Carpet vs wood flooring

[Frank Cox]

after every show they took two people with leaf blowers who criss-crossed thru the aisles and blew all the loose wrappers and popcorn down to the front and clean up was apparently quick and easy.

I've heard of theatres doing that.

Sounds like a good way to get your screen and side walls covered with crap...

[Mark Lane]

I knew of a theatre in Buffalo that after every show they took two people with leaf blowers who criss-crossed thru the aisles and blew all the loose wrappers and popcorn down to the front and clean up was apparently quick and easy.

That is what we do. We use a leaf blower to blow the popcorn to the bottom of the auditorium, then swept up.. it is faster than a broom and does a better job. None of the popcorn gets air-born., the air just pushes it along the ground. None of the small trash or popcorn ever gets more than an inch above the floor so there is not crap on the walls.

When we took over the theater the previous owner used a gas blower but pulling the cord to get the blower to start was killing my arm so we replaced it with a cordless electric one.. It is not as powerful as the gas blower but offers more than enough power to move popcorn.
We walk through the auditorium picking up the big trash, do a poor job and getting the piles of popcorn then use the leaf blower. It only takes a few minutes. Often we can have this done before the credits are off the screen.

[Mike Blakesley]

We've never tried the leaf blower idea here. My big objection to it was that maybe it would stir up some dust that might get on the screen? But, we have a screen broom so that shouldn't be a problem. Might be a good idea to try it sometime, I guess.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Leaf blowers are also very common in theaters in the Midwest and around Salt Lake City. What they do is start by picking up the big stuff, then once that is all clear, they blow towards the back of the room beginning at the front. This blows much of the crud away from the screen. In Stadium they blow from one side to the other. They also shut off the air handler until they were finished mopping the bare floor area. BUt I can tell you from doing a gazillion screen replacements over the years that some of the crud does still end up behind the screen. Popcorn, popcorn containers, ticket stubs and even stuff you've never seen before.

[Don Furr]

Believe it or not, there was a theatre in metro Atlanta that the owner used a GAS leaf blower to clean the auditoriums. Guess what it smelled like?

[Lyle Romer]

Believe it or not, there was a theatre in metro Atlanta that the owner used a GAS leaf blower to clean the auditoriums. Guess what it smelled like?

Popcorn? :-)

[Randy Stankey]

... [Linoleum] It's a natural product...

Only if boiled linseed oil, hardened with lead acetate, dissolved in benzene then mixed with ground cork and soaked onto cotton canvas could be considered "natural."

That's how Linoleum was originally made and, as far as I know, "real" Linoleum is still made in a similar fashion. Whether lead acetate and benzene are still used, I don't know but the basic recipe is linseed oil, polymerized with "some chemical" then dissolved in "some industrial solvent" before it is coated onto a substrate. Don't forget the dyes, colorants, plasticizers and preservatives that would have to be used to make a viable product. Real Linoleum is little more than a "chemical soup." God only knows what modern vinyl flooring is made from!

For a regular commercial theater, I wouldn't consider anything but smooth concrete sealed with matte black epoxy and high grade carpet in the aisles. For a smaller theater that attracts a more erudite clientele, I might consider asphalt tile or, maybe Linoleum but only if it's the "good stuff" that's pigmented all the way through so that the color doesn't rub off as it wears.

I think it's funny how people pay so much attention to the floors and how to clean them but give little to no attention to the seats.
At Mercyhurst, the seats were covered with polyolefin fabric, cushioned with foam. They had never been cleaned in the six years before I started working there.

The clientele at Mercyhurst was the "more mature" crowd (AKA: "Blue Hair") and, on several occasions, I noticed that seats were "wet" after a show. We didn't sell concessions so there was no way that anybody would have spilled Coke on the seats. I told my boss and he said to just spray some upholstery cleaner on the seat and let it dry.

I was like, "That's GROSS!!!" and I told him that I was going to call Stanley Steemer to come out and steam clean the seats... All 800 of them! He agreed but only begrudgingly.

They backed two trucks up to the alley behind the theater and pulled 100-foot hoses in through the emergency exits. It took three guys most of a day to clean all of the seats. One guy sprayed the seats with hot cleaning fluid then two guys came along, afterward, to vacuum extract the dirt. When I looked at the water in the waste tanks, it was BLACK like coffee!

I found a small, plastic bottle and got a sample of the waste water to show my boss. I held it up and said, "Your customers have been sitting in other peoples' piss and shit for the last five years!" The guy practically puked!

Since that day, we had the seats in the auditorium cleaned every year. Even then, the water that came out of those seats still looked gross. It wasn't nearly as bad as the first time but it's still amazing how dirty seats can get after only one season.

With so many theaters, these days, that have plush, upholstered seats I just cringe to think what they are like after a few years. The local Cinemark theater in my town is over 25 years old. The auditoriums were all refitted with stadium seating and all the chairs were replaced but that was still more than ten years ago.

I don't remember any theater that I have ever worked at, beside Mercyhurst, that has ever done more than a spot cleaning to their seats.

If a commercial theater isn't having their seats professionally steam cleaned once a year AT MINIMUM, I shudder to think what they are like!

[Mike Croaro]

Cement floors with some type of a polyurethane finish are best. Carpet will almost certainly be a bad mistake. Too hard to keep clean and just plain nasty. Even is a residential home it's nasty.

[James Wyrembelski]

Stick with wood if that's what is already there. Carpet under the seating will be a nightmare and I'm the rare fan of carpeted flooring for almost any application. I suppose if you wanted something else perhaps sealed asphalt tile would work?

Ours is a sloped concrete floor that's sealed a light grey/blue and generally gets thoroughly mopped the Thursday before a new film opens. If it's a kid's film it gets a quick mopping almost every night. Our aisles and lobby are carpeted and I wouldn't go any other way in that area. The amount of potential slipping that is prevented is worth it alone particularly in the winter months. Good commercial carpeting can take quite the beating and is honestly better to deal with when it comes to the salt and dirt winter brings. Unlike residential carpeting, commercial has a tight stitch, is glued down and prevents a lot of embedding and makes it more durable. Tile in common areas isn't necessarily bad, but expect to deck scrub that if it has any kind of grip to it, which is what you would want in any area that has spillage. I worked in a restaurant that went from carpet to tile and within 6 months had two slips and was just a downright pain to keep up with as far as cleaning.

I own my own carpet steamer and generally do them 2 to 3x a year and they come out looking brand new and only takes a couple hours. A good commercial vacuum will go a long way in that as well.