When Renovating a Home, Protect Existing Flooring

Don’t skip protecting the flooring beneath home features to be renovated. It is a costly mistake. Careful, thorough preparation is needed to obtain a spectacular finish in any renovation project.

The actual installation is easy. The tough part is the preparation: smoothing and cleaning, tearing out old fixtures or features, making decisions, scheduling and gathering supplies. If you intend to install anything new in a home, always protect the flooring before beginning work.
Without protection, the floors might unintentionally become the next renovation project.

Any home construction project, large or small, can destroy home flooring if not handled properly. The damage is an extra, unnecessary cost to incur, and there is no sense in destroying one part of a home while enhancing another.

The best methods of protection vary from surface to surface and from location to location. Find solutions that keep surfaces clean and safe while allowing work to proceed above them.

It is easy to spill on or damage carpeting, leaving stains, rips, texture damage or frayed edges. Use carpet protection film to protect soft flooring. On acrylic carpet, use adhesive film, which will not move around or leave bare gaps, and which removes easily. Wool rugs need a non-adhesive film.

The film can also offer protection from workers walking in and out with supplies, dirty feel and equipment. Who needs dry grouting or sawdust ground into an unprotected floor?

Hardwood floors need a heavier layer of protection to compensate for their vulnerability. Wet wall jobs, like tiling in a living room, require waterproof plastic film or a multiple surface shield, which is handy for just about any surface. In addition, installers will need several reusable, padded rubber mats for a docking spot for tools and other equipment.

In two-story structures, simple craft paper can be used to cover stairs. The solution is portable and inexpensive, and it can easily be collected when the stairs are in use (and the project is on pause).

Think ahead, and the completed project will look even better than expected.