Recently I've taken it upon myself to lead the clean-up and renovation of a local high school's scene shop. There is an established theatre program there (and still growing), however lacking a staffed facilities manager many things have slipped through the cracks over the years. The last remaining and easily-attainable goal is fixing up the scene shop.
The space is a large rectangular room, with one wall at 45 deg. Its dimensions are 100'4" x 21'8" at its longest and 78'7" x 21'8" at its shortest. There is an overhead door on the right wall, and overhead coiling fire door/steel fire door on the left wall. The work to be done is probably best summed up with a picture. This was taken on a mezzanine that services HVAC and storage rooms above the music department. Excuse the quality.
As you can see, it's currently used for scene storage as opposed to scene construction. This becomes a problem, as construction moves to the stage, spreading dust all over the electrics and soft goods, among other things. As such, work to be done includes prioritizing needed scenic elements and moving them to an off-site storage location, repainting walls/floor, removing paint from the left wall, and outfitting the room as an actual shop.
The first few tasks are fairly sraightforward. However, removing paint from brick is quite the chore. I'm currently leaning toward a muriatic acid wash, but I don't have much experience in removing media from masonry. Also, a full dust collection system will be installed after equipment is placed. This will most likely be custom built, and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also along those lines, any input on layout of the space as a shop would be of benefit as well.
I'll continue to post updates on this project through the months of August/September. Thanks for your help, CB!
The space is a large rectangular room, with one wall at 45 deg. Its dimensions are 100'4" x 21'8" at its longest and 78'7" x 21'8" at its shortest. There is an overhead door on the right wall, and overhead coiling fire door/steel fire door on the left wall. The work to be done is probably best summed up with a picture. This was taken on a mezzanine that services HVAC and storage rooms above the music department. Excuse the quality.
As you can see, it's currently used for scene storage as opposed to scene construction. This becomes a problem, as construction moves to the stage, spreading dust all over the electrics and soft goods, among other things. As such, work to be done includes prioritizing needed scenic elements and moving them to an off-site storage location, repainting walls/floor, removing paint from the left wall, and outfitting the room as an actual shop.
The first few tasks are fairly sraightforward. However, removing paint from brick is quite the chore. I'm currently leaning toward a muriatic acid wash, but I don't have much experience in removing media from masonry. Also, a full dust collection system will be installed after equipment is placed. This will most likely be custom built, and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also along those lines, any input on layout of the space as a shop would be of benefit as well.
I'll continue to post updates on this project through the months of August/September. Thanks for your help, CB!
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