Carpet vs wood flooring

[Darin Steffl]

What do you all have for flooring in your auditoriums? We have a sloped wood floor now that is getting in rough shape. I'm thinking of going to carpet when we install recliners next year. This should help with acoustics and stop drink spills flowing all the way to the front of the theater.

Wood is historical and looks nice but I think carpet is more practical for us. Thoughts and experience with your theaters?

[Frank Cox]

Drink spills and carpet don't go well together.

I have carpet down the middle of the auditorium in the aisle, but wood floor elsewhere except in the wheelchair spot which has tiles.

I close for two days over Christmas. That gives me a chance to paint the floor and allow it to dry and the smell to go away.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I personally prefer carpet to hard floors, because they're more silent when people walk over them, especially compared to wooden floors and make those surfaces less reflective for both sound and light. Industrial carpet will last anywhere between 5 to 15 years, depending on use. Regular steam cleaning is still advisable, but as long as you clean up spills quickly, they'll not end up ruining it. The exception may be stains from stuff like wine. We've switched from normal industrial carpet to industrial carpet tiles for our screening room, of which we have a bunch of spares. Some otherwise uncleanable mishap can easily be fixed by replacing the affected tiles with new ones.

[Sascha Roll]

We have made by far the best experiences with a combination of carpet (the high quality stuff, obviously) along the aisles and stairs and linoleum in the seating areas. It's a natural product and can withstand A LOT of abuse if the minimum amount of care is given to it. Also has a high-quality look & feel compared to "plasticy" floor materials. Not cheap though.

[Mark Lane]

The isles are carpet but the rest of the auditorium has concrete floors.

The theater has always had concrete floors.. We just had the concrete floors repaired.. filled holes from the original seats, repaired cracks, painted etc. At that time, I added none slip paint which made the floor gritty and very hard to keep clean. It is hard to say the gritty surface was a mistake if it has kept people safe, but it has been a challenge to keep clean and I am not sure if I would do it again.

[Darin Steffl]

So if we do carpet, expect to shampoo or steam clean 1-2 times per year possibly. I do get annoyed by the noise our wood floor makes when people walk or drop candy for example. All the annoying noises seem amplified when there's a hard surface.

The wood surely has a prettier look but carpet might functionally be better for us. No mopping needed but that will just be replaced with vacuuming.

[Mike Blakesley]

Try this experiment: Find a carpeted floor anywhere. Dump a large bucket of popcorn on the carpet. Then try to vacuum it up or clean it however you can. Then do the same thing on a wood floor. Then imagine trying to do that it’s seat mechanisms in the way.

You will probably find that the wood is far easier to clean up the mess on than carpet. If you have recliners, you’re going to end up with a lot of popcorn and candy underneath the chairs. Not to mention soda spills. It would be very hard to steam clean underneath recliners.

If I were you I would go with the wood for under the chairs with carpet in the aisles. This way you get the best of both worlds… Carpet to absorb the sounds of the walking, and the wood floor under the chairs is easier to clean than the carpet. This will be true no matter what kind of chairs you use.

[Frank Cox]

I have my own carpet steam cleaning machine and I use it to clean the aisle carpet a couple of times every year, and occasionally more often depending on how much crap gets tracked into the theatre. No matter how well you vacuum it, it won't get the dirt that gets deeply embedded in the carpet.

That dirt, if left there, also wears out the rug a whole lot faster than it would otherwise.

I've had my theatre for 27 years and I've replaced the auditorium carpet twice.

Incidentally, it's convenient to have your own machine for cleaning the rug. For the cost of having it done by "professionals", if you clean it yourself twice, you've paid for the machine. And you can do it in the middle of the night after the show is over so it has lots of time to dry before the next night's show.

[Marcel Birgelen]

The "linoleum" Sasha mentioned is also a good fit for areas under the seats when you don't want to deal with carpets, but want a somewhat sound-absorbing floor. There's different stuff on the market though and you want the high-grade stuff that's sealed, otherwise it will suck up dirt and spillages even harder than carpet. Stuff you want to avoid imho is the cheap looking and easily worn vinyl sheeting, a bare, sealed concrete floor is even better...

[Don Furr]

All 11 of our Dollar Houses had carpet only down the isles. Under the seats was concrete flooring.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I had customers in Wisconsin some years ago that ran carpet down the aisles and in the back, then they put linoleum under the seats and up to the front. They claimed it was too difficult to repaint the floor every 5 years. However, I can imagine how hard it would be to replace linoleum every ten or twelve years....

[Frank Cox]

I repaint my floor every Christmas Eve. It's a bit tedious but it's not a particularly difficult job.

[Armand Daiguillon]

So if we do carpet, expect to shampoo or steam clean 1-2 times per year possibly. I do get annoyed by the noise our wood floor makes when people walk or drop candy for example. All the annoying noises seem amplified when there's a hard surface.

The wood surely has a prettier look but carpet might functionally be better for us. No mopping needed but that will just be replaced with vacuuming.

No - if you do carpet, your theater will look like crap within a month. Period. Not a day goes by where a drink isn't spilt in an auditorium. Try getting blue slushy stain out ..... ugh.
You can get the fanciest stuff you like on the aisles, but the auditorium floor ..... concrete or a linoleum tile or something easily mop-able is only way to go.
Rip up that wood and put a nice finish on the concrete and then fancy tile the aisles (a faux wood is pretty popular these days)
If you put carpet ...you'll regret it ..........

[Stefan Scholz]

Carpet in auditorium aisles is ok, but not in seating areas. Spilled soda soaks into the texture, and after some years, you're walking on a sticky surface full of sugar.
In the morning, when A/C is in idle, there's the typical smell of fermenting sugar and buturic acid from popcorn grease, not very pleasant. Best for a floor underneath seating, something that can be mobbed or wiped with a detergent.

[Dan Allen]

We have carpet in the aisles and wood under the seats. No food or drink in the theatre so we don't have to worry much, but the carpet still gets steam cleaned twice a year and the wood floors mopped more often - especially in winter when snowy, salty boots have left their mark. 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.