Old steel deck

[topsy100]

hi

 

does anyone out there have an old piece of 8' x 4' or 6' x 4' steel deck (or any deck) that they would be prepared to loan or donate to a school in Boston Spa Leeds for a production of we will rock you in March next year? I want to cut the top to put a hatch in but would be happy to replace the top when we finish.

 

Thanks

[DickyT]

Staging is pretty expensive stuff that is built strongly and rated, for obvious reasons. You MIGHT get hold of some decking on loan but there is pretty much no chance in hell that they are going to let you cut a hole in it. Let me put it this way - can I borrow your car? I want to chop the roof off.

Ask around local production companies. They sometimes lend out gear for this kind of thing.

[top-cat]

Let me put it this way - can I borrow your car? I want to chop the roof off.

 

 

Rubbish analogy. They offered to buy a replacement top. So it's more like "can I borrow your car? the one with the really knackered old scratched bent roof? I want to cut the roof off, then replace it with a brand new roof".

 

I'd be up for it.

[sleah]

Hang on a mo......

 

Why not just take a perfectly good piece of steel deck, remove the good top and store, replace with whatever you need the hole for, after the show replace the good top? :huh:

 

Simples!

[paulears]

That's the obvious solution isn't it?

[top-cat]

Only if you know how to change a deck top. I assume that the question was posted by somebody who doesn't.

[sleah]

Only if you know how to change a deck top. I assume that the question was posted by somebody who doesn't.

 

Same still applies. Ask whoever is supplying to either supply the bare frame, or replace with one that can be destroyed. Obviously there will be additional cost....

[top-cat]

hi I want to cut the top to put a hatch in but would be happy to replace the top when we finish.

 

 

Ask whoever is supplying to ...... replace with one that can be destroyed. Obviously there will be additional cost....

 

That is, what he asked in the first place then? So this thread has gone full circle.

 

Perhaps in hindsight the best thing he could have done is rung the local steeldeck hire company, and said "I want a piece of steeldeck to cut a hatch in - what do you recommend?" I'd imagine they'd have offered this solution there and then.

[Tom]

On the off chnace that the OP is still around and has not been put off by the pointless one-upmanship...

 

As has been said, the easiest solution is to remove the top (which will be good quality ply with a foam or felt backing) and replace it with a sacrificial top you can do as you please with - though do put something between the ply and the steel to stop them banging - strips of carpet or foam are good if you're not doing the whole area. This is not difficult.

 

As to your actual question, you could try local thetares and companies to see if they have a spare deck they might lend you. West Yorkshire Playhouse are in Leeds and I bet they've got some old deck kicking knocking around. Just a question of finding the right person to ask.

 

Good luck

T

[empyfree]

Other people to try near Boston Spa include 3D Productions (Gartforth) and Harrogate Theatre Workshop. I'd offer you one of ours as we're just round the corner on Thorp Arch estate but we only have two and need seven over Christmas ourselves!

[jackgraham]

LS Live in South Kirkby (Just down the A1 from you) stock LiteDeck with holes precut depending on if this would suit your needs.

 

Their website says they have:

 

8' x 4' Trapdoor 305mm Sq Trap Door8' x 4' Trapdoor 1000mm Sq Trap Door

 

Speak to Jess Woodward in the hire department, the price of hire might end up being cheaper than the time and expense cutting and replacing the top.

 

Jack

 

 

[iains]

Nobody has actually asked exactly and I mean positionwise (I hate that expression) where the hatch is supposed to be, steeldeck does have some cross frames and there is a difference in location between 6 x 4 and 8 x 4,that said yes it is easy to replace the top. Not wanting to be negative if it's a hatch in a false floor why not build a section it's custom made to fit the section at either 6 or 8 foot, if you need to do the same effect on another production it's there. I do not comment very often on items on the Blue Room but some things I have seen posted here particularly in the staging section I shudder to think of the future of our industry, we are going hi tech but some times the very simplest things work the best. I have been in this business for over 30 years now and I am still learning, we can call ourselves master carpenters or flymen or technical stage managers. The management still call us stagecrew or stagehands, how many of us still keep to the old "whistling on stage" superstition, and how many know where it comes from. I have seen the replies to the original post and they are many and varied you know going by the original question all of will work but, and this is the thing it is a very basic question with no background information. Think people we have to set scenerey up quickly and strike it quickly the whole point is it is "magic" so do KISS (keep it simple stupid). The first point is what do you want, second what do you want it to do, third does it move, the solution is fairly simple and to the OP please PM me and I will be more than happy to do it for you for a couple of beers. Oh and for those curious people, I'll ask a question where does the term master carpenter come from and what did it mean the person could do, this one is particularly for paul ears, in view of your skills as a flyman from a previous post

[Tom]

Iain,

While I'm sure you make some valid points, the KISS principal also applys to posting answers on forums.

 

The OP has not asked for advice on creating a hatch on stage or the whys and wherefores of using Steeldeck.

They simply asked if anybody knew where they could borrow a deck from. The OP provides all the background info required.

 

Sometimes there is a tendency on the BR for people to jump in with multiple ways of sucking eggs (and why it's better to blow them) when grandma just wants to know where she can get some eggs from.

 

T

[top-cat]

One valid point, albeit not raised in Iain's point explicitly, but worth mentioning - is the simplicity (or not) of making a trap door in a deck, and why maybe it might be better to hire from LS Live as suggested.

 

Assumably a trap door in a deck can be both open and shut. And when it's shut, it would be expected that the safe working load of the trap door is equal to or greater than the rest of the deck; or at the very least, suitably rated for the intended occupancy of the platform to stand on it. I should imagine more than one person has been hurt over the years standing on a trap door which was not good for the weight put on it, and gone straight through it.

 

Now I'm always the first to advocate doing things yourself, providing that you are suitably competent to do it and come to the conclusion that the job is safe. However, you may wish to remember that somebody crashing through your trapdoor and breaking both their legs is likely to cost you a lot of cash and cause you a lot of unnecessary grief. It may be simpler and cheaper in the long run to hire something designed for purpose where any defect in the deck which led to such an injury would be on the heads of the hire company, not of your company.

 

I agree Tom - Granny just asked where to buy some eggs. But since it's been realised that purpose-made trap-door decks are available to hire locally, I would think that may be a preferable option over a self-build.