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Best Option for Covering Stage Floor


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I have recently taken on a venue that has a concrete stage floor, there are flush wooden battens every 30cm or so running upstage to downstage. We have a varied program of work, mostly receiving but includes dance and amateur musical theatre. For the dance we lay a soft underlay, wooden interlocking boards then vinyl on top, this is time consuming and takes up a lot of storage space when not in use. The sets brought in by companies can be screwed into the wooden battens but you have to get it in the right place.

 

What I'd like to do is lay a more permanent wooden layer over the whole stage. My question is, what would be the best stage covering for my stage? Ply? Or something sturdier? How do I make sure this doesn't warp when painted for the first time?

 

Thanks!

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For a standard black stage floor on top of concrete I would be doing 2 layers of 18mm ply with the joints offset. This will give a good sturdy base layer with some thickness to screw into when required. I would then skin it with 6mm MDF or oil tempered hardboard as a top layer to paint black, which can easily be replaced if it gets damaged or worn over time. Don't do a permanent ply floor without a sacrificial MDF/hardboard layer as the top layers of the ply can wear through and start to de-laminate after a few years of heavy use and numerous coats of paint. I would suggest screwing the ply together and then pinning the 6mm on with brads or narrow crown staples.

 

Mike

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I would then skin it with 6mm MDF or oil tempered hardboard as a top layer to paint black, which can easily be replaced if it gets damaged or worn over time.

I really, really wouldn't be using MDF for a surface that will abrade & kick up dust.

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We use painted 6mm MDF for our panto floors. Paint plus a final glaze. They wear really badly. At the end of panto - which is probably 80 odd shows, trucks have worn grooves in them, the edges are feathering away and odd boards develop pop ups in the centre. Repeated rescrewing is required and the stuff delaminates in thin layers. I didn't think MDF was made in layers just a mush that's compressed, but it does, you'll find the 6mm thickness splitting into a 3/3 or 2/4mm layer where the edges meet. Once the glaze is rubbed off, moisture from mopping also makes it swell. It's easy to paint, but has a limited life. Traditionally oil tempered hardboard does seem popular, but less nice to paint.
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I was more concerned with the health hazards of MDF than its durability. I've never seen it used as a sacrificial layer, but am not surprised at Paul's experience.. Our main playhouse uses hardboard over Steeldeck, but our studio theatre, which has the same sub-floor as Riversong's, just has a single layer of pine boarding screwed to the battens, normally painted black. It gets the occasional sanding-down, & that's it. I only recall it being taken up & replaced once.
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Remember that any timber flooring (including plywood) will expand and contract noticeably with changes in temperature and humidity. Always leave a small gap between pieces, or if this is undesirable, leave a gap around the edges (as one would with household laminate flooring going under the skirting boards) so that the floor does not rise into ridges as it is squeezes into the walls.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I was more concerned with the health hazards of MDF than its durability. I've never seen it used as a sacrificial layer, but am not surprised at Paul's experience.. Our main playhouse uses hardboard over Steeldeck, but our studio theatre, which has the same sub-floor as Riversong's, just has a single layer of pine boarding screwed to the battens, normally painted black. It gets the occasional sanding-down, & that's it. I only recall it being taken up & replaced once.

 

 

 

 

I agree that standard pine floor boards are preferable to large sheets of plywood. Whilst the PERCENTAGE expansion and contraction is probably similar, it is far less of a problem with floorboards since each one will only expand or contract minutely. When fixing the boards, leave very small gaps between them, use pieces of 0.5mm thick cardboard as temporary spacers, removing these as the work progresses. To limit warping, paint both sides of the boards before fixing, the colour of the underside is of no consequence and old, surplus or mixed paint may be used.

 

Worn or damaged boards can be replaced as needed.

 

Plywood can be a disposal problem at end of life, real wood may be burnt in a wood burning stove.

 

 

 

 

 

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