# Regular blue tape versus Ram Board tape



## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

Have used Ram Board several times and just used wide blue tape to tape to hardwood floors and regular yellow in taping sections to each other. Doing another job next week where it will be needed and I want to know if there is any advantage to using the actual RB tape? Kinder and gentler when applied to the actual flooring? Can it stay down longer without potential issues? Is it less expensive? This is not newly refinished wood flooring that I will be taping to.


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## PNW Painter (Sep 5, 2013)

On a recent project I used a mix of standard blue tape and orange ram tape to secure Ram Painters board on newly finished hardwoods. The flooring protection was pulled after about 2 months and there weren’t any issues removing either tape. 

The Ram tap is nice because it’s wider, but it didn’t stick to the hardwoods quite as well as blue tape. There were a few spots where the ram board was curling a little bit and the ram tape wasn’t able to hold the ram board down, but the blue tape worked much better in these situations.

Overall the Ram tape worked well and I’d use it again. In spots were I wanted more adhesion, such as door jambs I think blue tape works better, but for all the long runs ram tape works well. I’m not sure about cost because the GC provided all the materials.

If you have any other questions just let me know.

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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

Thanks. Sort of what I was wondering. The board will be down for a month or so but mainly because the owner wants it left down for when the movers show up. I will pull the perimeter tape as soon as I am done in two week. Think I will have both tapes available when installing.


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## Woodco (Nov 19, 2016)

I usually cu the ramboard so its a few inches away from the base, put wide blue tape next to the base, then mask paper onm top of that and tape it to the ram board that to the ram board. Its time consuming, but it eliminates problems like edge curling and tape pulling up. I would think ram board tape would be too expensive to do on its own, and I dont trust it on the new floor to be down for so long.


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## jr.sr. painting (Dec 6, 2013)

Don't use the ram tape on finished flooring. It won't come off. We used a lot of ram board but recently switched to x board. Cheaper and and easier to rollout. It doesn't want to roll back up like ram board. We usually just tape one row to the floor and then overlap all pieces and attach with ram tape. Sometimes we'll even use green paper around the perimeter of the floor taped to the shoe and then tape the x board to the tape from the hand masker. This way if it does roll back accidentally you still have 12" of protection from debris sliding underneath. 


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

Well, actually I’m using the turtle shell (?) brand of floor protector. But I imagine their brand of tape works pretty much the same. And again, it’s not new or newly refinished flooring. It’s been in place about ten years. Still, don’t want issues. Think when I am done, I’ll remove the Turtle tape (only used it in small pieces around the perimeter) and replace it with green for when it remains for the long haul.

Thanks for the replies guys.


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## PNW Painter (Sep 5, 2013)

Ram has two types of tape now. They have the traditional tape that looks kinda like ram board. This isn’t intended to be used on floors or other finishes surfaces.

They also have an orange version that’s very similar to 3M Blue tape, but I think it’s 3.5” wide.


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## Blue line (Apr 20, 2019)

I use the good quality blue tape, the one with the orange writing on it. I’ll put that directly on the floor, maybe two strips wide if needed. Then I’ll use duck tape to tape the ram board down to the blue tape. The duct tape doesn’t peel or come up, it holds the ram board down with no problem. The duct tape never touches floor, only the blue tape does. Use the duck tape on overlapping seems also.


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