Household / Tools / Heavy Drop Cloth Strips Are Easy To Handle

I have a temporary job this week painting apartments.  All the supplies are provided for me, and they had purchased three of these heavy duty drop cloths.  At first I thought that I wasn’t going to like them.  I’ve been happy with very thin disposable plastic ones that cover the whole floor, or my dad’s big old canvas monster.

But instead I discovered that I like these PVC/Rubber Coated Drop Cloths a whole lot.  Each strip is woven cloth on one side, backed with rubber fused to the fabric.  The fabric is 80% polyester, and 20% cotton.  They happen to be a very light blue, if that matters.  The edges are neatly hemmed. Each one is 3 feet 9 inches x 14 feet 9 inches.
                   
I opened the first one and ran the strip on the floor against one wall of the room.  I did put a few spots of tape on the edges to hold it to the moldings.  But I’ve decided that this really isn’t necessary.  The cloths have enough body to them that when you fold them against the wall they pretty much stay where you put them.  Then I ran a second strip beside the first, overlapping slightly.  This was plenty of coverage to protect the section that I was likely to spatter.  There was a third cloth provided, but I haven’t opened it yet.  I just move the first cloth to the other side of the second one when I’m ready to move on.

I like the fabric topping.  The ladder does not slip on it.  And the fact that it is heavy means that you won’t accidentally tear the drop cloth.

Of course, these are not drop cloths that you throw away.  You would need to brush them off, fold them and put them away to use again and again. 

To me these seem to have all the advantages of the old canvas drop cloth of my dad’s that I still occasionally use, but having them in strips makes them much easier to deal with.

These were purchased for $13.97 each at Home Depot