Wearing Out the Floor

craigbowman

craigbowman

Veteran
We're wearing out the floor in our ADR and recording control room. Anyone have any suggestions short of a complete refinishing?

Here's a photo where you can see the wear from the chairs.

studio001.jpg
 
My girlfriend was mentioning something the other day about some sort of floor restoring polish she wanted to try. I think she said it was available at places like Home Depot. I'll ask her.
 
craigbowman said:
We're wearing out the floor [...]
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I have a friend with a recording studio with wood floors and he painted the floors of both the control room and recording room with an epoxy-based paint that has stood up very well to wear and tear. It also helps to have chairs that have nylon wheels rather than metal wheels, and the ride is smoother too (it looks like you already have these from the photo).
 
Ron Vermeulen designed the studio for us. It has a two story live room with a couple of isolation booths. We added a Foley pit recently.

studio003.jpg

studio002.jpg


The Miller and Kriesel 5.1 surround is the same one dolby uses to calibrate dolby.

You'd be more than welcome to some studio time if you're ever in the neighborhood.

In fact we provide lots of freebies to the independant film community, including use of our private screening room for meetings, use of our soundstage across the street for casting calls, weekend shoots and workshops.
 
In fact we provide lots of freebies to the independant film community, including use of our private screening room for meetings, use of our soundstage across the street for casting calls, weekend shoots and workshops.
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Oh sweet Sassafrass. Can you please move your facilities down to L.A., pronto!

It's cool that you help out like that.

-GageFX
 
it won't help you now but most "good" chairs like herman miller have both plastic wheels for carpet or softer wheels for hardwood floor.

i just built a new house/studio and we had bamboo floors put in and i had to swap my aeron chair's wheels.

i couldn't find a dealer anywhere who would get back to me for such a small sale so i emailed herman miller and they sent me a set of wheels free.

would a small carpet for the high activity area toally ruin the sound?

matthew
 
Hey Craig.

At the least it's probably best to have someone clean and seal the floor.

You might get lucky and find someone to do a relatively inexpensive color match as part of the deal.

After that, you can get a soft silicon mat that should protect the floor and abate any rolling sounds to boot.

Another option is a decent area rug. You should be able to get one relatively cheap at Costco.
 
the only problem with any hardwood resurfacing i've seen is that it makes a TON of dust when they sand the floor before they refinish it.

in this instance it looks like that would make it nearly impossible as you'd have to remove everything and protect any wires that are left from the dust.

maybe a really good hardwood floor guy could spot sand and just redo that spot?

i'd definitely get a wood floor pro in there to give you their opinion.

why would a rug kill your legs?

matthew
 
I'm in the midst of a DIY remodel of a 1930's era house, with oak floors...

From the photo, the varnish (or poly most likely) on your floors is gone, looks like raw wood?

You can spot-sand, stain, and varnish, but it won't match.

If the floors are solid oak strip floor, they'll take a sanding or two. If they're that newer laminated stuff, there's only a 16th or so of hardwood. (A clue to the type of floor: does the varnish cover the whole floor, filling the gaps, or can you see "sections" of floor, with no varnish in the gaps?)

If they are the laminated strip-floor, have you come across any leftovers from construction in an attic or storage area? You could use that to ID the floor (lots of those floors have info stamped on the bottom). Or pull up a slat and check. These kinds of floors can often be spot-replaced, but matching the color could be tough. (If you're lucky, there's enough stashed from the build to fix that spot, which should match well, being the same age. Rarely are we that lucky though...)

As mentioned, sanding floors is dust-intensive (as all hell!). There are newer machines that contain it really well, but man, for audio gear?? You'd want to clear it out, seal every door, window, outlet box, and AC vent with tape/plastic. BIG job.

And, for some reason, the dust just keeps showing up, weeks after you're done... some sort of black-hole effect.

I think oriental-persian style rugs look great on wood floors; you can get nice looking ones cheap (like everything else, there are tons on eBay). Even if you refinish or repair the floor, whole or spot, you'll just have the same problems down the road (and it's more than just the type of chair-wheel... it's the dust & grit on everyone's shoes over the years). I'd consider rugs, and test to see if the affect your ears for mixing & tracking.
 
I just happened to be shooting some video in my friend's recording studio last night (the one I mentioned in an earler post who used epoxy paint on the wood studio floors) so I asked him, "can you tell me nore about that epoxy paint you used on the floors" and his reply was, "I used warehouse grade 2-part epoxy floor paint that I got from the hardware store in NOWA {a neighborhood in Boston, not much help in Canada}... one thing I can tell you, is don't apply it when it's cold... it will never cure." Looks like these floors have a serviceable life of 4 to 6 years and possibly more, depending on wear. I can understand the reason for not using rugs, when I've worked in this studio, I appreciate being able to roll around in the chairs with no restriction. It's like laying down a "dance floor" for the dolly... a smooth surface for moving around is great when you're working in this kind of environment.
 
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