Our carpenter bought brown paper that comes in big rolls from Home Depot and taped it down with the blue painter's tape. It worked very well. When it got ripped, we'd just patch it or tape down some new paper.

I'd like to hear suggestions for this too as we will be facing a similar situation. I'd heard that often something called "rosin" paper or red paper is put down to protect floors? I think its a thick felt paper flooring guys sometimes use b/t the flooring and the joists...

I went to the carpet store and had them cut up a remnant into long strips - 3' and 4' wide to fit in the hallways. Absolutely nothing got onto the wood floors.
Best wishes!

My contractor put down a reusable compressed paper product that comes in rolls. I think it's called "Rhino
Board"?

He said it's billed that you're supposed to be able to drive a forklift over it and not hurt the floor. I had no problems with workmen walking and moving heavy appliances with sharp metal feet and cabinets and other pieces of heavy furniture, parking them on it and moving them a few days later.

I would point out that you have to make sure you put it (and tape it with the right tape) down over a perfectly clean floor. Putting it down over a couple of pebbles picked up in the treads of a boot could roll them around for weeks under the paper and -- bad surprise.

But if you happened to have a bunch of old carpet you were ripping out somewhere, that would work too, pile side down. I wouldn't pay for it though, personally, or send extra carpet to the landfill.

We are going to be using Bona Traffic and I called the company for direct advice. They said to either use rosin paper or brown craft or builders paper. The important thing they emphasized was NOT taping it to the floor. They said tape the edge to the side floor trim and then tape each piece to the next piece, etc.

I put the rosin? paper from HD on my floor. It's working well, where it is placed, but, I made the mistake of only putting it in what I thought would be traffic areas,unfortunately,the installers had other ideas!!! My advice would be to place the paper in a wider area than your typical traffic flow. If you can cover the whole floor, that would be best.

I was wondering the same thing. We've purposely waited as long as possible to have the floors stained (because we're having the hardwood in the entire house refinished at the same time and will have to move out), but are getting close to needing to go ahead. The cabinets are already in since I decided it was better to chance getting a bit of stain on the toekicks (which aren't finished yet) or something rather than having the floors completely trashed right after they are done. And from seeing the rest of the house, I know they would be - no one who has come through the house has been careful in the least, so a little brown paper wouldn't do the trick! I was thinking that using any type of carpet or rug wasn't advised for quite a while after the floors are finished - is that not correct?