New stage floor in Bruges concert hall: a masterpiece of craftsmanship at a rattling pace
In the summer of 2019, employees of Parket Seye in the Flemish town of Oudenburg started their holidays later than usual: during the performance-free summer break, they had just six weeks to remove the old stage floor in the concert hall of the world-famous concert building in Bruges and install a new one. Since performances were due to start up again at the beginning of August, it was essential to meet this deadline.
"You can't compare a stage floor with a traditional parquet floor," explains Franky De Smet of Parket Seye. "Not even with a heavily used floor like in a catering establishment. On stage, the floor is put to very intensive use, with several shows taking place every week. This means setting up and dismantling a stage set every time, which makes extreme demands on the floor. Besides the constantly moving chests of materials, the stage has seven towers weighing 1.5 tonnes apiece that are used to suspend props, screens and curtains. These towers are also frequently moved around the floor, so the planks have to withstand a heavy load. The stage floor was only 16 years old, but it was completely worn out."
A race against time
Laying a 1150 sqm parquet floor requires not only technical skill but also sophisticated planning and logistics. With a team of 6 to 8 floor installers in just six weeks, it was a real race against time. Franky de Smet and his colleagues had thought about the construction schedule and logistics well in advance. Fortunately, they were able to use the existing infrastructure at the concert hall. A large goods lift that was available, for example, was very helpful when it came to disposing of the old floor covering. The old floorboards were thrown straight into a container in the lift, moved to floor level and transported to a biomass power station in what was a fast and efficient operation.
To start with, the floor layers repaired and reinforced the wooden rafters that were to support the stage floor. Next, they installed a subfloor made of OSB panels. Here too, the lift proved to be very practical. They had also put a lot of advance thought into the installation procedure. "First of all, we laid out a central pathway from which small teams of 2 or 3 people continued to work in all directions," de Smet explains. "This allowed us to work without getting in each other's way, and the surface area covered grew all round in a star shape. Then we glued and nailed the flooring to the OSB panels."
For the flooring itself, a high-quality Douglas fir was chosen. This species is slightly softer than oak, but is also more flexible. If the wood is deformed by a heavy load due to its natural properties, it will return to its original shape over time, unlike with oak. In view of the heavy loads on stage, this factor played an important role in selecting the type of wood. Parket Seye installed floorboards of 9 centimetres in width, up to 8 metres in length and in a 9-millimetre thickness. These were glued with STAUF SPU 570 wood flooring adhesive, the top product among the user-friendly reactive resin adhesives. This is suitable for permanently strong, shear-resistant bonding of parquet and large-format planks. STAUF SPU 570 is a 1-component adhesive that achieves bonding strengths previously only attained by 2-component PU adhesives. The final finish was given to the floor with a high-quality black oil, which prevents optical reflections on the stage.
A complex project
The process of installing the parquet floor was all the more complex because the floor installers had to take into account the large array of technical equipment available on the building site. Miles of cable are hidden under the stage. New cable ducts and covers had to be installed everywhere. The biggest challenge, however, was presented by the moving parts of the stage: the front part of the stage can be lowered to create space for an orchestra pit or additional seats. All the planks had to be sawn to size to allow unhindered movement of the stage elements.
"In addition, all the elements had to fit together as well as possible so that the audience would not see that the stage was made up of different parts," explains Franky de Smet. "All these details and all the technology required a great deal of precision work and adjustment. It really was an amazing job to finish within six weeks. But thanks to careful planning, high-quality products and a great team effort, we were able to complete the project on time.“