Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Booth Cleaning

This is topic Booth Cleaning in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Rhys M. Blavier (Member # 2557) on 07-25-2004, 04:13 AM:

I want to thank everyone who responded to my first post about booth tools and equipment. I have another question now that I need some advice on. The booth I am taking over has apparently never been swept or had any kind of dust prevention / removal done at all. Aside from dirt inside of the projectors (of which there is plenty, I will be cleaning and working on them for quite awhile), how would any of you deal with cleaning an entire multi-screen booth (tile floor, no carpeting) other than just plain sweeping (which I am afraid will put alot of the dust back in the air) and mopping. Have any of you had to deal with something like this on a large scale? What have you found works best or is there a recommended service (like air vent cleaners) who do this sort of thing profesionally. I want what will do the best job while putting the least amount of dust and dirt back into the air.

Thank you.

Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 07-25-2004, 04:42 AM:

First of all you must have filters on your Air system, dust filters, not just filters that prevent to big object to enter the projection.

Then try to use vacuum cleaner (with dust filter, we call "H.E.P.A" here) instead of other tools and mop the floor often.

Have a place free of dust is very important for proper projection!

Bye
A

Posted by Andrew Shingleton (Member # 2257) on 07-25-2004, 04:52 AM:

Sweeping moves the dust around, mopping wets the dust, and vacuuming removes the dust. A good combiniation of all three methods is essential. In some booths you can sweep, mop, and vacuum every spare minute you have and you'll still find some more dust somewhere else, so you've got to find the practical balance and focus your attention on the areas where it really matters. Concentrate around the projectors and the film handling bench(s), and work outwards from those parts so that even if you're moving the dust it's going away from the film. After you sweep, don't use a brush and shovel to pick up the pile of dirt - actually vacuum it up. The best thing about vacuuming is that you're removing all the dust and it can't get back out. When you empty the filter think about how that dust could have potentially found it's way onto the film had you not removed it before it had a chance!

If you have a really dirty booth then you'll be in an uphill battle for ages unless you break it's back early. Maybe organise a working bee where a bunch of people come in and have a day dedicated to cleaning. It's much easier to keep a booth clean once it's in good shape than it is to constantly fight a "sort-of" clean booth. [Smile]

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 07-25-2004, 09:09 AM:

Usually during and after construction I keep a thing of Dust Bain sweeping compound in the booth to sprinkle over the floor when sweeping to keep the dust down.
Then after it is all cleaned damp mopping is a good idea

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-25-2004, 09:38 AM:

If you don't have a central vacuum system or vacuum with HEPA filtration, using a shop vac with a long hose to duct the output outside will virtually eliminate recirculating small dirt particles. Likewise, wet-mopping and wiping surfaces with a damp sponge will avoid stirring up dirt.

Remember, images on the typical theatre screen are magnified several hundred times, so on-line film cleaning and maintaining a clean environment in the booth are very important. And a dirty environment certainly doesn't help electronic or optical components.

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 07-25-2004, 10:50 AM:

How many screens is that thing anyway?
I just took over a 6 house booth back in February...It's been somewhat stable now for only a couple months. I know what you mean by filthy.

The first priority when I started on it was to get the projectors clean and the film off the floor. The old projectionists believed in pulling all the leader out onto the floor, throwing it over the projector threading it down and throwing the leader back to the platter. After threading THE RIGHT WAY your hands would have dust all over them from threading. They never mopped.

So, here's what you do. Get those clean, get the film off the floor, etc. Then I blew out all the sound racks and such with compressed air for cleaning electronics.
Finally I did a fair amount of sweeping, I'm not sure if the vacuum we have has a H.E.P.A filter. Next came the mop and bucket.

The booth now gets mopped bi-weekly and it works pretty well. Since the film never gets on the floor we're pretty good.

The next part after getting the real filth out of there was to clean all the optical componants. Lenses, sound readers, etc. Then the platter work. We have AW3's that were absolutely filthy. Over the course of the next couple months I took each deck apart on all the platter systems, degreased and cleaned the brains. Each deck got a thorough cleaning and fresh grease. (Not in the brains!!! DON'T GREASE BRAINS!)

The lamp houses are going to have to wait for the most part until their respective bulbs get changed out, I don't want to stir up all the sh*t in them right now. As long as the cooling isn't highly affected it'll wait. However cleaning the reflectors is a good plan if you've got a steady enough hand to work around the bulb. Hell, if you're really going for broke I guess you could take the bulbs out.

And finally keeping it clean...This is the hardest part of all.
I made up a spreadsheet in excel that has everything to be done and it's frequency, weekly, biweekly, monthly, etc. And a separate one which I post up in the booth every Thursday night that shows what needs to be done on what day.

Each house gets cleaned once a week and the port glass twice a week, etc. You get the idea. Frequency will vary depending on your booth but getting into the habit is all it takes.
G'luck.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 07-25-2004, 12:20 PM:

Rhys, I don't know if you have or not but if you do a search using the words booth cleaning you will find some other useful threads of information on the subject. I think one thing that will need to be done is the floor. If it is the type that needs to be waxed, I would see about getting it stripped and new wax put down. This will help keep things clean along with the other tasks at hand.

Posted by Jason Burroughs (Member # 68) on 07-25-2004, 01:43 PM:

Usually for tiled booths a 2 part method works best.

Use a dust mop regularly, treated with the proper dust collecting chemicals. This will take care of the periodic layer of dust, without stirring it up too much. You can get dust mops of varying sizes, from little 2' jobs but I would recommend a 3' - they're easily maneuverable and clean a wide area. Remember to clean and replace the dust mop regularly as well. Depending on the size of the booth, this can be done on a daily basis. Remember to take the dust mop outside when cleaning.

The 'ol Mop and bucket. Remember to use a clean mop (don't use on they used to mop the conessions area or an auditorium) and clean water with the right chemicals. I would belive that once a week would be sufficient intervals for wet mopping.

As previously suggested, you may also need to have the floor stripped and waxed (Insert Phil's perverted comment here [Wink]

)

For other sufaces use a treated cloth or something like a Swiffer. Do NOT use anything that leaves ANY kind of residue.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-25-2004, 03:53 PM:

Also, I suggest you develop a pattern to your cleaning and sweeping practices. If you don't you'll end up pushing dirt around from one place to another without really cleaning it up.

For instance:

Dust the tops of projectors, shelves and window ledges first. Knock the dirt down from high places to the floor. Use a fuzzy duster, a Swiffer or a clean cloth sprayed lightly with some kind of dusting spray like Endust.

Use a small broom and/or a shop vac to clean under tables & equipment, get dirt out of corners and away from baseboards. Be sure to move objects like chairs and trash cans while you clean. Don't just sweep around them!

Use a push broom to clean up the coarse dirt particles and small bits of trash then use a dust mop to clean up the fine "gritty" dust. Start in one end of the room and work toward the other. Work from the interior of the room toward the doors to avoid pushing dirt farther into the room.

Use dusting spray or sweeping compound if you can. In some states the use of sweeping compound is illegal in public buildings because it can make the floors slippery. Check what kinds of chemicals are safe for use in your area/buildings.

Sweep SLOWLY to prevent the dirt from getting "puffed" up into the air, only to settle back in areas where you just cleaned. Don't beat the broom on the ground at the end of each stroke like I see some people do. It only puffs dust into the air.

Damp mop the areas you sweep with a clean mop using hot/warm water and a moderate amount of floor cleaner. (Mister Clean or whatever.) Don't use too much! Also, don't saturate too much water on the floors. Wring the mop out till it's almost dry. If too much water gets on the floors, it can ruin the tile. Also it takes longer to dry and it can create a slip and fall hazard.

Once done, take your mop to a seperate room to clean it out. Wash the dirt out of the bucket with a stream of water. Rinse ALL of the dirt out of the mop then hang it up to dry. If you leave the mop and bucket standing in a corner somewhere it will just turn into "Swamp Water". It won't be good for cleaning anything.

Take your push broom and dust mop(s) OUTSIDE and beat the dust out of them before hanging them up. Respray them with dusting spray before putting them away. (Unless the directions on the container say different.)

Repeat the cleaning OFTEN! A booth which has been kept clean will tend to stay cleaner over time. You can sweep/clean a room every day for a month then skip a day or two but the reverse is not true. If a room is extremely dirty you'll probably have to give it a good "going over" two or three times before you start to make a dent in it.

Even if you don't think my cleaning patterns will suit you, it's important that you do develop some kind of pattern. It's also important to write down a schedule for cleaning and stick to it. If you are supposed to clean the booth every Monday, Wednesday and Friday then be damn sure that it gets done on those days or your whole cleaning program will be for naught.

Posted by Edward Jurich (Member # 1787) on 07-25-2004, 05:33 PM:

I like to pay special attention to the floor around the platter and makeup table. Film ends tend to wind up on the floor and a clean floor will prevent dust spots at reel changes.

Posted by Andrew Shingleton (Member # 2257) on 07-25-2004, 05:49 PM:

In regards to scheduling, we actually use a spreadsheet that has a list of jobs along with the frequency that each job should be repeated. The spreadsheet calculates how many days it's been since the job was last done, and provides a countdown of days until the task is overdue. The aim is to make sure that nothing ever goes "overdue", by doing the task within it's time frame.

The advantage of this over a list of weekly tasks is that it's not as easy to ignore tasks that haven't been done. If mopping is designated to be done on mondays for example, but one particular monday is really busy, it might be put off until the following monday rather than being made up for sooner. With the "overdue" system, the mopping task is going to be highlighted red until it's done again, which is a lot harder to ignore. The other advantage is that it's a lot more flexible, and is a lot easier to track tasks that are done more often than weekly, but less often than daily. And it can be easily changed depending on results - if a 7 day mopping cycle isn't quite cutting it, we could simply change the 7 to a 5 to increase the frequency.

We use this system for almost all the tasks that need to be done except for the things that are hard to predict when they will happen, like filmwork, etc.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-25-2004, 07:08 PM:

Why would the film end up on the floor??? Even if the tip end of the tail of the reel tapped the floor during loading as it "tailed out" of the reel, that shouldn't matter...unless you are one of those evil theaters that cuts the leaders off when building to large reels before plattering.

Posted by Andrew McCrea (Member # 674) on 07-25-2004, 08:21 PM:

I'm paying close attention to the ideas expressed in this thread, but is carpet or tile better in a booth?

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-25-2004, 08:53 PM:

Both carpeting and bare floors are fine, if they are kept CLEAN. If carpeting is used, it should be a short nap or berber and made of fiber that will not shed or lint. Treatment with a conductive antistat will help reduce static generation, especially in the dry heating season. Vacuum frequently, ideally with a central vacuum system.

The worst floors are those that generate abrasive debris, such as bare concrete, or floors with chipped coatings or flaking old wax.

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 07-25-2004, 10:03 PM:

Tile or epoxied concrete is FAR easier to keep clean than carpet, the chance for dirt to become embedded just isnt there with tile.

-Aaron

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-25-2004, 10:22 PM:

Carpeting can work well, if the proper type of carpet is used, and it is kept clean. Many IMAX theatres have carpeted booths.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 07-25-2004, 10:43 PM:

I'm against carpet in booths in areas with a considerable winter and any amount of traffic in and out of the booth.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-26-2004, 05:33 AM:

quote: Daryl C. W. O'Shea
I'm against carpet in booths in areas with a considerable winter and any amount of traffic in and out of the booth.

Ideally, outside footwear (especially wet and salt-laden boots) should be kept outside the booth. Keep a clean pair of shoes for use in the booth. Booth traffic should be limited to essential personnel, i.e., the projectionists. [Wink]

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 07-26-2004, 04:10 PM:

That's fine for theatres where you don't have to travel through the lobby to get between booths. It's also fine in a multiplex where there is little traffic into the booth (which from what I've seen is uncommon) for things like posters, marquee letters, etc. Unfortunately I find a lot of booths get water tracked in during the winter for one reason or another and a tile floor handles that a lot better. For one, the booth won't stink because of a wet carpet.

Posted by Edward Jurich (Member # 1787) on 07-26-2004, 06:16 PM:

-------------------------------------------
Why would the film end up on the floor??? Even if the tip end of the tail of the reel tapped the floor during loading as it "tailed out" of the reel, that shouldn't matter...unless you are one of those evil theaters that cuts the leaders off when building to large reels before plattering.
-------------------------------------------
I'm talking about those times when the the end slips off the platter or table while splicing, not rolling film onto the floor. I don't think I've ever heard of building onto large reels then onto the platter. I've seen rolling off onto 2 large reels to move a print which I like better than using bands.

Posted by Rhys M. Blavier (Member # 2557) on 07-26-2004, 07:34 PM:

quote: Edward Jurich
I'm talking about those times when the the end slips off the platter or table while splicing, not rolling film onto the floor. I don't think I've ever heard of building onto large reels then onto the platter. I've seen rolling off onto 2 large reels to move a print which I like better than using bands.

Edward,

Unless for some kind of emergency time constraints, I always build my films onto 60 minute reels and then load them onto the platter from the 60 minute reeals rather than from individual 20 minute reels. In fact, in the TIPS section of this site, the entry on Building Prints 101 ( http://www.film-tech.com/tips/build.html ) also says that this is how it should be done.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 07-26-2004, 09:09 PM:

That is the only way I like doing it. Building on to 60's and then running it on to the platter. You have more light and control at the main make up bench than you do at the platters.

Posted by Edward Jurich (Member # 1787) on 07-26-2004, 09:39 PM:

Guess this depends on the booth. Here the hand rewinds only take 2000' reels and is in a tight spot (small booth). There is more room around the platter. Another booth I once worked had no hand rewinds or work table.
You'll enjoy this, had to make up a platter once with no rewinds, work table or makeup table. Used a screwdriver to hand hold a reel while using the takeup on platter to make up.

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 07-27-2004, 11:40 AM:

Sadly I had my fair share of ghetto-rigging when I was at the 2 screen...The on-screen image quality was better than the other 2 theaters in town until we got the idiot who brainwrapped things all the time, but hey...That was building up using the platter in takeup mode and wedging the mechanism.
The reels fed off of an old ass MUT that didn't have the right port, I never got around to modifying it to work with the platters. Whatsmore the speakers were boombox speakers and ONE original screen speaker from JBL from back in the 70's i believe.
Anyhow, it took some work to get them in the right places and all of them actually working...ugly.

Meanwhile the rewind bench I pulled out of the basement was held together with nails and some of the rollers attatched with pieces of alluminum someone had cut to fit.
It was a scary booth...

Back on the subject of cleaning though...Be sure and keep your rollers clean, they accumulate a lot of crap.
And include all your other equipment too...I clean the house reels, for example, quite often.

Posted by Steven Jantzen (Member # 2575) on 07-27-2004, 06:20 PM:

With carpeted booths:

My booth is carpeted, but it is a short shag, very durable to high traffic and fairly easy to clean up. As said above, try to keep traffic to a minumum. I also found that keeping a strict regimen of cleaning can be helpful. at least once a week, vacuum your booth. As well, to clean the projectors, we use a mixture of 1 part film gaurd to roughly 8 parts rubbing alchool. This helps to wet down the projector, while dissolving any film shavings, and the film gaurd coats the rollers while the alchool evaporates pretty quickly. this helps to keep down on the dust in the booth, by cleaning the projectors and platters at least once a week as well. These steps aside, i've never really noticed much dust in my booth, even with carpet

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 07-28-2004, 02:00 PM:

You clean house reels? Where do you find them accumulating dirt? [Confused]

--jhawk

Posted by Cory Isemann (Member # 2517) on 07-28-2004, 02:13 PM:

House reels can get really nasty just from weekly use. I have found Simple Green cleaner to be very useful for cleaning them and the platter decks too.