# Grand piano vs. Dance Floor



## banjokeith (Feb 18, 2011)

I am sorry of this has been answered, but I didn't see anything relevant come up in my search....

The local ballet company is putting on a show at our theater in March, and for part of their show they want to roll our grand piano out onto the stage so the music can be performed live. This would involve rolling the piano out onto Marley dance floor. The Marley belongs to the ballet company, not to us, so I figure that it is entirely their own call, but logic says to me that 800lbs on three rather firm casters may not be the best thing on a dance floor. I don't, however, want to worry them and advise against it if this isn't going to be an issue.

I don't know - maybe it's fine, but I figured I should at least see if anyone has had any experience with this. I have always heard that you need plywood under a Genie on top of Marley, and that's half the weight spread over 4 points. 

The ballet has two types of floor - a thin, more traditional Marley, and a thicker one with 1/8 - 1/4" of padding on the back. I would almost assume that they would try and go with the padded floor, since that is what they usually use. I would guess that under this load, the padded floor would be more susceptible to tearing or puncture from the top, while the thin floor is more at risk from damage from floor unevenness.


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## SteveB (Feb 18, 2011)

Yes, it's their call and as comment, we have a version of the ubiquitous "Marley", ours being a Harlequin, on to which we regularly roll our 2200 lbs JLG lift. The floor takes the weight and abuse with no issues, so I cannot see an issue with a piano.


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## derekleffew (Feb 18, 2011)

banjokeith said:


> ... but logic says to me that 800 lbs. on three rather firm casters may not be the best thing on a dance floor ...


Is the piano on a spider dolly or just the tiny wheels in the bottom of the legs?


banjokeith said:


> ...I have always heard that you need plywood under a Genie on top of Marley, ...


That's only conditionally true. Depends on the weight of the personnel lift, the size and material of caster, and the type of portable vinyl dance floor.


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## banjokeith (Feb 18, 2011)

derekleffew said:


> Is the piano on a spider dolly or just the tiny wheels in the bottom of the legs?


 It's on a spider dolly.


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## mjump (Feb 18, 2011)

In the past I've had to roll our Baldwin grand(without a spyder) out onto the Marley when we have a pianist scheduled between dance shows. As long as the marley is tacked down well, and you take your time moving the piano it works out well. Just be carefull if the marley starts to pucker in front of the wheels, we wound up going in an arc so as not to leave a big bubble in the middle of the dance floor.


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## kicknargel (Feb 19, 2011)

I, too, don't foresee a problem with the thinner, traditional marley, but I don't have experience with the padded variety. Perhaps leave one wheel of the piano sitting on a corner of the marley overnight and see what happens.


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## Grog12 (Feb 19, 2011)

mjump said:


> In the past I've had to roll our Baldwin grand(without a spyder) out onto the Marley when we have a pianist scheduled between dance shows. As long as the marley is tacked down well, and you take your time moving the piano it works out well. Just be carefull if the marley starts to pucker in front of the wheels, we wound up going in an arc so as not to leave a big bubble in the middle of the dance floor.


 
This is one of the two biggest issues with rolling either a piano or a man-lift onto a marley. As long as it doesn't sit for an extended period of time (i.e overnight) there shouldn't be an issue.

The other issue though is cleanlieness of the wheels and what you're tracking on. I've seen casters caked with grease and grime. You really, really (did I mention really?) don't want to have grease/wd40/hydralic fluid ect tracked onto a floor *ever* much less mid performance as degreaserproducts will only take you so far in cleaning it.

All that being said my first show of the year we *carefully* set up a grand piano on the marley for the entire show iwth no issue or damage to the marley.


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## mstaylor (Feb 20, 2011)

I wouldn't see it as a problem. I just did a show that uses their lift to trail behind the guys doing the marley shuffle. It was the thicker marley floor.


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## 2mojo2 (Feb 21, 2011)

Here's a twist:
we recently had a marley floor in place for a variety show that included one or two ballet numbers.
Our grand piano got damaged while moving from the wing to the stage floor in rehearsal.

I did not supervise the installation of the marley, but it looked OK to me, and I was not present when they moved the piano.
I was shocked to see that the pedal section got hung up and significant damage resulted.

Based on my experience, I would b less worried about the marley (tough material) than the piano.


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## banjokeith (Feb 22, 2011)

2mojo2 said:


> Here's a twist:
> we recently had a marley floor in place for a variety show that included one or two ballet numbers.
> Our grand piano got damaged while moving from the wing to the stage floor in rehearsal.
> 
> ...


 
I wouldn't have even thought about that, but I will certainly watch for that now!


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## MarshallPope (Feb 23, 2011)

I'm assuming this could be what happened to cause your piano to catch, 2mojo2 - We recently realized that after 15 years or so, a piano can cause the spider dolly under it to bend, slightly lowering the piano to the floor. The pedals will naturally be the closest thing to the floor anyway and, for us at least, it can get so bad that you cannot move the piano at all. I had the idea to put a stage weight or two in the center of the dolly under the piano and it has worked great so far. We haven't had any more problems with it dragging, even navigating small thresholds.

Sorry if that was slightly off-topic, but it seemed pertinent.


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