I've found over the years that I like to keep some plastic drop cloths on hand for convenience. I use them when I'm working on the aquariums, and also for other projects, such as when I'm painting a small piece of furniture, or even if I need to do a small sanding job, which I will occasionally do indoors, especially if I need to get it done and it's been raining for an extended period of time. If I'm working outside, I typically don't bother using a drop cloth unless I'm using paint that could stain the concrete of the back porch. I did a small project using stain in the past at another residence, and left a few small stains on the patio. The guys my landlady hired to paint this house before I moved in didn't bother either, and there are still ugly paint stains on the concrete. I am looking to do a new project, and realized that I had run out of drop cloths, so I decided to see if Dollar Tree had any while I was there yesterday. I was surprised to see that they do have them, and purchased a few. I am looking to create walking paths from my back gate to the shed, and also veering off that path, to the back porch. I'm going to try putting a drop cloths on that portion of the grass (mostly weeds, really), to see if it will kill them, and if so, I'll probably purchase a few more, so I don't have to create the paths in sections over time.
Do you find that the quality is lacking? We've painted several houses, and I used to be like, "Whatever is cheapest" but I quickly learned that quality counts. Now, we are in the habit of saving old shower curtains and putting them in our paint supplies to use as drop cloths. I've also discovered that plastic table cloths tend to be better than some of the chintzier things you can get at the dollar store. I'll also use a CLOTH drop cloth over plastic, if it comes to it, because then you can paint barefoot and your feet don't stick and pull the cloth up.
Yes, they're definitely thin as drop cloths go, but they're a dollar. I don't expect more than what I'm paying for, which isn't much. If I were doing an actual painting project, I would also use cloth over the drop cloths for the same reasons, or shower curtain/shower curtain liners as you mentioned, because they're thicker and more durable, as well as less slippery, but as I mentioned, I purchased them with one purpose in mind, and possibly a second, if I decide to work on the tanks, and they seem to be of sufficient quality for those purposes.
If the main reason for buying them was purely in the hope that they would suppress weeds - its a shame you've already bought them - especially as you could have saved yourself a few dollars. Simply because - although smothering weeds and grass with plastic - can kill off what is currently growing temporarily - bearing in mind that it generally takes 6 months to a year to do that and more importantly - its not a permanent solution either - as once the plastic is removed the weeds and grass will return stronger and in greater abundance too. A much cheaper and more effective alternative - would be to use layers of newspaper and cardboard instead - which not only does exactly the same job for free - but as you don't have to remove it - as it breaks down naturally over time - makes the whole process way easier too.
Well that's good to know for the future. I do have some cardboard boxes I could part with, if need be, for that purpose. I only spent $2, since I wanted to test it out on a few small portions of the yard where I am considering putting walking paths, so it's really not a big deal. I wanted to at least try something like this out before attempting to use chemicals, since I prefer a more natural approach. I don't have newspapers around much anymore, although that would have been good to know in the past, when I was always trying to get rid of them.
you've just made me realize - that as I appear to have missed out the vital word “ or “ - what I said doesn't quite come across as it should - so apologies for that. Therefore - am sure you'll be pleased to know - that as what I had originally meant to say was that “ you can use layers of newspaper and/or cardboard “ - meaning you could use either or a mixture of the two depending on what you have available - no problem - using several layers of cardboard will work just fine. In fact its generally the latter that I use - as not only am I like you and don't have any newspaper available these days - but my grocery store is always more than willing to give me a good supply of cardboard cartons whenever I need them.
