Temporary Floor Protection - A Product Guide

Temporary Floor Protection - A Product Guide

Your floors want particular protection when undergoing remodeling, throughout new construction, moving heavy furniture or equipment, and for other occasions beyond day-to-day use. Protecting flooring makes sense and saves money. A spill of paint, the drop of a hammer, a scratch from heavy furniture can value hundreds of dollars in replacement and repair costs. This article describes surface protection products for floors so to make knowledgeable selections on the most effective product to use to your needs.

Types of Protection Packaging:

Floor protection products are commonly packaged as either:

(1) Products by the roll: These include common adhesive films, rolled paper products and rolled textile protection. Protective supplies bought by the roll are commonly measured in thickness by mils (e.g., 2.5 mils thick up to forty eight mils thick).

(2) Products by the sheet: These include corrugated plastic, masonite, and other rigid protection. Protective materials bought by the sheet are commonly measured in thickness by the inch (e.g., 1/4-inch thick) and normally come as four toes by 8 feet.

Type of Flooring Protection:

Paper

Paper protection is suitable for all hard surfaces and resilient surfaces however doesn't work well to protect carpets as it can tear when flexing under footsteps. Paper products are breathable in order that glue fumes and cement curing vapors can escape. One disadvantage to paper products as they require tapes to safe them to flooring and tapes can often depart adhesive residue when removed. Frequent paper protection products embrace:

· A coated compressed paper board 38 mils thick that's breathable, waterproof and made from recycled paper.

· Kraft paper is a lightweight brown paper that is inexpensive however doesn't afford any impact protection and can simply tear

· Scrim paper could incorporate coatings or reinforcements to make them water resistant as well as scrim threads to reinforce the paper and stop tearing. These improved papers are longer lasting than common Kraft paper or rosin paper nevertheless they are also too thin to supply a lot impact protection.

· Rosin paper is thicker than Kraft paper and may be very low cost. Rosin paper is recycled, felt paper that ranges from 9.0 to 11.5 mils thick. The large drawback of utilizing Rosin paper is that it may cause a permanent stain if the paper gets wet. Rosin paper also can rip simply so it not usually advisable to be used

· Corrugated cardboard rolls or sheets will also be used to protect flooring. Corrugate provides impact protection nonetheless it shouldn't be coated with a waterproof finish and should be kept dry at all times so that it does not disintegrate. Cardboard products are also available as single-, double-, and triple-walled corrugated cardboard sheets or as a fan-folded stack.

Polyethylene Film

Polyethylene (PE) films are sold as self adhesive rolled films varying from 2.0 up to 3.5 mils in thickness. They trap any moisture from escaping so they should not be used on any floors which might be curing. Two of the great benefits of polyethylene films are that films will flex and contour to allow them to be used on carpets as well as hard surfaces. These films don't offer any impact protection and are normally rated for brief time period use of 30 to 90 days only. Polyethylene films are designed for one-time use and don't use recycled supplies making them a poor choice in maintainable protection. Protection films are available in a variety of adhesion "tack". Hard surface protection films can have a lower tack and coloration than carpet protection which wants a more aggressive glue to hold onto carpet fibers successfully.

Wood Products

Plywood and Masonite are commonly used as protection on commercial projects with numerous foot traffic. Masonite is a wood product made from wood fibers unlike plywood which is an actual sheet of thin wood. Both plywood and Masonite are sold in the usual dimension of four toes by eight feet and are more expensive per sq. foot than paper or polyethylene products. Masonite is commonly 1/eight or 1/four inch thick. Plywood is commonly 1/four inch to three/four inch thick. Each products provide impact protection on a wide range of floor types and provide adequate protection towards heavy equipment use or furniture moving. Each plywood and Masonite are breathable and reusable nevertheless they are bulky to carry and store. These wood sheets needs to be used on high of a softer protection equivalent to a rolled textile as they simply scratch flooring. These sheets work well to protect carpet as they prevent wrinkles when rolling heavy loads over the carpet. Plywood and Masonite don't offer moisture protection and will be harder to cut to size than different protection types.