Need a stage floor I can screw into.

Stuart R

Member
Hello all –

My head is spinning from reading about 15 years of stage floor threads, and I still haven’t found the answer to my question. Here’s the scoop:
  1. Our current stage floor is old peeling linoleum-style tile over concrete – could be quite old.
  2. I want a floor we can screw into, which currently isn't possible due to the concrete base.
  3. At the same time I don’t want to go crazy thick because of the resulting transitions to existing surfaces.
  4. Very little legitimate dance happens on the stage, so it doesn’t need to be fully sprung.
  5. It would be nice to have a system where it’s not a big deal to remove and replace a section.
Anyone have any thoughts?
 
Hi Bill -

I see that Plyron comes in regular sheets or in tongue and groove. For various reasons it might be better to have a floating floor rather than screwing it down. Do you think I could do that using the T&G, leaving a penny or nickel sized gap between panels? What would the 1 x 4 sleeper underlayment pattern be? Should they be under the joints?

Two more things I'm wondering about:

What treatment would you advise for the edge that runs along the apron? (we actually have a thrust stage)

I'm also trying to convince our usual director not to paint the deck for each show, but rather to use a ground cloth instead. I'm trying to picture how to rig the ground cloth on the deck surface. Maybe insert a series of permanent stage screw plugs around the edges of the stage, outfit the groundcloth with small grommets, and stretch/screw though those into the stage plugs? Or would double-sided carpet tape be enough? And could it be painted right there on the deck if there was plastic sheeting underneath to prevent paint bleed? As the paint dries it could potentially "size" the canvas, making ti stretch tighter, I suppose.
 
I think I would not use t&g, just sq edge. Also, I encourage you to be skeptical about availability of the variations.

I would lay the 1x4 perpendicular to the 8' dimension, and definitely under end joints. Common bond or running bond pattern is always the question. I would put a joint dead on centerline.

In grad school, for Take Rep Theatre, we indeed used ground cloths, using 5/16 knife thread inserts around the perimeter, and a 1/2 or 3/4" flat head machine screw. Put in inserts, stretched painted cloth, and poked holes in each grommet to mark grommet locations. We were in rep then so it was used a lot, and sometimes multiple cloths. I think a cloth would go three shows.

Edges are tricky, I like a simple square edge. I'd probably use poplar - maybe x4 or x6 - counterbore, screw, and plug. But I might just let plyron run over and add a thin edge banding.

As you can see by posts here, stage floors are tough.
 

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