If you enjoy a bit of DIY at the weekends, you'll know how easy it can be to damage the flooring in your home. Any number of things can cause problems that you'll struggle to deal with:

  • Painting and decorating can leave stains that are tough to remove

  • Building heavy furniture and working on large projects can leave indelible scrapes and dents

  • Woodworking and metalworking projects can scatter dust, and your workbench can harm the floor beneath it

  • Any project involving water or other liquids can result in spill that could damage composite wood flooring permanently

There's no reason to stop just to save your home, though--read on to discover a few tips and tricks for keeping your floors safe from your favourite hobby.

Buy protectors for the 'feet' of your workbenches and furniture.

Many home and DIY stores will sell rubber or felt 'feet' designed to go on the bottom of your workbenches and furniture to keep your floors safe. If you can't find ones that fit, you can make your own: all you need to do is cut some felt to size and glue or staple it onto anything that will touch or drag along your flooring.

Lay tarps liberally and often--and cover everything you can.

Tarpaulins are a huge help, of course, and you're probably using them already--particularly for paining and decorating projects! Bear in mind, however, that you're going to need to cover way more space than you might think. Tiny splashes of paint can travel a surprisingly long way! If you don't paint often, it's almost certainly cheaper to hire your tarps and protective plastic sheeting than to buy it--and that way you won't need to come up with a way of storing it when you're done, either.

Tarpaulin isn't just for painting, though. While you can vacuum up the sawdust created by woodworking projects, it's insidious stuff and you'll find it has a tendency to get everywhere. By laying a tarp, you'll make cleanup a great deal easier; when you're done, you can simply pick it all up and carry it outside to dispose of it in one fell swoop.

Have everything you need to deal with problems right on hand.

There are a few basic supplies that can make all the difference when you realise your flooring is in danger following a minor mishap. Every time you settle to work, make sure you've got an absorbent mop and a bottle of white spirit in the room with you--and keep a keen eye out for potential issues as soon as they arise.

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