Joyce Center, Purcell Pavilion at the University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame, IN

Project Overview
Purcell Pavilion at Notre Dame originally opened in 2009 and is home to the Fighting Irish basketball and volleyball teams. It was important for the facility to be able to host many types of events throughout the year, but there were multiple issues with the existing floor that needed to be addressed to reach these goals.

Northern Industrial Flooring, a Res-Tek certified applicator, was brought in to consult and provide a solution that would address the needs the operations staff had outlined.

Challenge
Underneath the wooden regulation basketball floor, there was an existing wooden subfloor held in place by a metal track.

Because of this wood based track system, scissor lifts or heavy equipment could not be used on the arena floor, making it impossible to have any events, dances, or concerts that would require anything to be hung from the ceiling.

To make the facility more versatile, a heavy-duty system was needed so the arena floor could handle heavier equipment, such as scissor lifts, forklifts, large box trucks and even dump trucks. The floor would also need to be decorative for dances, concerts, and parties. The flooring would need to be slip-resistant, easy to clean, and long lasting for future use.

Solution
The metal track had ram set nails into the concrete every 6 to 12 inches, holding it in place. When removed, an extremely pitted concrete floor with deep divots and gouges remained and would need to be filled in. The arena was also built below ground level, so there was a lot of moisture in the concrete that needed to be mitigated. Northern Industrial Flooring determined that Res-Tek’s PUR-Guard™ urethane cement system and MAC-Guard™ MMA topcoat would work well in this situation.

Urethane cement is a heavy duty material that helps to address moisture issues while providing the strength and durability required for heavy equipment.

An MMA (methyl-methacrylate) topcoat cures quickly and provides additional strength and abrasion resistance to the entire system, making it last longer than other topcoats. Upon completion, it was an attractive floor that would blend in with its environment, and the wooden floor system used for volleyball and basketball could be placed on top for competition college sports.

Joyce Center Operations Manager, Paco Bayer, was told this floor was “bullet proof.” He told Northern Industrial after the floor was cured that he took out his keys and attempted to scratch the clear MMA topcoat in an area that would be covered.

He was amazed it did not scratch, but not being familiar with floor coatings, he went to another area of the stadium that had an epoxy coating. That area was easily scratched with the same key.

He made a point to tell us this because he would not have believed it unless he did it for himself. Notre Dame is extremely happy with the new arena flooring system; it has opened lots of possibilities for the use of the facility.