Breathability and Floor Protection – Everything You Need to Know

Construction jobsites damage new flooring more often than any other finish. This holds true across both residential custom home projects and large-scale commercial construction projects. Accordingly, it is vital to use surface protection on new floors in order to keep those expensive new floors looking immaculate.

While using surface protection on interior finishes is generally quite easy, there is one very important consideration to make when protecting a new floor – breathability.

Breathable surface protection is a class of materials that do not trap moisture or gas vapors on surfaces while they are being used. Any flooring material that requires time to cure in order to be finished is one in which using surface protection specifically marked for breathability is vital.

Without the ability to breathe and ventilate moisture and gas, surface protection covering a new floor can leave the floor looking scuffed and damaged – despite being otherwise protected from typical jobsite damage. These unsightly blemishes are most commonly known as curing lines, and they form on curing surfaces that are in some way blocked from venting. This is frequently due to leaving solid plastic-based materials on them when they need to breathe.

Tuf-Guard Floor Protection

 

To solve this problem, a variety of specially designed surface protection coverings are now breathable.

Foremost is Tuf-Guard, an industry leading breathable temporary floor protection. Tuf-Guard is designed with high end concrete and hardwood in mind, great examples of floor finishes that requires time to fully cure. Made from a bespoke synthetic fiber-based material, Tuf-Guard is not only breathable but also slip-resistant. It is an ideal floor protection because not only can it withstand use from heavy machinery, it is also spill resistant. This ensures that the scissor lifts driving on top of Tuf-Guard won’t damage a new floor by dropping equipment onto it or spilling hydraulic fluid and oil onto the protected floor. 

Other breathable floor protection options are available, such as Trimaco’s FloorShell. FloorShell is a popular alternative to RamBoard, both use recycled paper fibers to create a strong floor protection layer. Not only is this material strong, it is easy to cut to shape, making it a great option to use on vertical surfaces and countertops.

 

Surface Liner Vapor floor protection

 

Made with hardwood flooring in mind, Surface Liner Vapor is among the best breathable floor protection options for residential construction projects. Soft to the touch and non-slip even on hardwood stairs, Surface Liner Vapor is ideal for protecting anything made from wood. Surface Liner Vapor is also spill resistant

New Custom Surface Protection Printing Options Available

Builders Site Protection has long provided customers with custom printing options to best suit their surface protection needs, and to best display to customers their dedication to protecting finishes. We're excited to announce that we now can offer custom printing options for our most popular hardwood floor protection product, Surface Liner Vapor.

Surface Liner Vapor is a breathable floor protection best suited to interior stairways and hardwood floors. Because it is breathable, there is no risk of Surface Liner leaving any unsightly curing lines, and it can be laid upon floors the moment they are installed, preventing any damage that may occur during a curing period. Surface Liner Vapor is available in 54' long rolls and 164' long rolls. 

Currently, Surface Liner Vapor features our company information, pictured above. However, with a minimum order of two pallets of SLV floor protection, 40 rolls in total, your custom logo and company information can be printed at no cost. Custom printed floor protection is a great way to display to customers your commitment to keeping their new and remodeled homes clean and blemish-free. 

We also feature custom printing options on popular products like Toilet Sheath, which is a great option for large-scale residential builders. Visit our website and call us for more information about custom printed toilet protection.

To learn more about Surface Liner Vapor and other custom printing options, email us at sales@buildsitepro.com or visit our website www.buildsitepro.com
#floorprotection #surfacelinervapor #customprinting

Home & Garden Show Season Is Here - Keep Floors Clean and Protected With Shoe Covers and Floor Protection

In the coming months, most homebuilding associations and new developments will be holding their annual tour of homes events. These events are designed to showcase new properties, remodels to existing properties, and to display the work of builders, contractors, and tradesmen.

While the point of these events are to draw people into homes, unfortunately that also leaves floors susceptible to being dirtied and damaged. Many builders in our local homebuilding association (Central Oregon Builders Association) rely on our shoe covers and floor coverings to keep their homes flawless and showroom ready.

Our Polypropylene (cloth) shoe covers are a popular floor protection for home and garden shows. These one-time use soft cloth based shoe covers are a quick and easy way to prevent dirt from being tracked into homes. The soft cloth material features additional materials on the sole in order to provide traction on slippery hardwood floors. Shoe covers are among the cheapest and simplest ways to prevent floor damage. We regularly provide these shoe covers to garden show associations, who then hand them out to patrons as they enter every property.

Surface Liner Vapor Floor Protection

Our most popular floor protection product for home showcases is our Surface Liner Vapor. Each roll of Surface Liner Vapor floor protection offers a slight adhesive tack, keeping the protection anchored to the floor without using any aggressive adhesives. Airy and soft to the touch, Surface Liner Vapor is a great way to prevent scratches and nicks in hardwood, tile, and cement floors. Due to its slight adhesive properties, Surface Liner Vapor is the ideal way to protect hardwood stairs.

To learn more about floor protection, or about any other surface protection needs you may have during home showcase season, email us at sales@buildsitepro.com or visit our website www.buildsitepro.com

Breathable Floor Protection Popular Here In Bend

We're providing Surface Liner Vapor breathable floor protection to Walsh Construction's new apartment project here in Bend, Oregon. The apartment complex, called The Range, lies in an upscale neighborhood, and as such Walsh Construction is very keen to protect the high end hardwood floors currently being installed.

It's great to be working with such a high quality builder on Range Apartments

A post shared by Range Apartments (@rangeapartments) on Feb 2, 2017 at 12:21pm PST

We're always excited to work with builders on local projects, and it's always satisfying to drive by completed projects that we had a part in building. The Range is only one of a number of local projects that are relying on Surface Liner Vapor floor protection to keep their floors covered.

To learn more about Surface Liner Vapor breathable floor protection, or any other finish protection, visit our website www.buildsitepro.com

Focusing on Wintertime Jobsite Safety

Winter will soon bring wet weather, snow and ice. And as building continues, the focus on jobsite safety in these conditions becomes more imperative than before. Properly protected jobsites go above and beyond the minimum OSHA mandated requirements for safety.

Beginning with the basics, it is law that all elevated surfaces, stairs, and other potential falling hazards keep workers protected with a handrail system. Typically, jobsites fashion handrails with wood, however, this can be problematic on concrete and it tends to look unprofessional. One of our newer products seeks to address these issues. Safety Boot is a temporary guardrail system that meets all federal and state safety standards. Safety Boot allows builders to quickly mount a temporary wooden guardrail to a plastic boot that anchors to the floor. This accelerates installation time, strengthens the guardrail, and looks far better than a typical wood on wood handrail.

Safety Boot offers a safe and professional looking jobsite guardrail

Another integral part of jobsite safety is properly securing ladders and other standing devices. On wet and icy floors ladders may become unstable and pose substantial risk to the user. An easy and multipurpose fix for this potential issue is to use absorbent floor protection. Using a product such as Surface Liner Vapor, you will have a safe, dry floor surface that is securely held in place. This will protect a floor from damage and keep a ladder from slipping.

Surface Liner Vapor provides the best slip-resistance of any floor covering

Other forms of jobsite protection include items that are worn on site. Water resistant shoe covers with a high-grip footing allow workers to safely walk on wet surfaces that would otherwise be slippery. Depending on how wet, muddy, and dirty a jobsite is, there are different options of shoe covers. Tyvek, plastic, and cloth provide differing levels of protection, with Tyvek and plastic providing the most water resistance and cloth offering up the best footing.

Provided a jobsite maintains stringent safety standards and provides additional materials to ensure safety, enduring the wet winter weather ahead should be a straightforward process. Keep your floors covered, your handrails on, and your workers well equipped.

To learn more about any fo the products mentioned here, or any other surface protection or jobsite safety information, email us at sales@buildsitepro.com or visit our website www.buildsitepro.com