Stage Paint

[Jason M Wagner]

Can anyone give advice on techniques and products for painting our stage black? Every time we use marley, when we pull up the tape, the paint comes with it. Should we be using different paint? Right now we are using Rosco paint. Different tape? We use ProGaff gaff tape.

Thoughts?

Jason


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[BillConnerFASTC]

Sometime in the past 5-10 years, the formulation for Rosco tough prime seems to have changed. We use to specify it without any problem, then two or three projects in a row experienced tape readily pulling up the paint. We did some experiments - samples with paint and tape and steel wheeled casters and such - and ended up changing to PPG Break Through in wrought iron. It seems to perform as the tough prime use to work.

Your problem will be prep. If the bond between the existing coating and floor material fails, re-coating with break through will only result in a good bond between tough prime and break through. You could try a thorough scrubbing with a brush - perhaps a mopping machine - and make sure any oily or soapy film is cleaned off - and coating with break through. It would make sense to try one area - perhaps in a wing - and see how it performs.

 

[DeadCheerios]

You are using ProGaff for your marley? Rosco makes a vinyl tape that is meant for dance floors which would be a better choice there imo.

 

[Footer]

Is masonite coming up with it... or just the paint?

Before I came around they used to paint the stage with a cheap flat black paint. Every time we pulled our marley we would have paint issues.... so bad that masonite came up. To fix this I did 2 things, first I took watered down white glue to anywhere the masonite was coming up. A few coats was needed. Second, I started painting with this: http://www.insl-x.com/product-detail/inslx-products/tough-shield-floor-and-patio-coating

It took 2 coats to full adhere and stop the pulllup issue. I use BMI's house gaff but I don't have issues with other brands of tape. In my experience crappier paint will adhere too well to tape and will cause the pull up. A satin acrylic will give a decent surface for sticking but won't pull up when you pull the tape up. I would run a buffer on the stage with a scratching pad before you paint but otherwise you should be good to go.

 

[Jason M Wagner]

Thanks for the advice. We are a rental house, so we use gaff most of the time because that is what clients bring. I would use Harlequin's marley tape every time, because it seems to be the best tape to disappear into the marley. But, we don't want to order tape all the time and clients do not want to pay us for it if they can get it cheaper somewhere else.

Hopefully, one of these days we will slow down and be able to work on the floor. For now, re-painting over the rips will have to work.

Thanks again.

 

[viking33]

Right now I'm in a working theory of doing a layer of black, seal it, then doing another layer of layer. The tape seems to have a lot harder time breaking through the sealer to raw wood.