simulate house siding?
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Set Design and Construction
Forum Discription: Post your questions or suggestions about designing or building a set here.
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3816
Printed Date: 11/24/24 at 2:59pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 8.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: simulate house siding?
Posted By: mikepatterson
Subject: simulate house siding?
Date Posted: 2/10/09 at 10:48am
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Doing Proof in a couple of months, need to make the rear of a small house with siding. Thought about painted lines with shading but don't think it would come off well and it would be very time consuming. Purchasing actual house siding would cost about US $180 (less trim), more than I'd like to pay out of our total budget of $500. Any suggestions appreciated! Thanks! Mike |
Replies:
Posted By: belle
Date Posted: 2/10/09 at 11:54am
| Ask around for someone who is replacing their siding or a contractor who sides houses. You could use the siding they took off the house. It should be free since the contractor won't have to find a place to dump it. You could probably paint if you didn't like the color. |
Posted By: vickifrank
Date Posted: 2/10/09 at 2:16pm
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Scored and bent corrugated cardboard is a simple and easy solution. Some corrugated companies will donate to community theater. You score on back side 4" from top edge, then 1/2", then over again all the way down. Of course then you bend it back and forth and staple into place. Most sheets are 5 feet by 10 feet, so easy to work with. ------------- _____________ http://www.studio-productions-inc.com 1-800-359-2964 The theater scrim people |
Posted By: Chris Polo
Date Posted: 2/10/09 at 6:23pm
This is actually what we did for the set of Proposals. Do you have any members in construction/contracting? That's how we've gotten a lot of well-worn lumber over the years -- members with connections for scrap. Built a terrific-looking old dock for Catfish Moon from lumber from a deck renovation job that a member was working on. Real siding or decking looks great, too -- better than any paint job could do, at least in a theater where the audience is as close to the stage as ours is. ------------- Chris Polo Visit Community Theater Green Room Originals at www.cafepress.com/ctgr "The scenery in the play was beautiful, but the actors got in front of it." -- Alexander Woolcott |
Posted By: davidmoon
Date Posted: 2/10/09 at 7:41pm
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I'll second on the cardboard ... as long as the paper cover is not to thin, where the corrugation shows through. If you are not married to the clapboard look, cardboard also makes a nice shake or shingle siding.
------------- David Moon http://www.theatrestory.com/ - http://www.theatrestory.com/ |
Posted By: MartyW
Date Posted: 2/11/09 at 7:46am
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Still a cost, but maybe a little less, (and depending on how much wall you have to do, stacked luan scraps (or other thinner woods you may have laying about in your scrap heap.. Or.. again for a little money, but still cheaper than siding with trim, thin foam board cut in strips to size and then layered... ------------- Marty W "Till next we trod the boards.." |
Posted By: Kim L.
Date Posted: 2/14/09 at 8:24am
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We have taken old wood pallets, ripped them apart and used the boards for clapboard-looking siding. It gives a rustic look. ------------- Kim |
Posted By: GElliott
Date Posted: 2/18/09 at 9:13am
| We also used the overlapping cardboard approach and it looked great. Very simple and CHEAP! |
Posted By: jungle16jim
Date Posted: 2/19/09 at 6:30pm
| I use those 4x8 sheets of pink insulation for everything--siding, trim, molding, etc. Take the plastic cover off before you paint it and spend time cutting it to get straight edges. Good luck! |
Posted By: Mr. Lowell
Date Posted: 2/19/09 at 11:53pm
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Howdy.
For "Picnic" I recruited the father of an actor who enjoys using a table saw. He spent one Saturday afternoon ripping a dozen sheets of paneling into 8" wide strips for me. No cost...this was old 1/4" lauan scenery, used masonite flooring, and the back side of household wood-grain paneling. Then I put spacers under each strip to make them slant like real clapboard walls, and shot it all together quickly with a pneumatic staple gun. After painting, weathering, and some "tree" gobos, the http://www.lowell.to/posters/picnicbb.jpg - result was convincing. The http://www.lowell.to/posters/picnich.jpg - roofing tiles were quick to make using discarded carpet that I cut up and spattered black. The real windows and doors were scavenged from junk that neighbors put out at the curb, (...never too proud to dumpster-drive for our craft!) For "Fiddler" I made houses out of old shipping pallets for a dirty, rustic look. And for "Narnia" we carved stone walls out of cheap sheets of foam insulation from Home Depot. And for a few children's theatre productions I've used cardboard. But no matter how well we paint it...it always looks like cardboard to me. (Of course with cardboard, as with lauan, you have to back-paint everything to help make it a little more flame retardant). In the discussions above, friends mentioned using cast-off lumber from old houses. This is expedient, yes, but please beware of lead paint. Wear a mask and vacuum often when cutting authentic lumber. We give enough to theatre without giving some of our precious brain cells... 
Good luck with it! -Dana ------------- Mr. Lowell, Lighting/Set Designer & Tech Director, for the Linda Sloan Theatre, in the Davison Center for the Arts, at Greensboro Day School |
Posted By: whitebat
Date Posted: 2/23/09 at 10:23pm
| What kind of siding are you trying to simulate? |