Put down ramboard ourselves to protect new floors?

All- We are new homeowners juggling a few different pieces of work and learning as we go. We just had new floors put in (working with Jose Zambrano, and like many other commenters here we are very happy with the work) and now are proceeding to (1) some light work with an electrician (dealing with 1980’s track lighting, swapping in white outlets to replace brown ones, etc), (2) trim carpentry (new baseboards, window and door casings), and then (3) painting. Yes, it would have been better to do the floors after some of this other work…live and learn. Of course we want to protect our new floors during this additional work and for when we ourselves move in, and have heard from a few sources to first put down paper (rosin paper?) and then Ramboard or masonite on top of that. This seems easy enough to put down — is there any reason we should not put this down ourselves vs. having a trades person put it down?

katerina

in About Brooklyn 9 years and 6 months ago

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dorkofwindsor | 9 years and 6 months ago

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yes do the pressboard, absolutely. table saws, sharp ladder edges, box cutters, anything will ding the floor and you will have a false sense of security with paper only. for some reason it seems to be human nature to work more clumsily when the floors are covered.

curated | 9 years and 6 months ago

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Definitely install Ramboard. It will protect the floors. And like others said, overlap the seams and do not tape to the floor directly. www.curatedny.com

katerina | 9 years and 6 months ago

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Excellent, we will proceed with confidence! I’m sure we’ll do things to ding up the floors, but I’m hoping we can have at least a little bit of time enjoying their new perfection 🙂

Arkady | 9 years and 6 months ago

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I strongly second Dave’s suggestion to not have tape touch the floors – really does lift the finish.

daveinbedstuy | 9 years and 6 months ago

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I agree, the masonite is probably overkill for that scope of work. Rosin paper should suffice. Don’t tape directly to the floor surface unless you use a low stick/tack tape or it may damage the finish, especially if left for some time.

kassie319 | 9 years and 6 months ago

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In a recent renovation – once floors were refinished, I covered the heavily trafficed areas in brown paper and masonite, and more lightly trafficed in just brown paper – it did the trick.

Augustiner | 9 years and 6 months ago

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Pink paper and then Ramboard is really bulletproof, maybe even a bit too much for the light work you describe. But better safe than sorry. Get Blue Tape and do yourself, there is really nothing you can do wrong. Chances are you will do it more thorough than anyone else 😉