# Stage Floor Paint



## Smatticus

I'm wondering what kind of paint most people use when painting their stages flat black. I need to repaint our stage and I believe that the TD before me used a flat black exterior deck paint. I can't, however, find anyone who either a) carries deck paint in a flat finish or b) can mix black with the product they do carry. Basically they can only provide flat black for decks or if it is a stain. The next best thing I can think of is an all weather exterior house paint. Any suggestions? Thanks!


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## blsmn

I just got finished re-painting ours and I used an exterior flat black latex - works just fine as I am generally painting the stage at least 4 times a year if not more. Very seldom is a show by the high school or community theatre done without painting the stage floor to match the set, so after it is done I take it back to black. So I am basically painting the floor a lot during the year and don't really need it to last for a long time. I'm not really sure just how long the exterior latex would last under normal wear conditions and just exactly what your stage is used for, but I would think it would work OK. I remember a 3 month stint one time between theatrical productions where there were just normal concerts, dance shows, etc. and it held up just fine.


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## Smatticus

Our stage normally stays flat black all the time so we only repaint it when we need to because of wear or paint drips and spills, so it ussually tends to be about a year between paintings, depending on its care during the year. For the most part I would say our stage isn't really used heavily so I'm thinking the exterior latex will do fine. I mean sure the paint might not last as long as the warranty says it should but the stage is going to be repainted again a long time before that warranty expires anyway.


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## Van

Here in the Northwest we have a Regional paint company called Miller. They sell a product called "Tough Tread" it is a Flat floor paint that comes in a wide variety of Colors. Many of the Local theatres use it as a floor and wall paint as it has a ton of pigment and is very tough. I have found, however, that you don't always have to spend the money on an expensive floor paint. As the last poster mentioned many times we are re-painting our floor several times a year and it just doesn't make sense to use an expensive paint on a floor that you know is going to be re-paint inside of two months. 
That being said, I find it hard to beleive that a paint store or supplier near you won't mix a flat latex for you. I suggest you walk in, walk right up to the counter and in a firm, clear, projected voice say, " I would like 5 gallons of flat black interior latex paint please." And when they say "why?" you say, "Hey it's a theatre thing you wouldn't understand." . If they press the matter I suggest using my next favorite line, " Back off man, I'm a Technical Director !" 

Happy painting !


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## Smatticus

Thanks for the input, they don't have a problem mixing a flat latex, just nobody can mix or carries flat exterior deck paint, which would be a bit tougher as it's actually intended for a floor. So a flat exterior latex is the next best thing and, fortunately, I have an arrangement with one store to get the paint for free in exchange for a program ad and some tickets. One of the places I went to the guy was trying to tell me that it wasn't even possible to mix black or dark red. Thanks again for the info!


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## celtictechie

roscos sell stage paint also you can have a mix of black paint that is flat from home depot and lowes.


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## CowboyDan

If you have a Sherman Williams or Home Depot in the area the paint that I like using is an oil base satin. I did use a flat black but was having problems with saw dust from the shop being track on stage. The satin makes it alot easier to mop the stage. It cost about the same as rosco paint but in my experience it is alot more durable. 

If you do get this paint you need to apply it with a roller and not an airless sprayer. With the roller you get a thicker coat and it tends to come out looking really nice. One more thing that maybe a down fall is the time you need to let it sit before using the theater. I let the theater sit for three days before I walk on the stage.

Have fun with it.

Dan


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## Van

Yeah down time is a huge drawback to oil based paints I tend to avoid them at all costs. I can't imagine having three open days to just let my theatre sit. ( either one of them )


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## celtictechie

what type of floor due you have if it is mason type floor 6 t0 8 it is dry to walk on and after 12 you use it. I just re paint my stage and it was dry when i got their morning. i layed it down about 3 clock yesterday and got their today at 9 this mornning. I will double check the name and post that here for you.

James


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## CHScrew

Were painting our stage black for the first time this year. Right now our stage is hard wood with like a cherry finish and I HATE IT! I wish our school would have just painted it black to begin with.


blsmn said:


> Very seldom is a show by the high school or community theatre done without painting the stage floor to match the set, so after it is done I take it back to black.



That is a lot of paint. Do you ever strip and scrape the stage of all tht paint.


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## celtictechie

That is great infomation that you provide me. i think the first thing you should due is find out if you can paint the stage premently from the school because that floor will be hard to replace if they decide to change thier minds. if that is that is the case then lay a (**homostote) floor and (**lothon) top then paint it black. only use this if they still want the hardwood in tact and unpainted. if they decide to panit the floor the way it is then paint it either way the best to use is a laytx deck and sealer type paint (sticking and perment) may need a oil based first because caster may rip the band new laytx but over time it builds and become perment. trust me. the base under laytx can be shine or regular house paint black or a dark color. 

Ps i know my speeling stinks sorry about that. 
**the homostote is a cardboard type building material
**lothon is a type of thin wood about quater inch thick 

good luck


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## Van

celtictechie said:


> **the homostote is a cardboard type building material
> **lothon is a type of thin wood about quater inch thick
> 
> good luck


 
Are you refering to Luan ? Luan is typically a 1/4" Luan mahogany plywood often refered to as " door skins" by contractor suppliers and Home Depot. Luan is a specific "type" or species of Mahognay. 1/4" Luan is usually used as a cover material for " Studiio" flats, 1/8" can be used but requires a lot more staples and tends to warp, buckle, and doesn't have nearly the shear strength as 1/4 < yes that's Shear as in diagonal shear force not Sheer as in "pure"or "Ultimate" >
Luan doesnot make for a decent floor unless it has all been pre-painted on both sides ( it tends to buckle if not.) . If one were to use it as a flooring it would be imperative that the sub-floor be completely free of potholes, woggadies, and soft-spots, as Luan, as a 1/4" material, has virtually no face impact strength. If it does get gouged, Luan also has the tendancy to "tear" or run along the lines of it's substrate plys. Honestly I don't think I would use Luan for a flooring material, as it is typically only a coule of dollars a sheet cheaper that Masonite or M.D.F. < Medium Density Fiberboard > 
Homosote is a trade-name for "Builder Board" And typically is only useful as a sound deading layer in platforming <e.g. 3/4" ply , 1/2" homosote,Framing. > it's also great for several different scenic elements such as rocks, bricks, masonry etc. when carved, sanded routed, shurformed. It is imparative that you use proper ventalation and dust masks when working with homosote as it is extremely fibrous, and you'll be coughing up tons of pulp if you don't. Again I don't think I could consider Homosote as a floor unless you were using it as an underlayment beneath at least 3/4" CD or BC < good luck> plywood. Homosote has no point load strength a 2"x4" dropped from 6" above it would dent the face I can only imagine what rolling a case across it would be like. 
Finally just for giggles I'll say it again Oil based paints are; messy, smelly and require mostly toxic materials to clean - up, and generally more expensive. As far as I'm concerned they really have no use on a stage. I have painted the floor of the house with them, an area where you know you need a finish that is going to last a long time, be more or less impervious to cleaners, and that you're not going to want to paint more than once every two years. 
Wow that was a lot longer response than I though it would be.


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## propmonkey

we repaint maybe 4 times a year. we just use a 5 gallon of normal black flat exterior paint. there are atleast 40 layers of paint on the stage. dancing really messes up the floor. we have 2 dance recitals year usually one in late december so we repaint before our spring musical and at the end of the school year and we either repaint it then or wait until next year.


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## DarSax

We just use flat black latex paint, probably exterior. We've been known to touch up holes, dents, etc. with some sort of wood substitute. Nothing fancy, I think Durron? brand (I'm messing it up, I know)--basically, whatever paint that is generally available to the public.


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## SHARYNF

We found that using a black stain worked better than latex paint for dancing

Vanex Breakthrough Wrought Iron Stain Black, Or Behr Black Stain water-base deep base No. 6300 are some examples, Behr is pretty common. I have also seen people mix 4 parts of flat black latex to one part gloss latex to 1 part of water. 

Sharyn


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## MaddMaxx

Yes! You can get flat latex - acrilic better - floor paint mixed. Also, I always use a water based clear coat - sometimes 2 coats - if floor is for dance or musical theatre. No scuffing, scraping, great for tap.


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## MaddMaxx

Guess you have a fire Marshall with no theatre experience, doesn't know codes for public spaces, or doesn't care to check your paint. Most areas I work in oil base is forbidden. If caught I would be shut down until it was sanded off!


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## cheef

Our decking is 1/2” of pine boards 2' x 12” x 1/2” and that is on top of cement. (not good for dancing  well the president of the college loves the look of high gloss stain on the wood. Every light would reflect back on to the set (looked horrible to everyone but him). Well we got a new president and he is allowing us to paint the stage. (hopefully some day we will be able to replace the whole thing) so we had a rep come in from Sherwin Williams and he told us to strip the decking, ether with sanding or chemicals, and then use a bonding latex primmer then every time after that use Roscoe off Broadway.


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## Van

cheef said:


> Our decking is 1/2” of pine boards 2' x 12” x 1/2” and that is on top of cement. (not good for dancing  well the president of the college loves the look of high gloss stain on the wood. Every light would reflect back on to the set (looked horrible to everyone but him). Well we got a new president and he is allowing us to paint the stage. (hopefully some day we will be able to replace the whole thing) so we had a rep come in from Sherwin Williams and he told us to strip the decking, ether with sanding or chemicals, and then use a bonding latex primmer then every time after that use Roscoe off Broadway.


 Rosco Off-broadway is a _*really*_ expensive way to go. I follow his directions then find the cheapest flat black floor paint you can get. Or buy a bunch of flat neutral mixing base and a couple of gallons of black pigment. Mix the pigment in real heavy, then have a roller party.


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## gafftaper

I discovered last spring that my local Lowes has a pre-mixed black paint that's a really nice color of black and only about $16 a gallon. It was located by the spray paint and stain of all things. I can't remember for sure but seems like it was available in flat and semi-gloss only.


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## Les

Shout out! (I work at Lowe's). [user]gafftaper[/user] I'm not sure about what paint you're talking about (I'm not a paint man myself), but I'll check on it tomorrow and report back with what I find out.


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## Sony

We just use the cheapest flat black paint we can find...usually the house brand from Benny's. It works fine and we repaint the floor in the style of the show for each show anyways so it doesn't matter. We paint it black in between shows for functions, dancers, chorus, and talent shows...etc. We probably go through 50 gallons of paint a year or more. We also replace the top layer of Masonite on our floor every 2 to 3 years.


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## sk8rsdad

We use the Rosco Tough Black Primer with a water-based pearl clear coat whenever we repaint our stage floor black. It covers anything in a single coat with amazing coverage. It takes about one-and-a-half gallons to put on a coat on our 35 x 40 acting area. I've not found a blacker black.

Every 3 years or so we rent a floor sander to take off the paint build-up. With the number of coats that accumulate over the years, haven't had to replace the masonite since it was originally installed in 1996.


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## dramatech

We do exactly what SONY posted. Lot's of painting, and regular masonite replacement as needed.


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## LX23

We too have to repaint and replace the masonite frequently. Druing dance season, April - June, we usually have to repaint the stage over 6 times!!! as the stage is danced on non-stop 12 hours a day 5 days a week! and throughout the whole year we usually repaint 10 times or more. 
We use Benjamin Moore Aura paint and it covers very nicely. we are currently looking into some top coat to protect it a little more so we don't need to repaint quite so often, but for the dancers it can't be slippery, and the GM doesn't want any gloss.


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## thatactorguy

We generally use American Tradition Interior Latex from Lowe's. It seems to have better coverage than Wal-Martr's and seems to be a bit more durable, with fewer- if any- touch-ups during our three weekend runs.

Two years ago, our former ED repainted the house floor, going from the 15 year old dark blue (I wish I knew what that paint was; WOW it held up!) to Rosco Off Broadway. It actually sucked up so much light that we had four falls by audience members within a short period of time after, and we wound up having to redo our house lighting. That was a lot of money for people to get hurt, and the Rosco is already coming up. Coulda been poor prep, but I wasn't impressed with the ROB...


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## pacman

Back when I had a masonite cover, I used the Rosco Tough Black Primer, too. It was great stuff; very durable & black. Many of the paints you have mixed at local stores comes out looking various shades of gray. A paint rep once told me why, but I don't recall.


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## FatherMurphy

pacman said:


> Many of the paints you have mixed at local stores comes out looking various shades of gray. A paint rep once told me why, but I don't recall.



The short answer is 'you can't get there from here'... Trying to mix a black from the primary colors in a tinting mixer just doesn't work, you have to have true black pigment, and lots of it. If you think of a color wheel, and picture white to black as an axle through it, when you only have certain colors available, you can only mix hues that are towards the center of the color wheel, or, to put it another way, green + orange does not yield yellow. To get any pure color, you need the pure pigment, and with non-black pigments, you just can't mix them dark enough to become a true black. Sometimes a clerk will try, but even if the tinter is stocked with black, they won't believe how much they need to put in.

I've always just used whatever's cheapest. The platforms I have in stock now sometimes get used outdoors, so I use exterior grades to protect the wood, but otherwise I don't spend more than I have to. When I was at a community theater, we'd leave the floor however it was painted for the previous show until we had a need to take it back to black - figured it was a waste of time and paint to do so if there weren't any events in between shows with scenically painted floors.


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## Teber

At the school I went to, we never painted the stage to go with the show.. I found it odd but it was cheaper. Although, since we had no workshop all of our painting and construction took place on the stage. Ditzy High School Girls + Colored Paint+ black stage= fail. We painted the stage black after every show and we just bought the cheapest stuff we could get in a flat black latex. We watered it down for more covering. The stage was so odd, i should upload a picture sometime. It had no fly space, was about 75 feet across and 25 foot back. No catwalk lights, no electrics. Everything technical was like an operators patch board. The wings were hidden by Giant black cinder block walls (that we also had to paint black. The 2 curtains (a barney purple and a mustard yellow for the school colors) were on a motorized system so it took 23 seconds to open and close... But the moral of the story is... Watered down paint goes far it took us about 2-3 gallons and thats it... including walls.


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