Your floors want special protection when undergoing remodeling, during new building, moving heavy furniture or equipment, and for different occasions past 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 hundreds of dollars in replacement and repair costs. This article describes surface protection products for floors in an effort to make knowledgeable decisions on the best product to use to your needs.
Types of Protection Packaging:
Floor protection products are commonly packaged as either:
(1) Products by the roll: These embrace widespread 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 embrace corrugated plastic, masonite, and other inflexible protection. Protective supplies purchased by the sheet are commonly measured in thickness by the inch (e.g., 1/four-inch thick) and usually come as four toes by eight feet.
Type of Flooring Protection:
Paper
Paper protection is suitable for all hard surfaces and resilient surfaces but 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 secure them to flooring and tapes can often leave adhesive residue when removed. Frequent paper protection products embrace:
· Kraft paper is a lightweight brown paper that’s cheap but does not afford any impact protection and can simply tear
· Scrim paper might 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 are additionally too thin to supply a lot impact protection.
· Rosin paper is thicker than Kraft paper and could be very low cost. Rosin paper is recycled, felt paper that ranges from 9.zero to 11.5 mils thick. The massive drawback of using Rosin paper is that it could cause a everlasting stain if the paper gets wet. Rosin paper also can rip easily so it not usually beneficial for use
· Corrugated cardboard rolls or sheets will also be used to protect flooring. Corrugate provides impact protection however it shouldn’t be coated with a water resistant finish and needs to be kept dry always 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 various from 2.0 up to 3.5 mils in thickness. They trap any moisture from escaping in order that they should not be used on any floors which might be curing. Two of the good 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 term use of 30 to ninety days only. Polyethylene films are designed for one-time use and do not use recycled materials making them a poor selection in maintainable protection. Protection films are available in quite a lot of adhesion «tack». Hard surface protection films will have a lower tack and colour 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 lots of 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 ft and are more costly per square foot than paper or polyethylene products. Masonite is commonly 1/8 or 1/four inch thick. Plywood is commonly 1/4 inch to 3/four inch thick. Both products provide impact protection on a wide range of floor types and provide adequate protection against heavy equipment use or furniture moving. Each plywood and Masonite are breathable and reusable however they’re bulky to carry and store. These wood sheets should be used on high of a softer protection reminiscent of a rolled textile as they simply 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 might be harder to chop to measurement than different protection types.
Textile Products
Textile products are commonly manufactured from recycled cloth. In addition, these rolled protection products typically have added benefits resembling skid resistant backings or breathable plastic liners. For wood floors, these specialty textile rolls are highly recommended as they’re breathable, skid resistant, reusable, often leakproof and straightforward to chop to size.
To be able to obtain the complete benefits of utilizing surface protection, proper application is a must. The floors should be clean (vacuumed or swept) previous to covering with the protection products. The proper alternative of protection needs to be made in order that moisture is just not trapped on floors which can be nonetheless curing. Trapping moisture can cause a full product failure and can invalidate a wood floor manufacturer’s warranty. For heavy traffic or loads, several protection layers may be needed.
In summary, there are a lot of decisions in momentary floor protection available today. When choosing a protection product, it is smart to consider the cost, length needed, breathability and potential to reuse the product. Successful floor protection also includes proper set up and preparation of the floor. Always comply with the producer’s suggestion for use so the potential for adhesive switch is avoided. Protecting valuable floors is a clever investment in time and money. Surface protection specialists are additionally available that will help you select one of the best floor protection to your needs.
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