The default way to buy protection board is a stock sheet size and a knife. It looks cheapest on the invoice and it is often the most expensive option by handover, once cutting labour, offcut waste, unsealed edges and the re-ordering that follows are counted. The alternative – panels cut to a layout at the factory – is not always right, and the deciding factors are predictable.
What stock size costs you
Four things that do not appear on the material invoice. Cutting labour, which on a job with many columns, doorways and reveals is the dominant cost and is easy to underestimate. Offcut waste, which on an awkward layout can run to a fifth of the material. Open edges, because every site cut leaves an unsealed core unless somebody then seals it, which they will not. And a poorer fit, because site cutting under time pressure is approximate and approximate joints are where grit and water get through.
What cut-to-size costs you
Lead time and inflexibility. A cutting schedule has to be produced before the order, which means the layout has to be known, and on a lot of jobs it is not. Panels cut for one room will not fit another when the sequence changes. And cut-to-size panels are less reusable elsewhere afterwards, because they are shaped to one location. On a job with an uncertain layout, stock sheet is genuinely the safer buy.
The split that usually works
Order the bulk of the area as stock panels in the size that suits the largest open runs, and order the awkward pieces – reveals, doorways, stair treads, column notches – pre-cut to a schedule. The awkward pieces are a small share of the area and most of the cutting time. This gets most of the saving without committing the whole order to a layout that might change.
Standard sizes worth knowing
Protection panels are commonly supplied around 1200 x 2400, which is a manageable one-person carry and covers a useful area, and in smaller formats for stairs and corridors. Half-size panels at 1200 x 1200 are worth having on any job for patching and for the areas that get re-laid repeatedly. Ordering a proportion of halves is a cheap way to reduce cutting and to make reuse between phases realistic.
What to tell the supplier
The floor type, the layout if it is known, the obstructions, whether edges will be exposed, and how the panels will get to the workface – a 2400 panel does not go up a tight stair or into a small lift. Give those five and a cut-to-size quote will be accurate. Give only the area and you will get a square-metre price and a pallet of sheet, which is where the cutting bill comes from. Sizing and layout are discussed alongside cutting protection panels on site, waste and offcuts.
What to do with the offcuts
Offcuts from a cut-to-size order are the argument people use for buying stock and cutting on site, and they are worth less than they appear: odd shapes fit few places, and the pile of offcuts at the end of a job is usually skipped. Where reuse is planned, ordering a proportion of half-size panels is more useful than relying on offcuts, because halves fit predictable places on the next job.
What we can do
We supply cut-to-size PP protection panels with sealed edges on the exposed cuts, and stock sizes where the layout is not settled. Tell us what you know about the floor plan and what you do not, and we will propose the split – including saying when plain stock sheet and a knife is the right answer.