John Lively, Owner and President of Atlantic Sport Floors, began learning the business as a teen.

Atlantic Sport Floors provides services including installation, repair, sanding and refinishing, logo design and installation, and annual maintenance to customers, including Nyack Public Schools in Nyack, NY.


Before you can excel at basketball—or any sport—you must master the fundamentals and have a firm grasp on the rules. The same is true to become an industry leader. It’s also the philosophy John Lively adopted to guide Atlantic Sport Floors to the top of its game as an athletic flooring leader in the Northeast.

As the company’s Owner and President, Lively says his team has built a niche. “We stand out from our competition because we’re specialized. We know sport floors in a way that big flooring companies don’t,” Lively says. “Big companies we go up against don’t have our expertise in sport flooring.”

For Lively, getting into sport flooring was a matter of being at the right place at the right time—but it’s dogged determination and a commitment to exceeding customer expectations that helped him stand out from competitors and build a thriving business.

Lively was first introduced to sport flooring repair and installation by chance as a teen.

“I was 15 years old and playing football with some friends behind a middle school one summer day. One of my friends had a job at that school sanding classroom floors. He said his boss was looking for help and he asked me if I wanted to work with him,” Lively says. “So that summer, I began learning the business. It just so happened that that company specialized in gym floors. I learned from the bottom up, scraping corners, edging and emptying dust bags, learning from more experienced men.”

Lively spent the next five summers working on gym floors, while at the same time, he was pursuing a goal of working in the National Hockey League (NHL) training program and trying to get signed as a full-time referee.

“When that dream ended, I realized there was a need for a quality gym flooring contractor in my region and decided to start Atlantic Sport Floors using my knowledge, experience and a successful track record of installing, sanding and maintaining sport floors,” Lively says.

Full-Service Flooring

Nearly two decades later, the company continues to build on its reputation, offering an array of sport flooring services: installation, repair, sanding and refinishing, logo design and installation, annual maintenance and more.

Lively leads the family-run company and its 15 employees. Based in Valley Cottage, New York, the firm serves customers in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut and sometimes beyond. The majority of its contracts are for basketball courts and commercial hardwood flooring for public schools and athletic facility clients. The company is a certified installer for Aacer Sports Flooring, a supplier of hardwood flooring and sub-floor systems to the sports and recreation industry.

Atlantic Sport Floors recently has been working to get the flooring precise and perfect for a private New Jersey sports venue, the Peak Sports Academy. It is a state-of-the-art sports complex in Mountainside, New Jersey, that offers Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) youth travel basketball and weekend clinics and camps.

“The job has required steady communication and precision,” Lively says. “It’s taken lots of back-and-forth, even before we started, to make sure we had things exactly right and to make sure the customer is getting a floor that will perform correctly and meet all their needs,” Lively says of the 30,000-square-foot complex that features four courts.

Planning and precision allowed Lively and his crew to deliver results for the sports academy despite unexpected challenges from the pandemic. Peak’s owner was behind schedule because of pandemic-related shutdowns and delays, but Atlantic Sport Floors came through as promised.

“The owner was particularly pleased and appreciative because we were able to deliver the project as expected and on time,” Lively says. “We were the only company for that project that did what we said we would do, when we said we would do it.”

Though Lively stepped into this specialty by accident, his focus on providing top quality and service has been anything but. He makes it a point to be involved, in a hands-on way, on every project to ensure that it runs smoothly, meets expectations and allows easy access and communication between the owner and project manager.

“We want to make sure that people like not only our work, but also our customer service,” Lively says. “We’re always on time, meet our deadlines, act professionally, and if there’s a problem, we’re there to fix it.”

Matter of Relationships

Establishing and maintaining relationships is key to Atlantic Sport Floors’ success. “We want to build on top of what we’ve worked for, focusing on word-of-mouth and return business,” Lively says.

Completing multiple projects for satisfied customers, including schools, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball venues, fitness and recreational centers, dance academies, community theatres and aerobics facilities, is a point of pride for Lively and the Atlantic Sport Floors team.

Lively credits success to his team, which he says executes seamless installations that result in attractive, high-functioning floors. Every factor and detail is given equal weight through the process, from leveling and load-bearing to traction and aesthetic appeal, he says.

“Our pre-installation process is a fundamental part of what we do,” Lively adds. “You’re not just getting materials in there and slapping them down; you must get it exactly right in order to deliver a floor that functions precisely as it should.”

Courts and athletic flooring from Atlantic Sport are built and designed for superior performance, longevity and resilience to the wear and tear that comes with daily recreational activity. Lively says his team, which includes employees who specialize in sanding, maintenance and lines and logos, ensures that flooring works as good as it looks.

The process also entails keeping clients’ environments safe, opting for low-toxicity finishes and dust containment systems to keep airborne particles out of the recreational space.

Forward-Thinking

Cutting-edge innovation and premium quality are the foundations of Atlantic Sport Floors’ work. Historically, the company has specialized in wood flooring; however, in recent years, it has been exploring and installing new resilient athletic flooring options.

“New concepts for synthetic floors are introduced into the market all the time, and being a full-service athletic flooring provider, we have been moving in this direction to provide our clients with a full array of options,” Lively says, touching on the company’s core value of adopting technological advancements and thinking ahead.

But new fabrications and techniques aren’t enough; attention to detail, decades’ worth of experience and a commitment to doing things right every step of the way have been crucial to landing business and repeat customers, Lively says.

“The hands-on attention to each project makes a big difference,” Lively explains. “We make sure we are accessible at all times and will often provide suggestions or alternative options to ensure the best possible flooring solution for our clients. Being on time to a job and getting it done in a safe, clean, professional, timely manner are key.”

While those things have also been priorities, they matter even more now, as the construction industry and the economy overall fluctuate in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The price of material has skyrocketed because lumber mills haven’t been running at full capacity, Lively says, adding that he expects that to result in potential clients holding off on planned projects.

He’s expecting the next six to 12 months to be uncharted territory because of a shortage of plywood, the rising price of materials, lower budgets and a reduction in school funding. But, he’s confident that his team’s quality craftsmanship and commitment to customers will keep Atlantic Sport Floors in the game.

“We have to stay aggressive in finding work,” he says, “and we will stay focused and committed to doing what we’ve always done—be exceptional.”