Two tier curtain connections?

[FatherMurphy]

A local hotel ballroom sort of venue is asking for some 20' tall masking curtains to run along walkalong tracks (easy enough), but they want the panels split horizontally about 7'-6" above the floor, so that they can make doorways as needed. They're fine with the fact that nothing will hide the upper hem, but I'm looking for suggestions on how to attach the lower sections to the uppers. I'm suspecting that velcro will make the hems too stiff, zippers might burst open and be hard to fix, and hook-and-loop ideas might be too-time consuming to attach or would make point loads on the upper drapes and make the fullness hang funny.

Any ideas?

[derekleffew]

Snaps. Look at the dress kit for a fast-fold screen. They'll also need vertical splits every 5' or so for the width, so essentially a series of removable 5'W x 7'-6"H panels all the way across the bottom.

[MPowers]

Do they want to match up to existing doors in air walls or the side walls or be able to create doors anywhere, any time?

My first thought would be two parallel tracks, about 6" - 8" apart, depending on fabric and fullness. The front track has a number of 20' panels, enough to cover the space with no breaks, perhaps one additional, each panel about 10' to 15' wide depending on the probable number of "doors" and the desired min/max spaces between them. The rear track has a series of 12' - 13' tall panels each about 8' - 10' wide. For a door opening split the front panels and pull the rear panels behind the opening. The curtains above the opening and the rest will all reach all the way up and the look will be much better than the horizontal split. This will save a lot of $$ in the sewing labor, you will double your track cost, I haven't done a complete cost comparison as you haven't revealed the total front curtain width, the number and width of possible "doors", etc.

[tprewitt]

I think Michael is onto it if there are a limited number of possible doorways. Depending on the size of the room, I might use a track switch and a short storage track rather than 2 full tracks, however. The track switch will allow you to rearrange the order of the short and long panels. Pros: not too expensive, best finished look. Cons: track switches can be a pain to operate, you potentially increase the amount of soft goods required.

Idea #2: Make the panels in 2 sections as you suggest. On the back side of the top sections, stitch a piece of narrow webbing with a zipper into the top edge of the bottom hem. (This will put the zipper on the back side apx 6" above the bottom of the curtain with no additional stitch line showing on the face.) The bottom panels get the other side of the zipper stitched to the top of the jute. Using a beefy, say #10, plastic zipper it will be both flexible and durable and big enough chubby handed techs like myself can operate them.

The top of the lower panel will be hidden behind the bottom hem of the upper panel so I think it will look finished. I'd only do this with a good synthetic fabric. The curtains are going to take a fair amount of abuse zipping & unzipping and the extra strength of the synthetic as well as clean-ability will be important.

Either method you'll probably have to use #1 woods (clothes pins) to hold all the panels together so there aren't gaps between them as the carriers won't allow the curtains to overlap - in fact there will be about 1/2" - 1" gap depending on the carrier used.

[MPowers]

Ty,

I like your front to back method of stacking to conceal the join line if the two tier is the chosen method.

One thing that occurred to me after the last post is that the double track method handles any storage and handling issues, i.e. no need to fold and store the lower sections not being used.

[tprewitt]

I think your parallel tracks solution is the cleanest for sure. Definitely the fastest to setup, which could be important if it's a busy hall using expensive labor. Excess short panels are hidden, but provide a little extra sound dampening. I like it.

Mine's definitely a VE answer in both cases. If it's a busy hall it won't be worth the savings even if they need to do a full perimeter of both short and full length drapes. I think I'd go to a cheaper fabric if cost became an issue before I made track switches or zippers part of the daily routine.

If it's a slow room with only a few change overs a month, maybe zippers or switches aren't so bad. Hard to tell without a full picture of the project.

However, once I started thinking about it, I do kinda want to build some curtains with zippers. Might be like those 80's parachute pants that the legs unzipped to become shorts. :-\

[FatherMurphy]

Derek's comment about splitting the lower panels was a good one, and I have added that to the proposal to the customer.

Setting is essentially a hotel ballroom, they have one entertainment manager (a suit carrying a screwdriver) on staff, rest of the work is either outside vendors or random catering/maintenance staff, so things need to be fairly bullet-proof. The curtains will close off the two corners of the room on the stage end at 45 degree angles to create 'backstage' storage, and to black out the architecture behind two permanent i-mag screens. The tracks have to curve to get behind a dead-hung curtain upstage for storage, and will both go straight to meet the sidewall at an angle on the offstage ends, or switch and curve to duck behind the standard front main speaker locations, meeting the side walls square for that option. Both sides will run about 45' overall, and door location is variable.

The use of a switch in the project already pretty much precludes the dual track idea, even if money for double track was available. ADC Rig-i-flex switches are pricey but doable, but unfortunately Patriarc switches list for just under $2,300 each (I called my rep at the factory, and no, that's not a misprint)! Thankfully, we won't be needing the load capacity of the Patriarc track on this project. Although I agree that the dual track would yield the cleanest look, I don't think that's a direction the project can head. As for using additional switches to swap goods around, there just isn't room for anything like that, it's all in view.

I was hoping someone knew of a magic fastener that would be fast, easy, and as flexible as plain fabric (zip-lockbag seals for fabric?), but it sounds like velcro is going to be the first option to try.

Thanks for chiming in.

[MPowers]

Father Murphy,

Just for information, I was not thinking of any switches. Just two tracks. Track one, all the full length goods. Track two all the half height goods. When you need an opening, pull the half height goods behind the opening with 18" 24" over lap at each side. The tracks would be spaced close enough that the fullness fills the front to back gap. Yes, the header would be 6" to 8" behind the full length goods, but with no light leak or space gap. Just Thinkin'.

[Footer]

Father Murphy,

Just for information, I was not thinking of any switches. Just two tracks. Track one, all the full length goods. Track two all the half height goods. When you need an opening, pull the half height goods behind the opening with 18" 24" over lap at each side. The tracks would be spaced close enough that the fullness fills the front to back gap. Yes, the header would be 6" to 8" behind the full length goods, but with no light leak or space gap. Just Thinkin'.

From a users point of view this by far is the way to go. I know what my guys would say if I stuck them on a 10' ladder every other day swapping around goods. Pretty soon, we would just stop swapping goods. Having to climb a ladder, line up a zipper/velcro/snaps/hooks while holding the good would become a real pain... and somewhat dangerous. I think it would even drive the pipe and drape guys downstairs up a tree to have to do daily. The double track will be more expensive on the install side. However, I think the labor savings on just the goods manufacture will pay off. Added to that, I bet you can earn back any additional costs in a few calls.