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Getting ready to change seats (approx 520, 280 in one room and 240 in the second room). The new (new to us) are wider and therefore will require all new floor mounting (concrete).

My question is: with 2 people working, what is a realistic pace (how many seats removed and replaced in a hour) that we could expect to achieve? We currently have a center aisle that will be changed to the side ailses. I am assuming that the old seats have been in place for 20 years+ and might be hard to get loose for removal.

We want to achieve this change out in 5 days (starting Mon a.m. and finishing Fri before 4 pm.) We will start at the back of the theater and go forward leaving at least 1-2 rows removed at any point so people can get down to the seats in front that have not been changed out yet.

Your thoughts?

Thanks

Mike

I can not help on how long for 2 people as we always have 4--usually do 6 rows at a time, repainting floor as we go along.

I can tell you as far as removal I have the best luck just using a good ratchet wrench and over tightening the existing bolts which in most cases breakes them below the floor line (they usually break off anyway trying to loosen them---but leaves a piece above floor that has to be ground down).

I also learned my lesson fast on using a lower priced hammer drill---get a good industrial one and you will save a headache--and your back .

After having brand new seats installed last year, I can say I am glad I paid professional installers to do the installing. We did the removal of about 220 old seats (about 60 years old) in about 15 man hours. We used an air impact wrench and an air ratchet for bolt removal. Even tightening the bolts to break them off, we had to grind a lot of them. The 3 installers took 1 1/2 days to put in 240 new seats with a little help from me. I mostly broke the boxes down and stacked them out of the way and hauled boxes of parts into the theater for them. Our new seats were wider and the rows spaced farther apart so all new holes had to be drilled in the concrete also.

As a side note, if you need to fill in holes in the concrete where the old anchors were, use Bondo. If you read the side of the can, it says you can use it for concrete repair. We filled some holes with it and it worked great.

An important note before you do anything with the seating. If you're going to change from center aisle to side aisles you better check with the fire department and building department of your locality. They have the ability to tell you how many seats can be in a row and where a row has to be left out for a fire exit.

A local theater here had to take out several complete rows of their 1948 vintage seats because the fire regulations changed. Fire marshall came in for his usual yearly inspection and proudly annouced "those seats (which had been in place since 1948) now must be removed to allow unobstructed access to the exit doors in case of fire. Lost 50 seats to that new regulation. Same thing happened to the Admiral Theater in west Seattle (Washington) last year. Even though they had not replaced any seats or even thought of getting new seats the regulations were changed without notice to the theater owners. It wasn't until a fire inspection that the fire marshall said, "this is the way it's gonna be".

I am puting in new seats in 2 theaters 1 stadium and one flat floor the thing is they are wood floors...any ideas

get a pro or prepare to spend some serious time on your knees or at the least get a very experienced carpenter to help with layout

---

Michael Hurley
Impresario

We put in seats in slope and stadium seating auditoriums that had wood floors. The seat supplier supplied the wood screws and we have had no problems with them. It has been about seven years since the first auditorium install and two since the second.

I had a different flooring contractor refinish the floors to their original natural luster in each of the auditoriums. The second guy spent two days filling in all the cracks and holes from the old seats. That floor looks great and is easy to clean up. The other floor looks great, but soda and small pieces of popcorn collect in the cracks that weren't filled.

For those who have hard floors in your auditoriums..how is the noise factor?? We have carpet over concrete and the carpet is so hard to keep clean.(fools in the 1980's put down pale blue, pale pink and pale grey carpet!!! You can imagine the stains show up very easily) We will be changing our seats over by the end of the year and Im wondering how noisy from feet and dropping things it would be if we just polish up the concrete or put vinyl down rather than recarpeting it.
Also, does it make the auditoriums echo at all from the shows?? And does it make it harder to keep the room warm?

I know carpet theaters are not a great idea....but...as a customer when i see a theater with carpet in the auditorium rows i think it looks nice....

hmmm--I think bacteria when I see carpeting under the seats as well as in bathrooms and kitchens

lol...thats true also ... when you walk into the Ziegfeld auditorium the carpet looks like a step above other theaters...

We did 275 seats on a wood floor including removal of the old seats, refinishing the floors and installation of the new seats in 5 days working with a team of 5, 15 hour shifts, and the best tools money can buy.

The advice about fire codes is well taken. Other than that this stiff aint rocket science. Strike your chalk lines and get moving. Make sure you understand your layout and that your legroom is correct (this is also a fire code specification)

If you are trying to do curves, get an installer.

Also, unless you want the ADA people all over you make sure you do the right thing and put in some aisle transfer seats and some removalable sets for wheel chairs (or leave some permanently empty spaces)

Roger Detzler
IOKA Entertainment Inc

What is a good rate to pay per seat for installation (all new holes drilled in concrete)? Removal?

Thanks

[This message has been edited by rufusjack (edited August 23, 2007).]