The Major Match-Up: Hand Built Wooden Stages vs. Professional Manufactured Stages

Have you ever wondered what the specific differences are between the available types of stages for your upcoming event? This topic will educate you on the differentiation between stages that are hand built by a conventional carpenter versus a Stage CMDR stage offered in our rental inventory. We feature the staging product line from Accurate Staging Manufacture that is built with aluminum extrusion and various types of deck top surfaces. This product line is 1 of the top 3 leading staging manufactures in the entire entertainment industry!

In recent events that took place at a local high school in Southern California, 250 students where jumping up and down on a stage during their performance when one of the worst things could happen, the entire front side of the stage collapsed! Reports from the media stated the students plummeted 10 to 15 feet downward and suffered non-life threatening injuries. The stage structure was reported to be constructed of only wood and approximately 50’ x 25’ in dimension.

Let’s calculate out the details: If 250 students having an average low end weight of 100 lbs were on a 50’ x 25’ stage, that would formulate the total weight of the 250 students at about 25,000 lbs. Now if we just just bump it up to the high end assuming the average weight of the 250 students was 200 lbs, that would produce a total weight of 50,000 lbs on the stage. When factoring in all 250 students jumping up and down simultaneously, there would be approximately 60,000 lbs or more of force applied to the stage at any given time throughout the duration of the performance.

With Stage CMDR’s Accurate Staging Manufacture product line, a single stage deck that is 4’ x 8’ in size has a 4,600 lbs weight rating. Let’s match up this rating with the 50’ x 25’ wooden stage noted above. Stage CMDR would make a comparable size stage that is 48’ x 24’ with using 4’ x 8’ decks’ that is 2 feet shorter and 1 foot less in depth than the wooden stage used at this particular school. Since each 4’ x 8’ deck has a 4,600 lb rating, that yields the total weight load of a 48’ x 24’ stage at 165,600 lbs, allowing approximately 828 students weighing an average 200 lbs each on the stage at one time. 828 students on a firm standing stage versus a wooden stage that collapsed with only 250 students on it…Stage CMDR’s product is a TKO.

The difference between an all handmade wood stage in comparison to our stages is Stage CMDR’s product has aluminum extrusion on the sides as well as underneath the deck surface. If you put the same stages on our aluminum structure, this will give the total stage size an even higher weight rating because the downward force load is not only being evenly distributed between the structure, but also the deck itself.

Our stages can be both permanently and temporarily installed for schools, churches, entertainment venues, special event centers, and concert venues. You can feel safe in using our staging products while knowing that it is near impossible to exceed the weight rating at any given time. Nor will you have anyone or anything fall through the stage, or have the stage collapse.

Now don’t be fooled! NOT all professionally engineered staging product lines have the same weight rating, and not all staging is the same type of product. Rule of thumb: the cheaper it is to purchase or rent, be prepared for a lower weight rating, integrity, and/or quality of the product. Just like anything in life, you get what you pay for.