So many times over the years, I’ve been asked if I can use Marlay to just roll out for a dance class and then roll it up when the class is over. I can see why people would think that, because essentially that’s what you do. But Marlay is like a stubborn child, it doesn’t always lie flat right away. Also, rolling out five or six rolls to create a 30 x 40-foot dance space usually can’t be done in less than an hour unless you’re really good. So you’ve got an hour-plus setup, then an hour-plus teardown, for a two-hour class.
Over all those years, I kept thinking about how it could be done quicker, because the concept people have been asking about is totally valid. Sometimes, you have a space where you don’t want Marlay on the floor—except when there’s a dance class. So we went to the drawing board and devised a way to roll all six rolls up in one shot. We took two 20’ pieces of 8” diameter PVC pipe (about $200 each, by the way) and connected them using an internal connector so the outside would be flat and flush at the joint. We then un-taped one end of all six Marlay rolls, still leaving the rolls taped together, curved the ends up, and taped them to the 40-foot PVC pipe carefully so there was no slack. To our amazement, the whole thing rolled up in one shot.
At first, we thought it would work best rolling parallel to the seams, but that didn’t work. The tape stretched, and when we rolled it back out, everything was ripped. But when we rolled it up perpendicular to the seams it was like a magic carpet. It all rolled up beautifully. Of course, what you’re left with is a very heavy 40-foot roll along one end of the room, and it’s not easy to move. So you need to plan on leaving it there until it’s needed again. But when we rolled that thing out—it was satisfying. It only took about five minutes.
We had to design a stretching mechanism that consisted of long bolts going directly through the center of the roll and attaching to the wall. That way, they could be tightened consistently to stretch the material flat. The tape seams held up fine, and the mission was accomplished.
We’re still working on making the process even simpler, but since so many people have asked about this over the years, we finally decided to see if it was possible, and it is. We currently have this system set up in our dance studio showroom and plan to release the product, or at least the idea, to the dance world once we’ve worked out all the bugs.
If you’d like a more detailed explanation from Matt please contact us!
