13Dec2022

Robust workshop floors for the boards that mean the world

The workshops at the Staatstheater Hannover (Hanover State Theatres) are bursting at the seams: the current storeroom and workshop building behind the municipal library has been in need of renovation for years now, and the technology in place is getting on in years. Any lifting and loading up to now has been done solely by muscle power since the appropriate technology is simply not available – quite a feat considering the 75 tonnes of steel, 40,000 metres of wooden slats and 10,500 square metres of plywood, multiplex panels and blockboards that are processed there each year. The solution lies in a new location in Hanover's Bornum district: construction work there began in spring 2020.

STAUF PUK 446: Fast and economical bonding of OSBs

Fast forward to a morning in December 2022: ten stage construction professionals from Bühnenbau Wertheim GmbH are currently hard at work laying a floating floor on behalf of the Niedersächsische Staatstheater Hannover GmbH (State Theatres of Lower Saxony in Hanover). The carpentry firm specialises in the manufacture and installation of stage floors in theatres, opera houses and concert halls. In Hanover, a new subfloor is required for an area covering 4,000 square metres in total, spread across several large rooms. Floating installation offers the big advantage that due to the absence of a fixed connection to the subfloor, it is possible to remove the subfloor and replace it with comparatively little effort. The stage construction professionals start by bonding a second layer of OSB boards onto the floating first layer using STAUF PUK 446. The choice fell on this two-component polyurethane parquet adhesive due to the low temperatures involved: STAUF PUK 446 is easy to apply, is very low-emission and lends itself for universal use on virtually all substrates without the need for a primer. To mix the two components, the plastic bottle containing hardener no. 5 is completely emptied into a bucket together with the resin component. After this, the stage construction professionals mix together the two components until a uniform colour is obtained.

Ideal for high mechanical loads: STAUF SPU 460

In a next step, the stage construction professionals apply STAUF SPU 460 to the top OSB layer once the adhesive has sufficiently set (dried) and the OSB boards have been sanded: the two-layer parquet is bonded to a top layer of black pine with the single-component SPU parquet adhesive that – according to ISO 17178 – is categorised as a hard adhesive. The STAUF product has the advantage that its high strength combined with elasticity make it perfect for any floor required to withstand heavy loads. This adhesive is also very low-emission (EMICODE® EC1^PLUS). The multi-layer parquet is then surface-treated to provide effective protection against wear and tear – after all, it will not be long until heavy materials are being moved across the workshop floors.

First stage of construction in the grand master plan

By the middle of 2023, the people who work in the metal and wood workshops, the costume, props and set workshops and the construction department will finally be able to move into their modern new workplace at the new location. Known as the Bornum 2042 master plan, this plan envisages the expansion of the Bornumer Straße site into the central rehearsal and production venue of the Hanover State Theatres over the course of the next 25 years. The project is due to be completed in the year 2042 once the move has taken place into the new orchestra rehearsal room.

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