How does the wooden flooring on bowling lanes stay flat with thousands of bowling ball impacts per day?
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I used to work at a bowling alley years ago. These days bowling lanes are usually made of some kind of synthetic material instead of wood but the place I worked at had real wood. The wood is thick and very hard and has a protective coating on top. But the area in front of the foul line definitely gets dinged up some from the bowling balls dropping, just not so badly that it affects the bowler’s aim to any great degree.
Past the first few feet the ball will be rolling so will cause no damage and little wear (the lanes have an “oil” coating that is applied every day to reduce friction). Every 10 years or so the lanes will be refinished by sanding them down and re-applying the protective coating. I believe there is also a means of raising the lane slightly from underneath so the surface remains level with the gutters after sanding. Or possibly it is the gutters that are adjusted, I really don’t remember how that was done.
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