Courtesy Landmark Aquatic
Orem Family Fitness Center is an impressive municipal facility located in beautiful Orem, Utah. Originally built in 1979, the facility underwent an extensive renovation in 2021 that expanded it to over 130,000 square feet. Today, it draws roughly 3,000 visitors a day, offering everything from basketball courts and rock climbing to pickleball, racquetball, and multiple swimming pools. At the heart of it all is a 50-meter, indoor lap pool that is enjoyed year-round.
When the poured-in-place rubber flooring surrounding the beloved pool began deteriorating less than a year after it had been installed, the facility management and patrons were devastated. “We had been told the pour-in-place rubber deck would last 10 years, but within nine months we were seeing significant wear and tear. It was literally crumbling under our feet,” says Mariah Shirley, Facility Manager at Orem Family Fitness. “The floor situation was getting worse every day, and we needed a guaranteed solution quickly, something very different that was a long-term solution.”
A Deck In Decline
The poured-in-place rubber flooring originally installed around the lap pool had been a reasonable choice at the time—a material once considered the gold standard for wet-deck safety and comfort on swimmers’ feet. “Once I saw the situation, it was clear we needed to provide a solution quickly as the floor was crumbling everywhere and in many places the deck had exposed concrete,” says Holden Bigler-Johnson, Regional Account Executive for Life Floor, the product ultimately used as the replacement surface. “The crumbling floor was not only an eyesore but was also frustrating to patrons and maintenance staff, not to mention a potential safety liability for the facility,” says Shirley.