We run a lot of cables in the world of lighting. The most common situation I encounter is needing to tape down two or three – maybe power and DMX, or a couple microphones, or a power and a video cable. Not enough to need a cable ramp, but they still need to be secured and the people walking over them need to be safe!

On one hand, you want to be safe and make sure all of your cables are tame, but on the other hand, the brand-name gaffer’s tape is expensive and it’s kind of a pain to tape down every single cable – so what’s a lighting person to do?

When Do I Tape?

Not every cable needs to be taped. This is where you’ve really got to look at your own situation in context, especially when it comes to backstage cable.

Since I’m all about working smarter and not harder, the first step to taping cables is to think about our cable runs to avoid crossing walkways of any kind.

This means, whenever possible, you should follow the edge of the stage or a wall or any other architectural feature that prevents the area you’re running the cable in from becoming a walkway. This is key.

Still, some cables are going to have to cross walkways, whether that be on the stage deck, backstage or in an audience area. Now let’s talk about how to tape smarter.

What Tape Do I Use?

You’ve got a cable that has to go across a walkway somewhere, and you need to tape it.

What tape do you use?

• Not duct tape. (It leaves tons of gunk on cables, is ugly, and damages floors and walls.)
• Not Gorilla tape. (Even worse than duct tape at leaving gunk and removing finishes!)
• Use gaffer’s tape!

Gaffer's tape is a type of pressure-sensitive tape that is strong, durable, and resistant to water, heat, and UV light. Gaffer's tape is also easy to remove, so it will not damage the cables or the surface it is taped to.

Sold in several sizes, this tape can do many things – taping down cables, taping up signs, fixing almost anything from broken mic stands, instruments, cars, clothing, and more! It’s very versatile and generally comes off cleanly (unless exposed to heat over significant time).

The standard sized roll is 2” because you can tape one extension cord or a couple of mic cables with just one strip. But, gaff tape is actually available in a variety of roll sizes from very skinny “spike tape” to some rolls wider than 4″!

Gaff tape has a reputation of being expensive, and it can be. Pro-Gaff, the big name brand is sitting around $20 per roll at the time of this writing. Thankfully, there are other good options, like our own Grade A Gaff tape. We have black, white, and fluorescent colors, and we come in at a MUCH lower price, particularly in 3-packs, 1/2 cases and full cases.

Whatever it costs, gaff tape is an indispensable tool for anyone in the stage industry, and by following this guide, you can save tape by only using it when essential and reusing tape occasionally too.

What Are the Alternatives to Using Gaffers Tape?

Above, we concluded that gaffers tape is really the only usable tape for stage use, and it’s what we’re going to use for our cables.

But when can we avoid taping cables down at all?

The first place you can do this is when you have floor mats.  You know those mats that are at every door in your church or venue, they’re about 3’x4′, and flexible.

If you just need to run 1 or 2 small cables, just sweep them “under the rug” at doorways.

Now, don’t do this in a main entrance, but for side doors and doors backstage, this is great. If you’re worried about the mat moving (use your best judgment), you can tape the mat down to the floor.

The second way you can avoid taping down small cables is running them around doors.

Any door can be outfitted by a carpenter to carry a hidden cable track between the door and the wall with an ornamental plate attached to the door frame. This way you can easily hide cables behind your doors, and you can get this done pretty cheaply, especially for your backstage doors.

If you have a modern look, you can do this on a temporary basis with a goalpost design made out of lighting truss with sandbags.

The third place to get away without taping is when you have too much cable for tape, when working with temporary feeder and Socapex multi-cable. In these instances, door crossings should be avoided, but when necessary should be completed with cable ramps.

We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a message about our good friend, the cable ramp.  

Professional duty, large cable ramps are just one option when it comes to product selection.  

There are also single channel ramps, drop over ramps, and ADA compliant ramps, all at different price points. Though cable ramps seem expensive, they typically won’t break for at least 10-20 years unless you abuse them!

And last, if you have commercial carpet, you can use these Velcro cable covers for small numbers of cables, and they work great!

Time to Tape!

Now that we’ve gone over every possible way to not tape cables, where to tape cables, and what tape to use, how do we actually tape cables?

1. Start by laying out the cable(s) nice and flat, not crossing over each other anywhere.
2. Go from one end to the other and tack down your cables using short horizontal strips of tape. How often you tack depends on how straight the cables are laying and the amount of foot traffic.
   
3. Lastly, run a strip of tape down the middle – usually one strip of 3-4”, or two strips of 2” tape. If using a 2” roll, make sure there’s a 10-20% overlap at the center so it doesn’t come apart in the middle.
   

What about walls and ceilings?

If you are taping a cable up a wall or similar, you can use stripes across it every once in a while. Just be careful with painted walls. Gaff tape generally comes off cleanly, but that really depends on how the surface was prepped, and the quality of the paint.

When should you use more than 2 inches of tape?

More often than not, even if it's just a single microphone or DMX cable, you really want to use more than just two inches of tape. It may be fine in backstage areas, places that aren’t walkways where simply tacking cables down is sufficient. But in a public area, you will usually want at least 3” of tape even on a single cable so it’s secure as people are walking over it.

Marking cables in public areas

In public areas with a lot of foot traffic, you want to mark your tape with either some fluorescent or white so people see it. There’s a couple ways to draw attention to your taped cables. With the white or fluorescent tape, we can either split it down the middle or get a one inch tape, and then apply it in strips periodically along the way so that people can see the cable.

For extra visibility, you can also run a white or fluorescent strip along the center/highest part of the cable.

Finally, if you're in a space where there's really high foot traffic, like people walking over large amounts of taped cables, lots of times, consider some extra strips on the outside and the ends.

Always over-do taping in public areas, and of course, it’s not a bad idea to brainstorm any possible way to NOT have to run cables across these areas!

Removing Tape

Now, as important as putting down tape well is, how you get it back up matters, too.

In fact, one of the reasons some people hate gaff tape is because when you grab a cable and start pulling it up, what happens to the tape? It comes around the cable and sticks to itself – and the adhesion of gaffer’s tape to itself is so great it’s almost impossible to get apart!

There’s a simple way to avoid that problem – by removing the tape the right way. Instead of grabbing the cable and using it to pull up the tape, just pull up the tape first. It’s that simple. Grab the end of the tape, pull it up and wad into a ball as you go. Throw it at your friends (or in the trash). Then move on to wrapping up your cables (but first, check out this article for tips on wrapping cables like a pro!).

Wrapping it Up… What else can you do with gaff tape?

Gaff tape has lots of uses. You can use it to write letters, arrows on the floor, give people directions, mark the edge of a stage with the strip of it. There are a lot of ways you can use it on your next event or service to improve communication and safety.

All with gaffer’s tape.

So if you've learned something today and now you need gaff tape, hey, we are your place to get it. We’ve got a variety of colors and sizes of our Grade A Gaffers Tape in stock all the time at Above AVL.

Remember to be safe, and tape well, my friend!  The safety and reliability of your show depends on it!