Boxoffice-December.02.1950

WINTERIZING THEATRE FLOORS
by DAVE E. SMALLEY
^^S IN ALL OTHER PHASES Of living,
winter brings its special housekeeping
problems and one of the biggest of these
is
the maintenance of the floors.
There are two ways of facing this problem,
one of which is to accept the situation
as inevitable and do nothing about it.
Floors are bound to get more abuse in bad
weather and the public expects and accepts
the temporary impairment as coincident
with winter.
As a matter of fact, as your customers
shuffle through your lobby they are too
intent upon the objective ahead to notice
or care how your floor looks, and when
they get into the foyer and auditorium it
is too dark to see, even if they did care.
All of which assumption makes it easy to
brush the worry from your mind.
The other way of facing the problem is
to recognize these facts: First, the customer
does see your dirty lobby floor and
it registers unfavorably in his subconscious
mind; second, your floor represents a
big investment and neglect at any time
will cost you money later on: and third,
something can be done about protecting
and maintaining floors successfully in bad
weather.
To begin with, "an ounce of prevention
is worth a pound of cure," so exclude as
much of the winter slush as possible by
keeping the sidewalk clean. With snow on
adjoining sidewalks it is not easy to keep
your own clean, even under your broad
marquee where it is tracked by the endless
stream of customers and passersby. However,
in very bad weather it will pay to
keep one man with a fiber brush busy on
the sidewalk. He can do as much good as
two men with mops on the inside.
To be sure, most of the larger theatres
use corrugated or perforated rubber runners
across the lobby, especially essential
in bad weather. Not only do these runners
go a long way toward cleaning the
shoe soles before they reach the carpeting,
but they may prevent falls on a smooth,
wet floor.
Nevertheless, when the weather drives
the waiting crowd inside the lobby, they
will not all stay on the rubber runners.
Terrazzo and marble floors are likely to
suffer most from dirty, melting snow or
water carried in from the street. Asphalt
tile, ceramic tile, rubber and linoleum are
less easily stained by such conditions.
MARBLE STAINS IN WINTER
Neglecting your terrazzo or marble floor
during the winter will result in a badly
stained floor by next spring. The discoloration
may be so uniform as to be unnoticable
until you move a runner. Harsh
cleaners and hard work will then be necessary
to restore your floor to its natural
tone. And harsh cleaners take a positive
toll from the texture of your floor. Alkaline
solutions seep into the pores of the
marble, including the marble chips of your
terrazzo and, upon drying, swell and cause
the marble to spall. What is known as
"dusting" is usually the result.
If terrazzo or marble does become stained,
alkalies or abrasives are usually necessary
to remove the discoloration, but
abrasives are also hard on marble. Especially
on terrazzo the continued use of
abrasives has a tendency to dull the natural
polish.
Therefore, it is better to protect your
terrazzo or marble before it becomes stained
from winter usage. Since in most parts
of our country really bad weather does
not set in until near Christmas, you should
still have time to winterize your floors.
Of course, before doing anything else,
give the floor a good cleaning. This is done
best and safest with a good neutral soap
or with one of the new synthetic "soap"
cleaners. The latter, which are nearly always
derived from sulphonated alcohol and
are now available from almost all leading
suppliers, are more effective than soap because
they are what is known as "wetting
agents" and have considerable penetrative
action. At the same time they are
safe to use on any washable surface.
Much of the sparkle and the custom-tailored look of the lobby and refreshment counter in
the Harper Theatre in Fontana, Calif., stems from the highly polished terrazzo floor with its
compass point pattern in front of the circular refreshment counter. The theatre was designed by
S. Charles Lee, prominent west coast architect.
WAX GIVES PROTECTION
When the floor is clean and dry, apply
the protective treatment of which there
are two kinds adaptable for terrazzo and
marble. The better of these is floor wax,
preferable the "self-polishing," water wax
type. It is easy to apply, easy to remove
or renew and it not only prevents traffic
stains from penetrating the floor, but
greatly simplifies cleaning. Water, slush
and dust do not adhere to a well waxed
surface. Ordinarily they can be removed
(Continued on page 22)
BOXOFFICE December 2, 1950 15