Floor cover for wood stage.

Hi all,

I work in a University concert hall/theater (the same one with the 1971 HUB electrics). We have a finished hardwood deck on stage. This is fine for concerts and such, but really takes a beating when we do operas or musicals. The music faculty are getting frustrated that the floor is in getting damaged, and are putting pressure on me to police it more. Problem is I have my hands full cajoling the decrepit lighting and sound systems to work.

I was thinking of putting down some sort of false floor. My thought would be 1/4 in plywood painted black, with the added benifit of being better lighting wise. I am stuck as how to attach this to the current deck without screws.

Anyone have any ways to make this work, or better suggestions.


Ps. MODS, feel free to move this post to a better place.

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I would suggest 1/4" masonite or MDF. If you can get away with a few screws around the perimeter, you will likely find that you may not need screws throughout. Another (more expensive) option would be to do a layer of 3/4" ply topped with 1/8" masonite, offset by a couple of inches. That way, you could screw your show deck together while still allowing it to float free of the stage deck.

Would the masonite be removeable?

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If you can't put screws in snd have restore to strip wood often, think something like a dance floor - roll put, tape, integrally black.

BillConnerASTC said:

If you can't put screws in snd have restore to strip wood often, think something like a dance floor - roll put, tape, integrally black.

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If the hardwood is taking a beating a marley will get destroyed. Casters+marley doesn't work well.

The one place I worked that we used to do this did 3/4" OSB runnning US/DS. We then screwed 1/4" maso into that running SL/SR. Took a day to lay and about 30 people to lay it. You have to cut around door and deal with the 1" jump to the deck.

Cheaper option is to lay 1/4" maso and tape it to the deck. You will want to tape each upstage edge to the desk then cap it with more tape. Paint all sides of the floor and you have a hope of re-using it.

Well, if you have 30 man-days every time it goes in or out and budget to replace pieces, by all means lay a solid multi layer floor. Just never occurred to me you had that much labor - or even a third of it - at your fingertips. And how fortunate you have all that storage space as well.

What is giving the floor a beating? I assumed paint and feet. If casters, get the soft blue ones - they should work acceptably on linoleum or vinyl. Look at some of the harder wearing surfaces from Rosco and Harlequin designed for theatre as well as dance use, not the usual lowest cost lighter weight pvc only products. You could probably get a sample and try to beat it up in a wing or one corner of the stage.

PS - before a lot of tape to floor, try some of it where it can't be seen - rub down real well with a caster or feet or whatever - and see if it pulls the finish off the strip wood floor. That won't improve your popularity with music folk much.

BillConnerASTC said:

PS - before a lot of tape to floor, try some of it where it can't be seen - rub down real well with a caster or feet or whatever - and see if it pulls the finish off the strip wood floor. That won't improve your popularity with music folk much.

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And let it sit for a week or three before you pull it up. In my experience the longer the tape is down, the more likely it is to pull up the finish.

JChenault said:

And let it sit for a week or three before you pull it up. In my experience the longer the tape is down, the more likely it is to pull up the finish.

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I've seen gaff take of chunk of flooring as well. There is really no good solution for this if damaging or screwing into the floor is not an option short of the OSB and maso method.

With that time thing though, that 30 guys @ 8 hours was for a 65' wide, 50' deep stage plus wings.

How about somthing like this. I Looked at portable floors, but we don't have the $5500 for that.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ram-Boar...l-RB-38x50/202823781?quantity=10&str_nbr=6925

Ramboard is a heavy-duty paper product. It's fine for preventing paint from getting on the floor and minor scuffs, but heavy traffic with casters will probably still make a mess of it not to mention be a pain to work with. Not ideal, but may be one of your lower-cost options.

A roadhouse nearby has a hardwood floor (oak?). They gave up on conventional finishes several years ago and had a guy come in and sand down to the wood. Then they applied a ceramic-based commercial-grade finish. I think it was technically an epoxy, but that's the most rugged stage floor I've ever seen. The ceramic filler makes it so you can buff a penny by rubbing it on the floor. TD's been retired there for a year or so but I can give him a buzz if you want me to find out what they used. I know they had to hire in a special commercial painter to apply it because it's not your typical floor coating product.

Not an inexpensive solution, but it is a permanent one at least to the tune of 15+ years.

Consider a canvas ground cloth? Yale used grommets around the edge with knife thread inserts and flat head machine bolts.