Call for Help
Shore the Floor at the Kelly Center
We need Volunteers with Expertise. We are hoping our supporters can help.

Kelly Center Supporters:

The floor inside the Kelly Center needs some love. If you have not seen it, the floor is 100 year old antique heart pine laid over the original joists. There is no sub-floor. When we uncovered the floor during renovation, we decided to restore it which took a lot of grinding and sanding. The photo below shows what it looked like as we started the restoration.

The floor had a layer of glue from vinyl tile that had been laid over top of it. It also needed to be reinforced in a few areas. After it was finished we were very happy that we found a way to keep the original floor in our old building.

So many of you have commented on the floor’s “character.” Musicians tell us the wood floor makes the room even more acoustically enjoyable. And our sound system was tuned to that wood floor.

The video below shows the floor surface after restoration was completed. It's an asset in so many ways.

After 4 years of foot traffic through the Kelly Center, a few more “soft spots” have surfaced and we need to address them with a more permanent solution.

Instead of covering or replacing the floor, we’d like to fortify the floor from below if possible. The floor joists are solid. One proposal is to cut plywood into sections that will fit between the joists underneath thereby creating a subfloor.

We are still collecting ideas and developing a plan. If you or someone you know has ideas on the best way to approach this or would like to help in any way, please send an email to me with your thoughts. [email protected]

Please share this email with anyone you think may be interested in helping. Thank you for your continued support!

Tom Kelly

[email protected]  

Chairman & Executive Director

The Kelly Center for Music Arts and Community at 4 E. Eagle Road in Havertown PA is owned and operated by Kelly Music for Life, a 501c3 non-profit pure public charity. We rely on support from the public.

For more information on the Kelly Center visit https://kellycenter.org/