Wow, lucky you! Your own private dance floor!

My only piece of advice is definitely not to do the portable type unless you have to. All those seams are icky to dance across. I know they are supposed to be adjustable so you can level it, but what a pain and over time it will have to be readjusted.

Good luck! I am green with envy!

Camay - All I have is a vapor barrier which is not much of a cushion but I don't practice that often. If you practice several hours a day you might need sufficient cushion underneath. We only practice a maximum of 6-7 hours a WEEK and it does not bother me. I am not a pro when it comes to the aspects of dancing but I don't see much difference between the studios where we take our lessons and my basement floor.

Rice,

You didn't mislead me at all. I know it's not easy to install the floor. My future-in-law is a professional home remodeler. He's going to help my fiance to do the dance floor. I only have to decide what kind of wood and what preparation have to be done on the concrete floor. Because they don't know anything about dancing.

At first I checked out several protable dance floor panel cos. They are so expensive. I'll contact some other flooring cos in town for them to give me a estimation (with and without the installation).

Do your laminate dance floor perform as good as you expect? Someone told me I have to put several layers of material such as sleepers and elastomer blocks. Do you have them underneath your wood planks? I wonder the floor will perform well without those layers to absorb impact?????? Will my feet hurt after I dance for hours without those support layers???

Thanks,
Camay

Camay - There is probably a complicated part that you might encounter in installing wood laminate floor if you do not have any experience at all in home improvement. This includes installation of baseboards and/or end molding to hold down the floating floor. I actually drilled our concrete floor to fasten the end molding of the floor. Using concrete power drills entails some risk of bodily injury (you have to be intact to be able to dance... with exceptions of course). What you can do is check out Lowe's Hardware or equivalent and ask them to show you wood laminate floors and get a feel for it if you can really do the job. They also know people who can do the installation and still it is cheaper than kind of wood floors that were previously mentioned. Simply put, do it youself wood laminate floors are a lot cheaper. On the other hand, there is a risk of injury and if you make a mistake it becomes expensive. Sorry, I did not mean to mislead you the first time.

Camay - I agree with Frank. If you want a truly topnotch dance floor that is the way to go and you can even use flex floors which are being marketed for dancing purposes. The drawback is the prohibitive cost.

We did our basement by ourselves and we used laminate wood planks purchased at Lowe's Hardware Store. This a floating floor in which the planks are glued together and it comes (or purchased separately)with a vapor barrier. We have an 18 x 17 feet floor and we spent $1,000 - 1,200 for the materials. It took us a day to install. The tools can be rented at Lowe's. Installation instructions I think are included with the materials. Although woodworking was my hobby (now it's ballroom)I don't think it is a necessary to accomplish this job. This is the tightwad way and it serves our purpose. I am willing to e-mail you more about the details of installing if you decide to take this route. Goodluck! By the way, your back will be sore for a day or two after doing the installation.

Thanks Rice!! I think I can only afford regular hardwood floor instead of a "real" dance floor at this time. I checked out several dance floor suppliers. The prices are eye-popping. I would love to have your detailed information about the "do-it-yourself" dance floor.