Your floors need particular protection when undergoing remodeling, throughout new building, moving heavy furniture or equipment, and for different 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 cost 1000’s of dollars in replacement and repair costs. This article describes surface protection products for floors in an effort to make knowledgeable choices on the most effective product to use in your needs.
Types of Protection Packaging:
Floor protection products are commonly packaged as either:
(1) Products by the roll: These embody frequent adhesive films, rolled paper products and rolled textile protection. Protective materials bought by the roll are commonly measured in thickness by mils (e.g., 2.5 mils thick up to 48 mils thick).
(2) Products by the sheet: These embody corrugated plastic, masonite, and different inflexible protection. Protective materials purchased by the sheet are commonly measured in thickness by the inch (e.g., 1/four-inch thick) and normally come as four toes by eight 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 go away adhesive residue when removed. Widespread paper protection products embrace:
· Kraft paper is a lightweight brown paper that is cheap but doesn’t afford any impact protection and can simply tear
· Scrim paper could incorporate coatings or reinforcements to make them water-proof as well as scrim threads to reinforce the paper and forestall tearing. These improved papers are longer lasting than common Kraft paper or rosin paper nevertheless they’re additionally too thin to supply a lot impact protection.
· Rosin paper is thicker than Kraft paper and is very low cost. Rosin paper is recycled, felt paper that ranges from 9.zero to 11.5 mils thick. The huge drawback of utilizing Rosin paper is that it could cause a permanent stain if the paper gets wet. Rosin paper may rip easily so it not normally really useful to be used
· Corrugated cardboard rolls or sheets can be used to protect flooring. Corrugate provides impact protection however it just isn’t coated with a water resistant end and needs to be kept dry at all times in order 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 as much as 3.5 mils in thickness. They trap any moisture from escaping so that they should not be used on any floors that are 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 do not provide any impact protection and are normally rated for brief time period use of 30 to ninety days only. Polyethylene films are designed for one-time use and don’t use recycled supplies making them a poor alternative in maintainable protection. Protection films are available in quite a lot of adhesion “tack”. Hard surface protection films may have a decrease tack and color than carpet protection which needs 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 size of four feet by 8 ft and are more costly per sq. foot than paper or polyethylene products. Masonite is commonly 1/8 or 1/four inch thick. Plywood is commonly 1/4 inch to three/four inch thick. Both products provide impact protection on a variety of floor types and provide adequate protection in opposition to heavy equipment use or furniture moving. Both plywood and Masonite are breathable and reusable nonetheless they are bulky to hold and store. These wood sheets should be used on high of a softer protection akin to a rolled textile as they easily scratch flooring. These sheets work well to protect carpet as they stop wrinkles when rolling heavy loads over the carpet. Plywood and Masonite do not offer moisture protection and can be harder to cut to dimension than other protection types.
Textile Products
Textile products are commonly manufactured from recycled cloth. In addition, these rolled protection products often have added benefits reminiscent of skid resistant backings or breathable plastic liners. For wood floors, these specialty textile rolls are highly really useful as they’re breathable, skid resistant, reusable, usually leakproof and simple to cut to size.
So as to get hold of the full benefits of using surface protection, proper application is a must. The floors ought to be clean (vacuumed or swept) prior to covering with the protection products. The proper selection of protection needs to be made so that moisture just isn’t trapped on floors that are still curing. Trapping moisture can cause a full product failure and can invalidate a wood floor manufacturer’s warranty. For heavy visitors or loads, a number of protection layers could also be needed.
In abstract, there are many choices in short-term floor protection available today. When selecting a protection product, it is wise to consider the price, length needed, breathability and potential to reuse the product. Successful floor protection also contains proper installation and preparation of the floor. Always follow the producer’s recommendation to be used so the potential for adhesive switch is avoided. Protecting valuable floors is a sensible investment in time and money. Surface protection specialists are also available to help you choose the perfect floor protection in your needs.
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