Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Theatre Seats Installation

This is topic Theatre Seats Installation in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by William T. Parr (Member # 677) on 02-24-2003, 11:53 PM:

Hope this is in the right Forum. Does any know of a company close to Central Texas that could install some theatre seats at the Howard theatre in Taylor. We are getting about 450 seats out of the Cine 6 in Corpus Christi and need to have them put back down at the Howard. Not sure what make or manufacturer of the seats are, but Brad has photo's of the in the Cine 6 photo's I sent a while back. Please e mail me off line at wparr@austin.rr.com Thanks

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-25-2003, 12:21 AM:

Yes, there is a company out of Waco, TX that did my seat installation at the screening room and they have done tons of work for UA, Cinemark and such. They do fantastic work, but I'll be damned if I can remember their name. Surely someone on this forum knows who I am talking about.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 02-25-2003, 12:32 AM:

It is probably something you can do yourself. The biggest thing is chalking the floor with correct measurements, and someone who knows how to use a roto-hammer correctly. Immediately after the holes are drilled, one person is all that is needed to follow you with the studding operation. Once the floor studding is done (correctly), a good crew that knows how to use basic hand tools on an assembly line technique will outfit that auditoruim in very short order.

I have done seat installations in some of our auditoriums years ago, and it really is not as difficult as it looks. Prep work is what really takes up the time.

It took me about 4 hours with a good crew to outfit a 180-seat auditorium after the old seats were removed, the floor cleaned up, and chalked for the new standards. I was running the roto-hammer at mach-1 speed. I did the chalking with the help of the projectionist. The remaining crew was theatre popcorn salesmen, some of their friends, and the projectionist.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 02-25-2003, 02:07 AM:

Don't forget (a good seat installer shouldn't forget) to check the slope of the floor for both theaters and have the appropriate shims on hand. Otherwise, people will be sliding out of or getting folded up in their seats.

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 02-25-2003, 08:20 AM:

There is a hell of a lot more to seating than dragging in a truck loat of old seats & screwing them down. We discovered a lot of things when discussing rebuilding our seats with a reputable manufacturer. Consider these things. If the seat rows are curved there are probably seats of as many as 4 different widths in each row. The seat angle can change 2 or 3 or 4 times from rear to front to reduce neck craning. Seat cushion down stops should be adjusted for different seat angles to eliminate the feeling of sliding off. Most hardware store anchors will soon pull out.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 02-25-2003, 11:05 AM:

Bill and Adam are absolutely correct on that one. The inclination angle of the standards of the "new" seats might not be compatible with the slope of the floor.

If the installer does not plan it out in detail, the job will turn sour. As I said earlier, prep work is what takes up the time, and this prep work covers most of the things Bill pointed out. The seat anchors selected should be what the manufacturer recommends.

We had a seat installation done by a professional, and he was tasked with used seats that came out of an old barn in Seattle. Nothing fit. The job was a mess. Shortly thereafter, we bought new Irwin seats. We ripped out all of the old ones. The new seat installation was quick and clean, looked great, and felt great when they were sat in when I finished the job.

It could be more of a hassle to install used seating than what it is worth because of the man-hours involved in engineering old seats to fit. There may be little to no cost savings and the installation could be a poor one when finished like ours was. It was of no fault to the installer, he just didn't have anything to work with.

Posted by William T. Parr (Member # 677) on 02-25-2003, 01:50 PM:

Hey Brad,

was the company in Waco perhaps American Desk? If so I can try getting thier phone number from an internet look up. Also Can you tell by looking at the Cine 6 photos who manufactured the seating in question? The wll be in the Auditorium 1 and 2 photo's.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-25-2003, 02:11 PM:

Having only disassembled a single row of seats once, I firmly believe that professional seating installation is worth every penny. Seating work is a real chore and too easy to do wrong to do without extensive experience.