The old standby in renovation floor protection is rosin paper. There are so many drawbacks though. It gets dirty, it tears, it’s time consuming to put down and worst of all, it really doesn’t protect the floors all that well.

Back when I actually had a crafts room in my house, I bought some interlocking rubber tiles at Lowes to protect my hardwood floors. I’ve since gotten rid of the work room (It’s now just a junk room that dreams of one day becoming a dining room.) so I took up those tiles and brought them to the house that’s under renovation.

Sure, the initial investment costs way more than some paper but if the renovation is going on long enough that you have to keep changing the paper or if you’re doing multiple renovations, I say it’s worth it.

The tiles can be washed or mopped so you don’t have to live with the dust. They are water proof apart from the seams. They’ll last forever and they’re totally reusable. No need to install them around the whole house. Just pick them up and take them from room to room as needed.

I purchased Flexco (shown above) because I wanted it to look good in my house but there are less expensive tiles out there if design doesn’t matter.