The moving process is something many people simply don’t enjoy. After all, there are so many things on your mind. With so much to think about, it is understandable that many people do not think about how to protect floors when moving. However, this is something incredibly important to consider. Let’s look more in-depth at why this is important and how to best keep your floors from damage during the moving process.
Why should you care about protecting floors when moving homes?
While flooring likely wasn’t the first thing you thought of in terms of your upcoming move, it certainly isn’t something to be taken lightly. Moving is one of the most stressful and difficult things you can do and if you aren’t focused on the care and protection of your floors, they can easily come out the worse for wear. This may be surprising because we think of flooring as something very durable and sturdy.
While that is true, the moving process puts a lot more stress on your flooring than normal day-to-day life. When you are moving, you are also much more likely to expose your flooring to large impacts. The moving process can be particularly problematic for surfaces like hardwood floors.
Ultimately, protecting your floor means preventing damage to your floors. If you damage a floor in a place you are moving into, you will have to either deal with the eyesore or put time and effort into repairing it. Additionally, if you damage a floor when moving out of a rental property, you can expect a big bill for the repairs. Thus, protecting floors can save you time, stress, and money.
What Are the Best Ways to Protect Hardwood Floors When Moving?
There are many different things that you can do in order to adequately protect your flooring when you move. This is very important for hardwood floors where damage shows up more easily and can be more expensive to repair. Let’s look at some of the best practices to protect hardwood when moving.
Carry Items When Possible
While hardwood floors are quite durable, one thing that is a huge hazard is dragging items along them. This can lead to major scratches that can simply ruin your flooring. Additionally, you may not even realize you are causing damage until you look back and see scratches along the path you’ve taken.
Moving is a physically demanding task, and it can certainly be tempting to scoot large items along the floor. However, this is one of the most common ways that floors get damaged. Carry items instead when possible and ensure you have help for larger items.
Measure Items
Getting ready to move a big entertainment stand out of your home? Be sure to measure it and the doorways it has to go through. This will help you come up with a game plan before you start moving things around.
This is particularly important for heavy items. There is nothing more awkward than getting to a doorway while holding a heavy item and having to call an audible. Not being prepared also increases the likelihood that your muscles get tired, leading to dropping an item or setting it down too harshly on delicate flooring.
Wrap Corners & Edges
The areas most frequently associated with scuffs and scrapes on hardwood flooring are the parts of furniture that tend to jut out. They are more likely to deliver a jarring impact (both to floors and drywall). A good rule of thumb is to cover the parts that poke out.
This means you’ll want to use blankets to wrap up the legs of chairs and furniture with sharp edges. You can also go to a home improvement store and purchase furniture edge guards that can easily be placed and removed.
Cover Your Floor
Preventing impacts to your floor is one method of proactively preventing damage. Another is to prepare the floor in case it does suffer a hard impact. The solution is to cover the path you’ll be walking along while moving. Some people may be tempted to use a cheap drop cloth to save money, but those things are thin and don’t provide a lot of protection.
Instead, it is recommended to protect hardwood flooring by covering it with something more substantial. Cardboard is a great choice that also provides good traction! Refrigerator boxes, anyone? If you can’t collect cardboard, old blankets and rugs have a thick enough surface that unexpected drops won’t cause damage.
How to protect hardwood floors from furniture scratches when moving
Floor sliders are items typically made from soft substances like felt that adhere to the bottom of the legs on your furniture. In fact, if you have hardwood floors, you should be using floor sliders with any furniture in order to protect your investment.
However, floor sliders are incredibly useful in protecting your flooring when moving. With quality floor sliders, you can even safely slide (hence the name) heavier pieces of furniture when moving. This is an affordable product that will protect your hardwood while also making the move a bit easier.
Avoid Dollies with Metal Wheels
Dollies are a critical component of moving that will help speed up the process and make it much less taxing on your back. However, not all dollies are equal. You want to avoid dollies with metal wheels as these will certainly scratch hardwood floors, particularly when supporting heavy loads.
Instead, make sure to use a dolly with rubber wheels. Additionally, make sure that the wheels are clean. Otherwise, you may find yourself having to put extra effort into cleaning your flooring as soon as the moving is done.
How Do Movers Prepare and Protect a Home?
If moving is stressing you out, one great solution is to hire a professional moving company. In addition to saving you time and effort, professional movers have a ton of experience in protecting your flooring. How do movers prepare and protect a home?
One thing that all professional movers do is cover your flooring with something that helps prevent damage and protect against dirt. Floor runners are the industry standard when it comes to protecting floors. Movers will also create artificial floors with things like plywood if they need to move something extremely heavy that needs extra protection.
You may want your moving team to use plastic booties but, unfortunately, when moving heavy furniture and boxes these items can cause a health and safety risk to your team if dropped. This makes the use of floor runners and the proper moving equipment paramount.
Ultimately, if you want to save yourself some time and stress during your next move, booking professional movers will give you peace of mind and allow you to dedicate your time to much more enjoyable things than moving.