IncStores 12" x 12" Practice Dance Tiles (Oak, 36-12"x12" Tiles)

We started off with a 36 pack, which was good for two people to swing dance on and we just ordered a second pack! I recommend getting 6sqft per 3 people.Setup was really easy, I put the 36 pack together in less than 10 minutes using a rubber mallet. Taking them apart was just as quick once I got the technique of how to unclip them. They are a bit on the heavy side and if you are traveling further than across the lawn you should have a dolly on hand.If you are setting up on grass or textured pavement I recommend a plastic thatch mat underneath it.

This is a great product for our little dance space in our basement. Since it was going on top of carpet, I did need to purchase plywood to go underneath as they weren’t snapping together easily otherwise. The plywood definitely made it all sturdier. (And Lowe’s cuts for you!) We had to lay heavy things on top to help the plywood settle flat but it has ended up flattening out nicely in just a few days. It came quicker than expected (a week early) and it was extremely easy to install. My only worry over time is the wood-like appearance peeling up from corners or squares but only time will tell. Overall very pleased.

TL;DR: Decent dance surface—slicker than Marley, but grippier than typical household flooring. Pretty tight seams (not snaggy and distracting like some brands'). Not suitable for high-impact jumps on hard surfaces. Easy to assemble. Will skate across smooth subsurfaces (put some rug grip strips underneath to stop it). Looks really nice once assembled. Shipping package needs some cushioning to prevent damage, especially to corner loops.----The Long Version-----I. Why I Chose These Tiles-I'm a professional ballet dancer, and I bought a pack of these for the (admittedly kinda rough-and-ready) studio space I set up for teaching and taking class via Zoom and trying to stay in shape at home during the Coronavirus pandemic.After considering several different products, I bought these because they struck a nice balance between price (most dancers aren't exactly rolling in cash) and functionality *and* were available without a long wait. I also thought the seams between the tiles looked pretty tight, especially in this finish (more on that later).-II. Shipping, Packaging, Setup, and Appearance-Shipping on these tiles was included in the price and took only about 10 days at the height of the quarantine, when everything was taking longer than usual. As usual with Amazon orders, I received notifications that kept me up to date on the progress of my tiles from warehouse to front door.The tiles came assembled in sheets of four in a big, awkward box. If I order another set, I'll definitely include a note to the delivery driver to leave them at the side door, which doesn't have any exterior stores ... I didn't think of it the first time, and she had to schlep them up the porch steps on a dolly, since that's our default drop location.If I were a more patient person, I would've opened the box where it was, unpacked it, and carried the tiles down the annoying basement stairs in manageable stacks. Instead, because I'm an impulsive idiot, I wrestled the entire bulky box of 32 tiles down the basement stairs (note: these definitely don't weigh 2.2 pounds each—my job description includes lifting adult humans, and I'm fairly strong, but wrestling 70.4 pounds of shifting tiles in a box that barely fit in my arms might've been a bit much).I do not recommend the Impulsive Idiot approach. Save yourself some trouble: grab a milk crate (you can even order one from Amazon ^-^'), slide as many tiles in as you can comfortably carry, schlep, and repeat as needed.Like some previous reviewers, I noticed when I opened the box that almost all of the little loops were broken off on one corner of the stack. (Really, I noticed this before I opened the box—I could hear the little bits rattling around in there as I attempted to avoid tripping over the cat, falling down the stairs, or otherwise meeting an ignoble end in the pursuit of my chosen artform.)The loss of a loop or two doesn't greatly impact the functionality of the tiles (though it would if an entire side lost its loops), but the breakage could easily be prevented without much additional expense by adding literally any kind of packing material—even wads of crumpled newspaper just at the corners would help. No such packing material was included in the box.I had no trouble assembling my floor.Anywhere it was a little stubborn, I just set it down and stepped on it. I enjoy assembling things, and there's something quite satisfying about feeling these tiles pop together underfoot 😁.A rubber mallet would probably also have worked, and there was literally one in the next room, but I was too excited about trying my floor to go grab it.Once assembled, the resulting floor looks quite nice. I wouldn't hesitate to use these for a teaching or performance engagement where suitable flooring wasn't provided.The tiles also stay securely attached. When I was using an anti-slip rug liner under them, it would bunch up and raise the seams, but the tiles stayed connected.-III. Seams And Surface-The seams between these tiles (at least the black ones that I bought) fit very closely.You'll notice them if one is misaligned due to an irregularity in the surface underneath, but otherwise they're smooth enough not to feel snaggy and distracting.Once these tiles are fully engaged, the seams are barely noticeable even when dancing barefoot.This was extremely important to me, as some of the other portable floors I've danced on have had seams that could be felt through flat ballet shoes. That can be problematic when doing turns or any weighted sliding movement—the seams can catch your shoes, which can lead to blisters, slips, falls, and unexpected joint torsion. It also just plain feels unpleasant. These tiles generally avoid those effects.I think the main difference, really, is that the other portable floors I've encountered have all been the faux-parquet kind with a distinct dark rim at the edge of each tile that's about a millimeter or so lower than the main faux-parquet surface.A millimeter or two may not sound like much, but when you're balancing about 160 pounds of dancer on about 2 square cm of foot (plus a couple of toes) and rotating at speed with a lot of torque, it adds up quickly.The edges of these tiles are flush with the overall surface.By design, they do have an irregular texture, but it doesn't have snaggy edges that impede turns or sliding movements. It's actually rather better in that regard than I expected, in fact.In use, these tiles are not as grippy as *most* Marley-type floors, though the friction built into vinyl dance surfaces varies, and I've encountered a handful that are comparable to these tiles.Their surface friction is, however, a solid step up from that of a typical household floor such as finished hardwood, laminate, or resilient vinyl, and vastly better than the ancient, frighteningly slick, and paper-thin linoleum tiles that mask the bare concrete in my basement.Update: As with other vinyl dance surfaces, humidity will affect the friction level. The tiles feel grippier in higher humidity, which is consistent with my overall experiences.The texture is rather nice for turns: not so slick that you either can't generate rotational force or feel like it might be hard to stop; not so grippy that you feel like you're driving with the handbrake on.For tendus, etc, the relatively-moderate friction forces you to use your technique correctly. If you don't keep your weight mostly in the balls of the feet and reach down and away, you'll quickly find yourself standing on your heels and lifting your hips. It also forces you to be honest with yourself about your current range of turnout—you can't use the friction of this floor to force it, so you have to work with what you've got and gain strength to increase your range, which is what we should all be doing anyway.The tiles' slightly uneven surface texture is useful in preventing a few drops of sweat from converging into a slip hazard. Since I sweat like a cold glass of lemonade in July, this is helpful for me. Since almost everyone sweats less than I do (thanks, genetics), your mileage may vary.The composite from which these tiles are made also goes a long way towards keeping the chill of a concrete basement subfloor out of your feet and legs, which is important (especially when you have huge calves that take forever to warm up).-IV. Impact Absorption, Or Lack Thereof-I didn't expect these tiles to have any rebound or impact-absorbing capacity, and they mostly don't. That's not what they're designed for.The honeycombed structure of the backs of the tiles does make them somewhat less harsh than bare concrete floor beneath them, but I still recommend using caution (and your best plié) if you're going to do jumps while they're installed over a concrete base with no added shock-reducing surface.Atop carpet (especially with padding) or foam puzzle mats, they might actually work pretty well for jumps, but I suspect they would pop apart if you landed on a seam in that setup That's not a design flaw—these tiles are intended to be portable and thus have to be reasonably easy to disassemble, so that's just the nature of the beast.However, if you're setting up in a carpeted room (especially one with really plush pile or padding), setting down some subfloor plywood underneath should prevent that problem.-V. 'Flying Carpet' Prevention-Although these tiles make a reasonably heavy unit once they're all clicked together, they'll still skate across smooth surfaces under some circumstances.Ballet dancers are trained to use the resistance of the floor to power our movements—kind of like friction-driven toy cars.I've managed to send my entire assembled floor sailing while doing balancés, which was startling. Usually, *you* travel, not the floor!I've also produced the same effect with a strong piqué arabesque (where you launch yourself beyond the toes of a straight leg to arrive in a balance on the ball of one foot), which was frankly alarming ... though I managed not to fall out of the arabesque balance as the floor scooted along and stopped, and went on to finish the exercise, so that was cool, I guess?Anyway, the answer, if you're using these tiles on a smooth, hard surface, is to add some anti-slip rug strips. Trying to dance at home while dodging furniture, pets, and loved ones is difficult enough without your entire floor sliding away!I originally suggested shelf/rug liners, then found these little stick-on strips that work REALLY well. Just search Amazon for "rug anti-slip" or something similar, and you can find a million options. I got 24 for around 13 dollars and only used six—two on reach front corner, plus one stuck to the center front edge of the 3rd and 5th tile (my installation is 7 tiles wide). Sadly, I didn't think to take pictures before I stuck the tiles down, and now I don't want to disturb my setup.The liners also work, but not as well, and they bunch up too easily.With the sticky grippers, my floor is well and truly not going anywhere now until I peel it up.-VI. Durability-These tiles seem pretty durable. The main tile part is quite solid, and although the assembly loops can break off, they hold up to repeated assembly and dissembly quite well.I don't know how many times I decided to rearrange the layout of my tiles before landing on the one that best met my needs, but every single tile in the set has now been clicked together and taken back apart at least three times without any apparent impact on the loops or the little pinchy bits that interface with them.This past weekend, my husband taught a class using the videoconferencing setup in my studio. I set up a table and some chairs for him and kept my concern about my precious tiles to myself, and I'm pleased to report that the tiles were not harmed in any way.It's probably a good idea to avoid scraping chairs across them and so forth, but they seem to hold up fine to gentle contact with chairs, tables, footstools, and the like.Provided that I manage not to drop them on their edges while transporting them, I expect these tiles to hold up well over time.-VII. Conclusion-These portable dance floor tiles are less expensive than most of the other options on the market, assemble and disassemble easily, and create an attractive and useful surface for dancers working (or playing!) in unusual settings. I wouldn't hesitate to add more to my set, and in fact I plan to do so quite soon.

Updating 11/22/21: I like the floor, the product itself is very good. Good enough that I ordered again...This time 20 tiles...it is actually getting what I Order that is the issue and I am extremely frustrated. The first time, I ordered 52 tiles, 10 of which were broken (see earlier review below). The Second time, I ordered 20 tiles and only received 16-had to go through entire return process to get the order corrected, which meant packing up and shipping back the 16 tiles to get the 20 I ordered. Re-delivery there were no issues. My Third (and it shall be my Last) order, once again I ordered 20 tiles and only received 16, which means-AGAIN I have to go through the entire return process to send back the 16 and Hopefully actually get the 20 I ordered. Once is a mistake...twice...something is wrong and it needs to be addressed in the shipping department. Again, the product-nice floor I would give it 4 stars. Ordering them through Amazon...Zero stars.Ordered a set of 52 Squares. The floor itself is great for what I want it for-dance practice. Looks nice, low profile etc. As far as putting it together, I couldn't press the pieces together with my hands, too difficult-but found that by putting them down on a hard surface and gently kneeling on the seams they snapped together nicely and fairly easily. My -only- issue is that of the 52 squares sent, 10 of them had a broken loop in one corner straight out of the box. These were all from the same corner of the package they came in so I think either the package was dropped or knocked on one corner and there was -no- padding to protect the loops inside the box. As they were packaged and shipped by Amazon, the only way to get a replacement for the broken parts was to ship the entire box of 52 back again and hope that the replacement set would not suffer the same fate. Amazon assured me that the replacement set would arrive safely- I have to wonder, if it can be assured for the replacement set, why was it not assured for the initial set? As the pieces still functioned ( snapped together) with one loop being broken I have opted to just keep the initial set, because to rebox them all, and lift and carry them, and to drive them to the shipping center ( not near me) seemed more trouble than it was worth. (that's my choice). I wish there was more care in packaging as the plastic loops are fragile and I wish there was a way to just replace the broken tiles, without having to ship back the entire set. I also wish there was a way to easily contact the manufacturer to let them know about the issue. I could not find any contact information for them. Overall-Nice floor (4 stars). Disappointing that 1/5 of them came broken (Hence the 3 stars).

I purchased 9 tiles to form a tap practice floor for a 3 year old. It is thin, but should be good for my purpose. When it arrived the box was in horrible shape and some of the tiles have places where the surface is lifting on the sides or chipped off. It still makes a nice size practice surface and I imagine tap shoes will continue to beat it up a bit, so I will not be sending it back. The tiles were easy to put together and the whole piece slides under the couch to store.

We purchased the 28 pack to use for my 10 year old tap dancer. Was easy to assemble, even on my basement carpet. Works great for our purposes.