Both sheets publish 125 pounds a square foot. They allow different amounts of sag.
The load figure is the headline. The criterion beside it is the specification.
Wenger publishes its StageTek staging system at a standard uniform live load of 125 lbf/ft² on four legs, and states that the figure meets an L/75 deflection criterion. The StageTek outdoor system publishes the same 125 lbf/ft², and states L/150.
L is the span. On a four-foot by eight-foot deck carried on corner legs the span is the eight-foot dimension, which is 96 inches. L/75 allows about 1.28 inches of movement at mid-span. L/150 allows about 0.64 of an inch.
Both sheets then publish a heavy-duty rating of 150 lbf/ft². The indoor system reaches it with a fifth leg, a smaller deck or added stiffeners; the outdoor system with a centre leg or a smaller deck. Both state L/180 at that figure, so the gap between the two closes at the top of the range.
So a drawing that calls for 125-pound decking has fixed a load and left the stiffness open. The figure that answers how much the platform moves under a full crowd is the one after the slash.
IntelliStage publishes 185 pounds a square foot. It names no test method.
A rating, and a rating with a method behind it, are different claims.
IntelliStage publishes a weight capacity of 185 lbs per square foot, given also as 900 kg per square metre, across its platforms and risers. That is the highest of the three figures here, and it sits on the lightest deck of the three.
Its four-foot square carpet-finish platform is published at a net weight of 43.0 kg, about 95 pounds. The build is 9 mm high-density plywood over a 7.5 mm honeycomb over 4 mm high-density plywood, with an aluminium profile on all sides. Wenger’s four-foot by eight-foot indoor deck is 107 pounds and carries twice the area.
What the IntelliStage guide does not publish is a deflection criterion, a test method or a named standard, and it states that specifications are subject to change without notice.
Both Wenger sheets cite the International Building Code for lateral load and for guardrail loading, and print a deflection criterion with every load figure. The indoor sheet adds a dynamic impact test of 10,000 cycles at 400 lbf. A higher number with no method beside it does not carry what a lower number with a method carries.
The outdoor deck weighs 132 pounds. The indoor one weighs 107.
Twenty-five pounds a deck, and the sheets say what it buys.
Wenger publishes the four-foot by eight-foot outdoor deck at 132 lb, or 134 lb with the centre leg kit. The same size in the indoor system is 107 lb. At four by six the pair is 102 against 85, and at four by four it is 72 against 59.
A 24-foot by 40-foot stage is thirty decks at four by eight. In outdoor decking that is roughly 750 pounds more to move off the truck and onto the site, before legs, guardrail and skirt.
The sheets say where the extra mass goes. The indoor deck surface is three-quarter-inch Group I veneer plywood under a protective laminate on both faces. The outdoor deck is extruded aluminium planks with drainage spaces and a textured surface, described as non-combustible and as proof against rot, peel, warp and swell, under a ten-year warranty.
On a Florida park site in August the drainage spaces and the plywood decide it, and both appear on page one of their own sheets.
Both sheets publish a 500-pound load. One spreads it over 36 square inches, the other over less than one.
The bearing area under the load is the part that changes.
The indoor sheet publishes a concentrated load of 500 lb on a six-inch by six-inch area per deck, plus a caster load of 300 lb. The outdoor sheet publishes a point load of 500 lb applied through a one-inch diameter pin.
A six-inch square is 36 square inches. A one-inch circle is about 0.79. The same 500 pounds arrives at roughly forty-six times the pressure.
Those answer two different questions. A piano wheel, a lectern caster and a road case all land on the first. A rigging base plate, a ballast foot and the leg of a ground-supported goal post land on the second.
The outdoor sheet also recommends wood blocking under legs on soft ground, and publishes the leg as a two-and-a-half-inch diameter aluminium extrusion. Neither the blocking nor the ground beneath it carries a published figure anywhere on either sheet.
The lateral figure is 12 pounds a square foot. It reads the same indoors and out.
Wind sits outside it, and neither sheet claims otherwise.
Both Wenger systems publish a lateral live side load of 12 lbf/ft² based on deck top surface area, and both state that the figure meets IBC code. The indoor sheet and the outdoor sheet print the same number.
That figure covers a crowd leaning and swaying against a rail. Neither sheet publishes a wind rating.
On an outdoor build the wind arrives on what stands above the deck: a roof, a header, a banner, an upstage wall. That load is resolved by the structure’s own engineering and its ballast rather than by the decking underneath.
So the deck sheets answer what the platform carries and how far it bends. The site answers the rest: the ground under the legs, the structure over the platform, and the permit that governs both.
Where the figures come from
- Standard uniform live load 125 lbf/ft² (6 kN/m²) on four legs, meeting an L/75 deflection criterion; heavy-duty 150 lbf/ft² (7.2 kN/m²) with a fifth leg, a smaller deck or added stiffeners, meeting L/180; lateral live side load 12 lbf/ft² (0.6 kN/m²) on deck top surface area, meeting IBC code; concentrated load 500 lb on a 6″ by 6″ area per deck; caster load 300 lb; dynamic impact 10,000 cycles of 400 lbf at six locations per 4′ by 8′ deck; deck weights 59 lb at 4′ by 4′, 85 lb at 4′ by 6′ and 107 lb at 4′ by 8′; surface three-quarter-inch Group I veneer plywood with protective laminate both faces; frame 4″ extruded aluminium; guardrail 42″ to the IBC 4″ sphere requirement — Wenger Corporation, StageTek Staging System technical specification, wengercorp.com, read on 31 October 2026.
- Standard uniform live load 125 lbf/ft² (6 kN/m²) on four legs, meeting an L/150 deflection criterion; heavy-duty 150 lbf/ft² (7.2 kN/m²) with a centre leg or a smaller deck, meeting L/180; lateral live side load 12 lbf/ft² (0.6 kN/m²) on deck top surface area, meeting IBC code; point load 500 lb (2.2 kN) applied via a 1″ (25 mm) diameter pin; deck weights 72 lb at 4′ by 4′, 102 lb at 4′ by 6′, 132 lb at 4′ by 8′ and 134 lb at 4′ by 8′ with the centre leg kit; deck of extruded aluminium planks with drainage spaces and a textured surface, non-combustible, stated not to rot, peel, warp or swell; frame and edging 4″ (102 mm) extruded aluminium; legs 2½″ (64 mm) diameter aluminium extrusion; wood blocking recommended on soft ground; ten-year warranty; no wind rating published — Wenger Corporation, StageTek Outdoor Staging System technical specification, wengercorp.com, read on 31 October 2026.
- Fixed leg heights 8″, 16″, 24″, 32″ and 40″ (203, 406, 610, 813 and 1016 mm) and telescopic legs 16″ to 28″, 24″ to 40″ and 30″ to 54″ (406 to 711, 610 to 1016 and 762 to 1372 mm), published identically on the indoor and the outdoor sheet — Wenger Corporation, StageTek Staging System and StageTek Outdoor Staging System technical specifications, wengercorp.com, read on 31 October 2026.
- Weight capacity 185 lbs per sq. foot, given also as 900 kg per square metre, across platforms and risers; platform of 9 mm high-density plywood over 7.5 mm honeycomb over 4 mm high-density plywood, with aluminium profile on all sides and an integrated interlocking system; 4′ by 4′ carpet-finish platform net weight 43.0 kg and 3′ by 3′ net weight 28.0 kg; riser heights 8″, 16″, 24″ and 32″; no deflection criterion, test method or named standard published, and specifications stated to be subject to change without notice — IntelliStage, IntelliStage Resource Guide, read on 31 October 2026.
- Arithmetic from the published figures above: on a 4′ by 8′ deck carried on corner legs the 8′ span is 96″, so L/75 allows about 1.28″ and L/150 about 0.64″ at mid-span; a 6″ by 6″ bearing area is 36 square inches and a 1″ diameter pin about 0.79 square inches, a ratio of about forty-six to one; thirty 4′ by 8′ decks cover 960 square feet, and the 25 lb per-deck difference totals 750 lb — Division and multiplication only. The load figures, deflection criteria and bearing areas are the manufacturers’; the arithmetic is ours.