WILMINGTON, MA — Basketball season is quickly approaching at Wilmington High. Players, coaches, parents and fans have been looking forward to games being held in the new WHS gymnasium. Since the old WHS gym was demolished in February 2013, the boys and girls programs haven’t had the ability to host a game at Wilmington High School.
At last week’s Wilmington High School Building Committee Meeting, however, no one was willing to make assurances that the new gymnasium would be ready for the start of the basketball season.
At issue is a buckling of the gym floor, at the center of the basketball court. The center of the court is slightly raised up, by less than 1/8 of an inch, or the width of a piece of a paper towel. It may not sound like much, but there’s cause for concern.
“I wouldn’t feel comfortable having basketball games played on it,” said School Superintendent Mary DeLai. “There’s a tripping hazard.”
“There is usually a wearing-in period of a year [for a maple court], especially one installed at the driest point of the year,” explained Mike Marcella, project manager from Gilbane Building Company. Once humidity decreases, the installer will return to add additional fasteners to the boards in question, added Marcella.
“[The court] is going through a break-in period,” agreed Jon Richardson, project architect from Dore & Whittier. Richardson concurred with Marcella that it was “the norm” for the floor to “move” in its first year, explaining that the boards expand as humidity rises and contract as humidity drops.
“It’s certainly disconcerting to have a gymnasium floor that’s subject to weather conditions,” responded Town Manager Jeff Hull.
DeLai and Hull expressed a desire to act proactively and expedite the dehumidifcation process in the gym by utilizing some of the town’s dehumidifers.
Some committee members suggested that another factor may be at least partially responsible for the floor’s condition.
The gym’s bleachers, which were originally intended to be bolted to the gym’s wall, were ultimately bolted to the gym’s floor.
Richardson and Marcella did not believe the 16 bolts in the gym floor and the floor buckling were related, citing past projects they’ve worked on with similar courts and bleachers bolted to the floor. Marcella noted there was a way to remove the bleacher’s bolts from the floor and attach the bleachers to the wall, which DeLai referred to as “a last resort.”
Additional buckling had been previously identified on the gym floor near the exterior door. That area had already been addressed with additional fasteners.
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