Keep dust to a minimum and no damage to the floor covering prior to handover is easy with temporary floor protection.

New construction, refurbishment, renovations, make good, fitout, defits all have dust! The question is how to control that and how to make for a quick handover of your project saving time, money and cleaning costs to new and existing coverings.

Temporary floor and surface protection ensures the floor coverings that lay under foot are protected throughout the construction process.

More and more, floor coverings are now being installed prior to the completion of other trades coming in. In order to reduce the risk of damage or the soiling of surfaces, you need to consider the right temporary floor protection products.

When you’re looking at what to use for floor protection, there’s a few things to consider before choosing a product. We’ve been asked hundreds of times for advice on how to cover floors for impact protection, dust protection, dirty footprints, water protection and dust barriers. Here’s what we recommend.

GETTING IT RIGHT.

Temporary floor protection comes in rolls, sheets or bundles, but how you decide on the right one comes down to a number of points. First ask:

- What is the surface that needs protecting?
- What type of traffic will be going over it – foot or equipment?
- How long does the floor protection need to be down for prior to handover?

Without considering these factors, you may end up with the wrong choice of temporary floor protection, which often results in a poor performance. The plastic, sheeting or film will also need to be replaced more often, which means higher costs on time, money and effort. Using the wrong product may also damage the flooring that it was supposed to be ‘protecting’ in the first place.

POLYWEAVE – THE WOVEN FLOOR PROTECTION

This double laminated polythene floor protector is woven for superior strength, durability and tear resistance. Recommended as a cost effective solution for all construction projects for surface protection on floor and wall surfaces. Our Polyweave is ideal for laying over finished floors and vertical surfaces during demolition, construction, or refurbishment; or as partitioning with our Zipwall spring loaded poles.

CORFLUTE PROTECTIVE SHEETING

is lightweight, versatile, easy to cut, can be bent to shape, quick to lay and comes in multiple sheet sizes.
Corflute is one of the most popular floor protections. Being a fixed sheeting, is the perfect option for impact resistance on floor coverings. Along with having a double walled impact protection the corflute sheeting is waterproof resistant and suitable for protecting floors, walls, columns and doors and ideal for use as a protective membrane in planter boxes, retaining walls, subsoil membrane protection or formwork lining boards.

RAM BOARD

Ram Board is a heavy-duty, temporary floor protection product for construction companies and contractors. Ram board is a easy to use, reusable temporary floor protector to be used on new or existing surfaces including concrete, wood, tile, stone, linoleum, vinyl composition tile (VCT), epoxy and most other flooring types. SUPABORD product is leading the way as a substitute for this product.

MDF BOARD

Used on hard floor coverings including, Vinyl floors, marble, concrete, cured timber, laminates, polished concrete,

If any tools or equipment is being used by trades in the area, these also needs a certain amount of impact protection as a ‘peace of mind’ protection. Be it a hammer, power drill or hand held scraper – any drop could dent or damage the floor covering.

SELF ADHESIVE FILM 

Available for Carpet or Hard floors
A clear, heavy duty film customised for self-adhesive protection on hard floor surfaces. With a medium tack, our hard floor self-adhesive film is designed for temporary surface protection of tile, marble, timber and vinyl surfaces. Easy to roll over stairs, as a walkway or for complete surface coverage, the film can be laid neat and tight against skirtings, around columns or over worktops and cabinets.

This film is also available in various sizes so it’s easy to choose the right size for your carpet. This product is simply rolled out and installed directly to the carpet without the need for additional fixing to hold it in place. The ‘tacky back’ will hold the product in place during the programme of works. After use, the material simply peels clean, leaving no residue. With products such as these, our general recommendation is that they shouldn’t be left in place longer than 4 weeks because any longer duration may risk residue being left on the carpet.

For loop and cut pile carpets or carpets that require much longer protection, Polyweave boasts the ultimate, most economical and effective temporary floor protection. It can also be fixed in place using either cloth tape or duct tape rolls, making it very easy to use.

KEEPING IT IN PLACE.

With the right tape and tooling, your installation will work like a dream.

When using temporary protection for flooring, it’s common for products you’re using to be fixed in place, whether it be to the floor and its skirting boards or to each other. When taping sheets of floor protection to each other, we recommended using a high tack and durable adhesive tape such as cloth tape. This will hold the floor protection in place under heavy foot traffic. When fixing the protection to the floor or any other fixture, it may be beneficial to use a low tack, clean peeling tape. Higher tack tape tends to leave residue or even damage the surface, whereas a low tack tape will prevent this. You should also test any tape on a very small area of the desired surface first to check if it is suitable for a full application.

A range of other products include Corrugated cardboard, bubble wrapping, foams, felts, plastic sheeting, mesh depending on your requirements on site. Let’s talk about your upcoming refurbishment, construction or demolition project to ensure your saving time, making money and making the most of your time on site.

(These are only indiciations of products and where / when they can be used.) To discuss a particular project call the All Preparation Equipment team on 1800 422 992 to discuss.

LET'S SEE

Your project is most likely similar to another project we've helped on. After doing Temporary Floor Protection, recommending, specifying, measuring and fitting on thousands of projects - we're here to help you too. 

Call our team today on 1800 422 992 to discuss the flooring project you need help to protect.