Theatre Stage Floor Covering

cycad

We have a douglas fir floor on our theatre stage. The dept. head wants it covered with masonite and painted black. I'll get outside contractors to do it but would a flooring underlayment be better? Like Halex or a similiar brand? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Bud Cline

For what it's worth......

I have been involved in a few theatre stage floors in years past and they were always topped-out with a plywood underlayment product that had an "A" side. If this is a performance type stage that will see many chnages in scenery and the like then it will see a lot of paint and spills over time also.

The masonite is too hard and any fasteners used to install it will have the heads standing proud of the surface and will be seen by the audience. After painting, the fastener heads will also reflect light sources differently from the surface and stage-lighting will only intensify the problem.

That's my two cents anyway.

Mike Costello

I think he should get the thespian grade plywood.

ron schenker

C'mon now Mike, try to keep it clean. This is a family oriented forum

Mike Costello

I dont have a lithsp

Bud Cline

Yow but thespian-grade plywood is usually only available in San Francisco and it is................


WHOOPS! Nevermind, I was thinking of something else.

Carry-on.

PrecisionFloors

You guys are a riot lmao! cycad, Halex would work fine, use 7/8" staples, 2" apart on perimeter, 3" in the field.

adams,b

We put a 2 1/4" pine floor on a stage floor, it was aerobic, and sanded it down and screened it as if we were going to put finish on and they painted it flat black.....So my question is, how come you can't go in there and sand it down and paint it?

Donedat

I second Adam's idea. Though if they really wanted a plywood surface I certainly wouldn't staple it. Couldn't you screw it with flush screws a paint the whole thing with flat black?

PrecisionFloors

Halex is a 5 ply 1/4" Birch Underlayment....Stapling is the right way to fasten it to the subfloor.

Donedat

Yeah but if you are using it for dancing and sliding and all the other stuff theatrical clubs do, then the staples will snag on the actor's feet or ballet slippers or socks.

Isn't there another product out there for this application?

PrecisionFloors

You use 1/4" crown 7/8" leg staples and if your gun is set up right they are countersunk I'm sure there are alot of products out there that will work as well or better, but the original post asked about it specifically. Halex' intended use is as an underlayment for resilient flooring.