Stuart R
Member
Hello all - I can see there a lot of posts and answers re stage flooring, but I didn't see a situation that quite replicates mine, so here I go.
Our stage floor seems to be a concrete slab (with a truly scary crawl space underneath) with simple (slightly speckled) black linoleum-type tiles on top. Issues: terrible on the knees, tiles starting to come up, and can't screw into it.
The obvious solution would be to lay a new floor on top -- perhaps 1 x sleepers, plywood, and hardboard, maybe with some felt thrown in for good measure? Since there is concrete under the tiles, any new floor we apply will raise the height of the stage floor, which is an issue at the borders between the stage proper and the rest of the backstage area. The wings are accessed on each side by a 3' wide opening connected to a 3' square top landing of a five step stair. If the new stage floor is 1.75" higher, I'm not sure how to transition down to the stair landing (no room for a ramp, and clearly having the steps at different heights is a no go).
Then, on the downstage side, there is *another* issue. We use an officially "temporary" (hasn't budged in almost ten years) stage extension made of 3' x 8' Wenger stage platforms on aluminum legs. Each of the platforms has some kind of super-hard surface and visible coffin-lock type fixtures at each corner. It's not peeling like the vinyl, but it's not looking great, can't be screwed into, and isn't particularly paintable. The whole contraption is clamped to the existing stage floor (underneath) at intervals along the original edge of the apron. Obviously, if we raise the actual stage floor, we'll need to do something about the stage extension too. One possibility would be to raise the platform by putting blocks under the feet so the whole thing rises to meet the new stage height. Kind of a pain to detach it I think, but it probably could be done.
Then I was thinking, what if we simply continue our new stage floor right over the apron line and cover the extension in the same stuff? One continuous surface now instead of 3' x 8' modules. My worry is that the fire inspector, who has been cajoled into allowing the extension because it is theoretically temporary, will simply say "You're joking, right?" Maybe if we keep a seam in the same place? We could build 3' x 8' x 1.75" units (kind of like the stress-skin panels some people use to build platforms) that correspond with the staging platforms underneath and then coffin lock *those* together as they sit on top of the Wenger stage, but that would cost a ton of money. What a mess.
I started having this conversation with a colleague, and was more than anything bemoaning not being able to paint the stage floor for shows (besides the surface not being right for it, the space is used for other events) and she asked, "Hmmm - do people still do ground cloths?" as in painted canvas floor coverings that are (somehow) stretched over the stage floor. We could even paint this offsite and install it during tech and then take it with us after strike. But how do you keep it from slipping?
Our stage floor seems to be a concrete slab (with a truly scary crawl space underneath) with simple (slightly speckled) black linoleum-type tiles on top. Issues: terrible on the knees, tiles starting to come up, and can't screw into it.
The obvious solution would be to lay a new floor on top -- perhaps 1 x sleepers, plywood, and hardboard, maybe with some felt thrown in for good measure? Since there is concrete under the tiles, any new floor we apply will raise the height of the stage floor, which is an issue at the borders between the stage proper and the rest of the backstage area. The wings are accessed on each side by a 3' wide opening connected to a 3' square top landing of a five step stair. If the new stage floor is 1.75" higher, I'm not sure how to transition down to the stair landing (no room for a ramp, and clearly having the steps at different heights is a no go).
Then, on the downstage side, there is *another* issue. We use an officially "temporary" (hasn't budged in almost ten years) stage extension made of 3' x 8' Wenger stage platforms on aluminum legs. Each of the platforms has some kind of super-hard surface and visible coffin-lock type fixtures at each corner. It's not peeling like the vinyl, but it's not looking great, can't be screwed into, and isn't particularly paintable. The whole contraption is clamped to the existing stage floor (underneath) at intervals along the original edge of the apron. Obviously, if we raise the actual stage floor, we'll need to do something about the stage extension too. One possibility would be to raise the platform by putting blocks under the feet so the whole thing rises to meet the new stage height. Kind of a pain to detach it I think, but it probably could be done.
Then I was thinking, what if we simply continue our new stage floor right over the apron line and cover the extension in the same stuff? One continuous surface now instead of 3' x 8' modules. My worry is that the fire inspector, who has been cajoled into allowing the extension because it is theoretically temporary, will simply say "You're joking, right?" Maybe if we keep a seam in the same place? We could build 3' x 8' x 1.75" units (kind of like the stress-skin panels some people use to build platforms) that correspond with the staging platforms underneath and then coffin lock *those* together as they sit on top of the Wenger stage, but that would cost a ton of money. What a mess.
I started having this conversation with a colleague, and was more than anything bemoaning not being able to paint the stage floor for shows (besides the surface not being right for it, the space is used for other events) and she asked, "Hmmm - do people still do ground cloths?" as in painted canvas floor coverings that are (somehow) stretched over the stage floor. We could even paint this offsite and install it during tech and then take it with us after strike. But how do you keep it from slipping?
