# Flooring suggestion



## Lharms (Aug 14, 2014)

My current theatre is pine planking. Very worn, very 1975. Very bright.
other than completely replacing the entire floor, could someone offer a suggestion for a cost effective solution?
My first thought is to cover it in Masonite and paint it black. But I don't know enough about flooring to trust this idea.
thanks for any help
Lucas


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## JohnD (Aug 14, 2014)

Welcome @Lharms a search here for "stage flooring" brings up lots of ideas, in fact the mods may move this to "stage management and facility operations" since that is where most of the ideas are located. Yes, painted masonite is a very popular stage covering, and lots of discussions on that subject.


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## lwinters630 (Aug 17, 2014)

Lharms said:


> My current theatre is pine planking. Very worn, very 1975. Very bright.
> other than completely replacing the entire floor, could someone offer a suggestion for a cost effective solution?
> My first thought is to cover it in Masonite and paint it black. But I don't know enough about flooring to trust this idea.
> thanks for any help
> Lucas


After you check out the other post I particularly like Van's. A roll of dimes, mdf, paint all sides. Rosco.


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## 2mojo2 (Sep 6, 2014)

Lharms said:


> My current theatre is pine planking. Very worn, very 1975. Very bright.
> other than completely replacing the entire floor, could someone offer a suggestion for a cost effective solution?
> My first thought is to cover it in Masonite and paint it black. But I don't know enough about flooring to trust this idea.
> thanks for any help
> Lucas


We had old yellow pine in rather worn condition. 
There were no plans for the school district to replace it.
We filled the low spots with a cement-base floor filler.
Stapled down a layer of 30 pound building paper (asphalt-treated felt, tar-paper)
Laid 1/4 " masonite with a screw counter-sunk about every square foot and about 3/16" space between sheets.
Painted with exterior flat latex.
We typically touch up the paint before opening a show, and do a full re-coat once a year.

Years later, it is holding up very well.
I changed to a medium gloss exterior latex paint. It holds up better, does not collect dust.
The spaces between sheets have allowed for changes in humidity, but dust and crap collect under the masonite and can billow out when walking on the surface.
I am considering taping all the seams with 2 inch black gaffer's tape, folowed by two coats of the exterior latex (McCormick exterior Lustre)

When securing set pieces to the floor, we use 8d or 16d scaffold nails (Double-headed nails).
They do very little damage to the surface.


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