Costs

Drape must be "pleated" or installed with folds for a finished look. Typically 1.5-ft to 2.0 ft of drape is used for each running foot to be covered.

Construction

The simplest and most common method of hanging drape panels is using a pipe pocket where the drape is simply sleeved over the pipe.

Uprights, as noted, are typically aluminum tubing, fixed or telescopic, with heights from 3’ to 26’. Uprights are supported by steel bases weighing from 6 to 62 lb. The ground support system is enhanced by the addition of sand bags or stage weights added to further counterbalance the height and weight of the drapes hung on the pipe system.

The horizontals can also be fixed or telescopic. Fixed horizontal supports range from 1’ to 10’, whereas a telescopic drape support, also known as a slider, can range from 2’-3’ to 9’-16’.

Horizontal supports are held in place by small metal hooks permanently mounted to each end of the pipe. The hooks are then placed into a slot on the upright and held in place by gravity, thereby making the pipe and drape support system.

In order to create longer, wider walls of pipe and drape, multiple sections of drape and horizontals are lined up by the uprights having multiple slots and the horizontals going in two opposite directions. Thus, sequential sections of pipe and drape panels make up the wall of drape.

Another method of hanging drape is using a theatrical tie-on method. Drape tie methods used may be a standard grommet and tie, where the tie and grommet hole are visible unless a clove hitch is used, and once tied, the drape ties must be rolled to hide the ties from the audience side of the drape.

Blind ties are another drape top finish that allows for drapes to be tied to a pipe without the audience seeing the grommets and ties.

Just like uprights and horizontals, drape panels come in any number of heights, widths, colors, and types of fabric. Drape panels range from an affordable American polyester tradeshow drape known as Banjo to a thick, luxurious Broadway theatre-style Velour. Banjo is the most basic fabric typically used in single fabric widths added together to create fullness. Whereas, higher-quality fabrics are typically single fabric widths sewn together to create larger continuous drape panels that are made to be sleeved on a single horizontal.

The use of Pipe and Drape to temporarily alter the look of a space continues to be a common, practical method.