Industries
Church Gym Padding and Removable Pole Pads
Your fellowship hall is a basketball court on Friday, a reception hall on Saturday, and a worship space on Sunday. Padding that bolts up permanently fails that room. Here is how churches buy padding that comes off in minutes and still gets through a board that meets once a month.
- Shipping
- All 48 contiguous states.
- Installation by our own crews
- New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, eastern Pennsylvania, plus the Austin and Houston markets in Texas. Coverage detail
Outside our installation markets we ship the product for installation by you or your contractor. Coverage states are New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, eastern Pennsylvania, the Austin and Houston metros in Texas.
The Room Changes Three Times a Week
The FT75, FT78 and FT80 pole pads close with full-length hook and loop. No adhesive, no anchors, nothing drilled into a column the congregation just paid to refinish. A volunteer wraps the pad, presses the closure shut, and walks away. Pulling it back off on Saturday night before a wedding takes about as long, and the pads stack flat in the same closet as the folding tables.
Label the back of every pad with the post it came off before the first time anyone takes them down. Masking tape and a marker is enough: "NE post by the kitchen door." Columns in one fellowship hall are frequently not the same size as each other, because the room was built in phases, and a pad that goes back on the wrong post either gapes open or will not close at all. The volunteer who put them up in September is rarely the volunteer taking them down in June.
Color matters more here than it does in a school gym. Scarlet and Gold read as a basketball program. Saddle Brown, Grey, Navy Blue and Black read as part of the building, which is what you want when the same room is set with chairs for a memorial service. Sixteen stock colors are available, so choose the one the room can live with year-round rather than the one that matches the team jerseys.
- Full-length hook and loop closure: on or off without tools, ladders, or a contractor.
- Nothing drills into the column, so a repainted post stays repainted.
- Label each pad with its post; columns in the same hall are often different sizes.
- 16 stock vinyl colors, including Saddle Brown, Grey, Navy Blue and Black for rooms that are not gyms.
What the Trustee Board Needs in the Packet
Most churches approve this at a monthly meeting, not on a purchase order the same afternoon. The volunteer who measured has to hand the board something on paper: what each pad is, what it costs, and when it ships. Ask us for a written quote with part numbers and unit prices, and quote the whole room even if you expect the vote to come back trimmed.
The numbers a board will ask for: FT75 pole pads for 4 in and 5 in square posts start at $254, FT78 for 6x6 posts at $307, FT80P 6x8 pad only at $291, and base and gusset pads at $146. Foam-only wall pads start at $152 and plywood-backed panels at $172, in standard 2 ft x 6 ft and 2 ft x 8 ft sizes. Padding carries a 1-Year Limited Warranty.
Padding rarely comes out of the general fund. It usually comes out of a youth ministry line, a memorial gift, or the rental income the hall already earns from an outside league, and boards approve it faster when the quote names which of those it is paid from. If the vote funds only part of it, pad the columns standing inside the playing area first and the walls behind the baskets second. Order a stock color rather than a one-off custom color, which gives next year's phase a much better chance of matching, and keep the quote and the part numbers in the church file so the next trustee does not start from zero.
- Ask for a written quote with part numbers, unit prices and lead time for the packet.
- Quote the full room, then buy it in phases if the vote comes back trimmed.
- Name the funding source on the quote: youth ministry, memorial gift, or hall rental income.
- Stock colors are easier to match on a second-phase order than custom colors.
- Call 917-546-4625 or email sales@mybackyardsports.com for a quote formatted for the board packet.
Columns, Baptistries, and What Is Actually in Play
Fellowship halls have columns in the middle of the floor because the room was built to hold up a roof, not to host a court. Walk the floor with a tape measure before you price anything. NFHS asks for at least 3 feet, preferably 10 feet, of unobstructed space outside the boundary lines. A church league answers to nobody on that, but the number tells you which columns and walls are genuinely in play.
The hazards in this room are not the ones a gym catalog pictures. There is usually a stage lip at one end, a kitchen pass-through with a metal roll shutter beside it, glass doors to the lobby behind one basket, and a baptistry or a sound booth eating one corner. Thermostats, fire extinguisher cabinets and light switches sit at shoulder height on the sideline wall. Chair racks and stacked round tables get parked against the wall during a game because nobody wants to roll them back to storage. Decide which of those surfaces a player will actually run into at speed, and pad those, rather than pricing every linear foot of wall in the building.
Columns in older buildings have been furred out, boxed in and drywalled over more than once, so measure the post as it stands today instead of trusting the original drawings, following how to measure a post before you price anything. For the wall runs you decided are in play, the foam-only versus plywood-backed decision is explained on the gym wall padding page, and it is worth reading before you order, because block walls and drywall over studs behave differently behind the same pad.
- Less than 3 feet from sideline to wall means that surface is in play.
- Watch for the stage lip, kitchen pass-through, glass lobby doors and sound booth corner.
- Note anything mounted on a sideline wall at shoulder height before you size panels.
- Measure the post as it stands today, not as it was drawn.
Working Backward From the Church Calendar
Stock pads generally ship in 2 to 3 business days. The delay in a church project is almost never the factory. It is the four weeks between the walkthrough and the board meeting, plus the week the building is given over to a Christmas program or VBS and nobody can get to the columns. Work backward from the board meeting and the calendar, not from the first game.
A pad printed with the church name or the youth ministry logo costs more time than money here. Custom printed pole pads start at $373.99 and a decal applied to a stock pad starts at $119.99, and the artwork and proof requirements are worth reading before you commit to a date, because a proof emailed on a Thursday sits unopened until Monday when the office is volunteer-staffed.
If an outside league, a school, or a community group rents the hall, put padding in the facility use agreement in writing: who is responsible for it being up during play, and who takes it down afterward. That one paragraph settles most of the arguments that follow an injury. If a renter or your carrier asks about ASTM F2440, the standard is explained on our materials page; we will walk you through what it covers, and we will not tell you our pads are certified to it. Ask us what we can put in writing for your file before you order.
- Stock items generally ship in 2 to 3 business days; custom printing adds proof and approval time.
- Custom printed pole pads start at $373.99; a decal applied to a pad starts at $119.99.
- Pole pads go up with volunteer labor; plywood-backed wall panels need two people and mounting hardware.
- Name who is responsible for padding in the facility use agreement before an outside league books the hall.
Can we take the pads off for a wedding or a funeral reception?
Yes. The pole pads close with full-length hook and loop, so one volunteer can pull them off a column in under a minute and stack them flat in a closet. Nothing is bolted to the post. Label each pad with the post it belongs to, because columns in the same hall are often different sizes. Wall panels are a different question; ask us about removable mounting before you order.
How do we justify this to the trustee board?
Bring a written quote, not a website screenshot. List each pad by part number and price, the columns and walls it covers, the lead time, and the fund it comes out of. Pole pads start at $254 and wall pads at $152, padding carries a 1-Year Limited Warranty, and the room stays bookable for every group on the calendar.
Does a church gym have to meet ASTM F2440?
No rule body inspects a church league the way NFHS inspects a high school program, so the pressure usually comes from an insurance carrier or from a school renting your hall. We explain what the standard covers on our materials page, and we do not claim certification to it. Tell us who is asking and we will tell you what we can document.
Can volunteers install this without a contractor?
For pole pads, yes: wrap the post, press the hook and loop closure shut, done. No anchors and no drilling. Plywood-backed wall panels weigh more and need two people plus mounting hardware, so tell us the wall construction first, because block, drywall over studs and poured concrete each take different fasteners.
Start a quote
Send us the
measurements.
Tell us the post size or the wall run, the colors you need, and whether it lives indoors or out. You will get a written quote back with a real lead time on it.
- A written lead time on every quote
- Purchase orders and W9 on request
- A proof before anything is cut