So how can you protect your floors when moving? Fortunately, there are a few simple tips and tricks you can use to keep your floors as good as new. Let’s dive in!
The first line of protection on your floors is to prevent them from getting mucked up with dirt, mud and water. Now this can be tricky when you have a large moving team constantly moving in and out of your home, especially if there’s bad weather.
Here are 3 things you can do to minimise the mess tracked into your home:
Place a heavy-duty doormat or rug just outside for people to wipe their shoes.
Get everyone disposable shoe booties for extra protection.
Split your moving teams into two — an outdoor and an indoor team that hands over items at the door.
Before you start moving in all your belongings, it’s best to first take some key measurements:
Measure your furniture to see if you need to dismantle any furniture items.
Measure your doorways and hallways to ensure your furniture will actually fit through before you start trying to force it through and end up scuffing your floors and walls.
Measure the planned space for your furniture to make sure it actually fits so that you can minimize the amount of moving heavy furniture you have to do.
Most floor damage comes from sliding and scratching your furniture across your floors or dropping heavy furniture and causing a dent. So make sure to carry your furniture as much as possible, keeping any feet and edges far from any floor or wall surface. And when you are carrying any heavy furniture, make sure you have complete control of it to avoid dropping it when it gets too heavy — you want to place it down very gently on the floor.
However, some furniture is simply too heavy to carry all the way and can’t avoid dragging or pushing. But don’t worry, there are some extra protections seen below that you can put in place in these cases.
This is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to keep your floors protected. Just take out some old blankets, rugs and even towels and make a clear pathway on the ground to where you need your furniture to go. But make sure to use old ones that you don’t mind getting dirty and potentially damaged. You might also want to wrap up any sharp or delicate edges that stick out with towels or bubble wrap.
You can even use blankets, rugs and towels in clever and inventive ways to move your heavy furniture, such as placing it on a rug and sliding is across the floor.
Furniture sliders are a clever trick to protect both the feet of your furniture and your floors. They stick to the bottom of your furniture like couches, tables, chairs and even a piano and allow you to simply slide your furniture across your floors without any friction.
They come in all shapes and sizes and can be found at your local furniture or hardware store.
You can also take your moving up a notch by renting or borrowing a dolly. A dolly allows you to simply load your heavy furniture and roll it around to where it needs to go. You can get either a two-wheel dolly for a fridge or other appliance, or you can opt for a four-wheel furniture dolly for larger furniture items.
Just make sure you get one with rubber wheels, not metal so that they don’t end up scratching your floors. Also, check that the wheels are clean and aren’t tracking dirt around.
If you want guaranteed protection, it’s best to invest in some kind of floor covering. This will depend on your floor type.
Here are the best floor coverings for your floors:
Tile: You can line high-traffic pathways with X-board and RamⓇ Board for a path for the dolly.
Hardwood: You can use red rosin paper if you’re looking for a more affordable option or Floor Shields if you want something more heavy-duty.
Vinyl: To avoid scuffs and tears you either lay down some cardboard or some red rosin paper with blue painter’s tape.
Carpet: The best protection for carpets is carpet film — a transparent, self-adhesive poly film that leaves no residue.
Stairs: You can use carpet film for carpeted stairs and red rosin paper or RamⓇ Board for any other stair surface.
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If you’re putting any cardboard, red rosin paper or anything that can shift around down on your floor, don’t forget to tape it down with blue painter’s tape.
This will stop it from shifting around, accidentally revealing your floor beneath. It also stops it from becoming a tripping hazard for any movers who can’t see their feet while moving heavy objects.
If you have some extra money in your moving budget and don’t mind splurging a bit, it may be worth investing in plywood sheets. These are the ultimate floor protectors because they literally act as a temporary floor.
Once you’ve laid them down, you don’t have to stress! Any damage that comes from your move, like scratching, scraping, scuffing and denting, doesn’t matter. When you’re finished moving everything, you just remove the plywood and let your perfect floors shine.
One last thing you can do to protect not just your floors but your belongings too is to choose a reliable moving service you can trust. Top-quality moving services will make sure to treat your goods and your new home with the utmost respect and care.
And you can find the best moving services with Wise Move! Wise Move’s moving company platform connects you with top-rated, low-cost movers across South Africa. Using the 1000+ reviews to guide you, you’re guaranteed to find an affordable moving service that you can trust will protect your floors and your belongings as if they were their own.
Check out Wise Move’s best movers and get your quote today!
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