lauan isn't green? Say it aint so.

[Dreadpoet]

Obviously with the growth of concern toward going "green", questions about building methods have come up. Lauan comes up as a green no-no because of the massive harvest/burning of rainforests...yet I love it for hard flats. What do you use as a comparable solution that can be more green friendly than lauan?

 

[Footer]

Heres the thing about luan... more then half the of product is left over product that is glued together. Only the top and bottom vanier layers are 1st run product. Yes, luan does come from Asian forests. However, there is no alternative that is more echo friendly in the theatre. You could what people in the mid 90's did after Andrew and start building flats out of 1" foam. You could also use muslin. Foam is an oil product so that takes that out. Muslin does not last as long and also requires a lot of manufacturing and harsh chemicals to make it what it is. Any way you cut it, your not going to be green. I would stick with luan because it does have the smallest footprint for what you get. Luan is not the primary product coming off those trees, its a secondary. You would be amazed how many sheets can come off one tree.

Bottom line, theatre is not green. One theatre can use enough electricity over a year to light 10 average sized homes. It uses enough fuel for heating to heat those same homes.

If you want to be green in a theatre, look at building things once, build them right, and re-use them often. Turn the heat down when your not in the space. Get worklights that do not involve 16 500w scoops. As far as I am concerned, I am green if I am not filling up landfills with crap.

Now, where did I place those baby seal flats.....

 

[MNicolai]

I've seen cardboard used before to cover flats, but it looks a little shoddy when it's painted and creates serious fire hazards. Polystyrene is even worse because if that goes up in smoke, it'll black an entire room out with toxic fumes.

Lauan is actually a fairly happy medium, all things considered.

 

[gafftaper]

They would be mighty heavy but you could use masonite, 1/4" A/C plywood (expensive), or floor underlayment. You could research the various other types of paneling to see if there is one that doesn't come from a Rain forest (it's going to be expensive and might not exist). None of these options are very good, most might have to be covered with muslin.

I have to agree with Footer, Theater is not green. Everything we do consumes resources. Your best bet is to reuse and recycle as much as possible. I like to build flats from luan covered with muslin. They are strong and last forever. If the surface starts to get ugly, pull off the muslin and recover. Have to cut a window in the flat, no problem you can patch over it with muslin and reuse it in the next show.

 

[kicknargel]

While it's true that much of what we do in theatre isn't "green," it makes sense to me to do as much as possible to reduce our footprint. In my opinion, based on some research I've done, lauan is bad news. The Philippines and Thailand have been 85% deforested, and now we are working our way through Malaysia and Indonesia.

http://www.rainforestrelief.org/documents/Why_Not_to_Buy_Lauan.Ill.pdf
http://www.rainforestrelief.org/Campaigns/Safe_Sets_.html


A couple years ago I switched to 1/4" veneer-core birch ply. It is functionally identical to lauan--it's just that the thin veneer layer is birch (a temperate fast-growth wood) rather than mahogany (a slow-growth rainforest wood). It costs me a couple extra dollars per sheet, but I sleep better at night. Rainforest depletion contributes greatly to global climate change, reduces biological diversity and can be tragic for indigenous populations.

When I'm ready for my next order, I plan to experiment with MDO or HDO. The have a core similar to plywood with a thin veneer of MDF or HDF, respectively. As strong and light as 1/4 ply with the clean surface of MDF--sounds pretty ideal.

Here's some info about MDO and HDO:
A Discussion about MDO and HDO Plywood

 

[Dreadpoet]

I'm regionally located in the percise center of absolutely nowhere...many of these materials may not be available...but I will check around. I use around 30 sheets of lauan a year. I would, and do, reuse some but I work in an educational institution and students need to build new flats...not just rely on what alumni have created. So, I would like to insure that I am being as green as feasible. I've seen meso flats...they suck. very crumbley around the edges.

 

[Van]

For what it does there really is no major alternative for Luan. The best thing is to remember that the trees that Luan comes from are mostly "trash" and woud be simply burned or left to rot. I agree that Theater is not a "green" industry but that is changing. One of my former Master Carps worte his Masters thesis on Greening the Theater and it's brilliant. I'll dig around and see if I can't come up with a couple of addresses that he reccomoended to me over the years. I really look forward to the time when LED lighting is the standard, and all scenic materials are re-cyclable it's not too far off.....

 

[kicknargel]

The best thing is to remember that the trees that Luan comes from are mostly "trash" and woud be simply burned or left to rot.

Van, do you have a source on this? It is counter to my research on the subject.

 

[Edrick]

Pretty sure they stopped making "Luan" and it's actually been replaced by an alliterative method. Since over the years so much of it has been used it is no longer luan. That's what we've been told.

 

[Kelite]

If you want to be green in a theatre, look at building things once, build them right, and re-use them often. Turn the heat down when your not in the space. Get worklights that do not involve 16 500w scoops. As far as I am concerned, I am green if I am not filling up landfills with crap.

Can't argue with you on this Footer, and as a later posting stated- as LED fixtures become more powerful/versatile and less costly, we'll see some noticeable energy savings take place.

 

[ship]

LED fixtures are getting far in the industry, on the other hand lumber wise often at least for me I no longer buy it as much. 1/4" BC lumber while more grainy in literal plywood for making for the fine grain of Luan would on the other hand be stronger and last longer.

In general for the theater if one recycles sets I would think Greening up the industry don't qualify persay any more than buying say pallet lumber for your sets in that it's cheap and already paid for persay. Traditional theaters recycle their sets thus with a few uses before such luan is turned into corner blocks, I don't think it harms the rain forest over that of the housing industry for end user use. Still there is BC plywood and where grain might be an issue single sided MDO in 1/4" which is great but expensive. Would paint really well. Poplar is also useful - not sure what in plywood is easiest in re-growing.

Still though in plywood, I'm thinking that if a theater is doint its job, it is green in recycling and not throwing out what is used after the show.

Luan Mahaugany lumber, thought it came from the rain forests of South America. Never a fan of it but luan given its tight grain and early cheap price was useful. These days Luan isn't cheap I think.

 

[Footer]

Luan Mahaugany lumber, thought it came from the rain forests of South America. Never a fan of it but luan given its tight grain and early cheap price was useful. These days Luan isn't cheap I think.

I paid 14.99 per sheet on my last lumber order. I know that is high but the place has really cheap and good stick lumber so it evens outs over lowes.

 

[dramatech]

We use 1/8" Luan for skinning flats. We buy it from suppliers that sell to mobile home builders, of which there are many in our area. We purchase 50 sheets at a time, and pay approx. 9 to 10 a sheet.

 

[gafftaper]

build[/autolink] new flats...not just rely on what alumni have created.

Have to disagree with you on that point Poet. Students need to learn carpentry skills in general. Building an actual flat really isn't all that important if they have the skills. Save the money you are wasting on replacing flats and have students build other things. Most shows require the construction of some oddly shaped flat, so have students work together on those so they all get their hands on a flat. But other than that reuse your flats and spend your limited budget on other things.

 

[Pixie]

Have to disagree with you on that point Poet. Students need to learn carpentry skills in general. Building an actual flat really isn't all that important if they have the skills. Save the money you are wasting on replacing flats and have students build other things. Most shows require the construction of some oddly shaped flat, so have students work together on those so they all get their hands on a flat. But other than that reuse your flats and spend your limited budget on other things.

I'm in college now and I build/paint all the sets and help with our stage craft class. Our budget is basically NON-EXISTENT. What we do is reuse everything. can't remember the last time we built a flat from scratch and honestly no student has been affected by it. We have prebuilt platforms that we leg up, and the face out in lauan, they learn that way, router skills, basic carp. If we need a platform we don't already have then they get to build that. (Like the 11 X 8 one we need this show)

Can honestly say everyone that leaves that class I'd trust to at least aide in building a set. May need a little guidance here and there, but when you only have one basic stage craft class, you can't teach them everything in that amount of time (one semester)

 

[SweetBennyFenton]

My students have been pushing me to be more green with the sets we build. We keep any flats that I can store and might be useful in the future. We only build new flats from scratch if we are building odd shaped ones.

We've also just got a good wood recycling program going so that during construction or strike, I can recycle about 80% of the wood we are using, even composites and painted plywood.

I've known people to use 1/4" MDF instead of Luan because it paints just as well, but the extra weight and flex makes me crazy. I have used birch Luan before as well, but until the price drops a little bit, I won't be able to replace all my mahogany with birch.

 

[josh88]

Thats the same way we run in our school's theatre. we put on 7-8 shows a year and we've got the usual stock platforms and flats that we just re-leg for each show. I'm one of the regular employees there and I think I've built maybe 4 or 5 oddly shaped flats and a few flats. We reuse what we can, but most of our facing gets trashed each show since its small shapes. Though we have a scene shop full of poor college students who know how to scrounge and most of our trash that is still usable goes home with one of us to make something else in our spare time. We have blown through our usual luan usage lately though since we've been paneling a boat with it. So being on the side of not building new every time, my skills haven't suffered and if we need to build new we have a temporary staff of low level students (intro and 100 level classes) that get to do most of that so they learn the basic of basics before we never see them again.

 

[JBrennan]

SweetBenny, can you talk a little more about what lumber recycling programs you have going? I've been doing some research to start one at the college I work at in northern Illinois, but its been slow going. Thanks.