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Simple Way To Eliminate Slippery Gym Floors- Craig Raucher-Commissioner Staten Island Basketball League-April 2025

The Staten Island Basketball League is a 45 year old highly competitive pick up b-ball league playing at P S 8 in Great Kills, Staten Island , New York. We play three times per week 49 out of 52 weeks per year.

The gym is 70 years old and has the original wooden backboards and a wooden floor replaced for the fist time in decades in 2020. The floor is constantly slippery whether it is Summer or Winter.

We have struggled with keeping the floor clean and non-slippery but it has been very difficult. We have reviewed dozens of videos on You Tube as to how other basketball courts are maintained.Based on those videos we have utilized a number of different solutions none of which have worked. We have used a variety of different dust sweepers -dry and wet. But that has not worked. Many of the companies selling gym floor cleaners promote spending hundreds of dollars of special liquids and special mops.

After years of frustration and hundreds of dollars spent we cam upon a very simple and effective remedy that has worked perfectly. You need warm water , a large bucket, 2 large bath towels. a large push broom. We also use a portable leaf blower.

We blow out al of the debris, dirt and dust with the leaf blower. We then put one of the large bath towels in the bucket of warm water, Wring the towel out and the wrap the towel around the base of the push broom.

Move the broom slowly over the floor using one towel for half on the gym and the other towel for the other half. The weight of the water on the towel in conjunction with the forward pressure of the push broom picks up all surface and embedded dirt and dust from the floor. Removing this dirt and dust eliminates all slipperiness and the squeaking of sneakers running across the floor signifies a clean high traction floor.

No need to spend tons of mone.