[SML] Marley-type floor covering question.

[christopher pike]

I guess at UCLA you roll your marley up on a regular basis, and then
store it.  In the case of my studio, we are heat welding the seems of
the panels and leaving them down for years. So we storing the vinyl
isn't an issue.

The advisor at Entertainment Flooring Systems was very certain that it
is the cycling of temperature, and expanding and contracting of air
that creates ripples.   It occurs to me that in a big theatre like at
UCLA, your stage floor is not cycling in temperature because it is in
a big auditorium, so this may not be an issue for you.   But in a one
room dance studio, we turn the heat off at the end of the day to save
money, and so the room can easily cycle 15 degrees in a day/night.

So, I don't know, it could be that this temperature cycling was the
cause of the ripples we had in my last marley product.

What do you think of my idea of an industrial electric blanket to
relax the ripples when they arrise?

On Fri, Feb 12, 2016 at 11:45 AM, SAMUEL JONES via Stagecraft
<stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
> The theory is so wrong it makes my head hurt.
>
> 1. If you can afford (both in money and weight) a thicker floor like a Harlequin Studio, Harlequin Cascade, or something similar it will be a lot easier to keep the ripples from forming.
>
> 2. Whether or not you get a light weight floor or a heavier weight floor, be sure that the tubes you roll them on are straight, perfectly straight, and round, perfectly round.  The vast majority of PVC is not straight enough to be acceptable, but they can be found, and it will take a lot of time to find them.  Be sure you get thick enough PVC pipe.  At the UCLA Dance Dept. we had much better luck with carpet tubing, and it is usually cheaper, sometimes free.
>
> It is curved tubes that unevenly stretch the floor.  Try not to store them for any length of time on top of each other.  Never store them on end.  The strength of the tubing becomes very important if you store them on racks hanging on pipes.  Carpet tubes were strong enough if they were kept dry.
>
> HTH,
> Sam
>
> Samuel Jones
> sjones at autoplotvw.com
> Technical Director, UCLA Dance Program, Retired
> ==============================================
>
>> On Feb 12, 2016, at 11:20 AM, christopher pike via Stagecraft <stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
>>
>> Here's the question: A very knowledgeable person at Entertainment
>> Floor Systems says that the ripples happen because the air underneath
>> the floor covering expands and contracts.  I respect their knowledge,
>> but there is only an infinitesimal amount of air in the gap between
>> the floor covering and the subfloor.  I just can't believe this amount
>> of air could do that much expanding.   I recognize that the people at
>> EFS are more knowledgeable than myself, but I'm having a hard time
>> grasping this.  What do you think about this theory?  Could it be
>> wrong?
>
>
>
>
>
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