GDCOMM 2009 ShowBlog

Shiny can be easy - check out those plastic ceiling tiles at the young vic (pic taken looking up)..
also here below the entrance to house of fraser victoria uses black panels to add a bit of depth and character to the walls.. (hard to see in this pic). However the ceiling in the triangle is full of lighting and suspended radiators and the walls are often needed for displaying work which leaves the floor..




..in last years show we looked at trying to make the floor glossy and black as they often do for tv studios where they paint the floor before every show but this only lasts for an hour or two before scuffing badly. Floor polish is also easy to use but still requires constant application. For a deep black gloss you need to lay a temporary floor.. first a layer of underlay, then 2 layers of ply in 2 directions to give a firm surface, then a layer of felt to deaden the sound, this sandwich is then stapled together with a special staple that clamps the layers together without harming the original floor surface. Then a glued plastic hi-gloss floor goes on last and before you know it you've spent your whole budget on the floor! Walls are an easier prospect!

We also looked at black dance show floors which are like a lino covering which turned out to be still too expensive (from Harlequinfloors.com/uk who gave us great samples and advice).



The floor in the tringle is flat (dove) grey and can be painted any colour and then back to its original state again costing about £160 for both coats using floor paint. But if you go for say a deep red or an original colour quite different from the grey, you have to apply 2 coats of the colour and then two coats of the original grey again afterwards to restore it back costing around £300+ which is when you start to ask if its worth it? We always paint the floor at least once as nobody else does and its left in a state after a year of abuse and left too messy to just clean.

Here are the last 3 results at their cleanest..