Advice needed on mounting theater seats (1 Viewer)

[Jim Mcc]

I'm getting a few theater seats from an old theater, and I don't know how I should mount them. My room in basement has padding and carpeting over a concrete slab. The seats need to be bolted down to "something". Should I peel the carpet back? Should I leave the carpet and install over the carpet somehow? Anybody have this same situaton? I don't want to ruin the carpet, it's only about 3 years old. Thanks for any help.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

How many seats? Depending on how heavy they are you may be able to bolt them to a plank (you could stain it an urethane it to make it look nice) and they may be stable enough.

By the way, can I ask where you got the seats from? I'm in Milwaukee.

 

[Jim Mcc]

Dave, I sent you a PM. I don't have them yet, but I think I'll get 3. The rear wall where they'll go I only have 72" from one wall to a door.

 

[DaveHo]

You have two options in my mind.

#1 Pull up or drill through the carpet and install some lag shields or RedHeads and bolt them straight to the concrete. This will of course put holes in the carpet.

#2 Build a riser and mount them to that. You could either pull up the carpet where the riser will be and cover the top of the riser with that carpet or you could build the riser over top of the existing carpet. I suspect if you do the latter the carpet will be damaged anyway so I would recommend the former.

If the seats are going to be a rear row behind other seats, I think your only real option, if you want people sitting in those seats to be able to see, is to go with the riser.

-Dave

 

[Jim Mcc]

Thanks guys. If I build a riser, about how much higher do I want the rear seats than the front seats? Assume the people sitting in both rows are the same height. Also, how deep(front to back) should the riser be for one row of seats?
Thanks.

 

[DaveHo]

You'll want to make the riser high enough to be able to see the bottom of the screen over the first row. There's no hard & fast rule here as the screen height and individual seating conditions will vary. Probably the best approach is to position the first row where you want it then put blocks under a rear seat as a gauge until that height is achieved. If possible stagger the rear row with respect to the front so people are not directly behind each other. Keep in mind anything higher than 8" or so will probably need a step between the main floor and the riser to comfortably get up there. Also keep in mind your ceiling height or any other obstructions above. You don't want tall people clunking their heads.

The depth of the riser will depend on how much leg room you want to give people in the rear row. If you have the space to let them stretch out that's great. Personally, I view the rear row as the overflow or "cheap" seats. As long as they can sit comfortably without their knees pressed into the backs of the front row that's good enough. If someone in the middle needs to get out the person(s) next to them will have to stand up.

Obviously the the larger the room the more flexibility you'll have.