Protect Your Floors During a Move

When most people prepare for a move, they think about protecting their valuables during transport and offloading. They have another valuable item that frequently is missed: their flooring. Unfortunately, damaged flooring can be expensive to repair or replace. And, it’s easy to significantly damage your flooring by dragging, sliding or dropping something on it as you move in. Not only is this dangerous, but it is also expensive and frustrating to deal with as you begin your new life in your new home. 

It is true that your flooring is a valuable home asset. You should protect it as such during a move. Since you have found this article, you are obviously thinking about keeping your flooring safe during a move. Here are our best tips for keeping your flooring safe during a move. 

Covering Your Floors During a Move 

The single best way to protect your flooring during your next move is to cover it. You have several options for doing so, but here are the best: 

• Linens you already have like towels, sheets, or blankets. 
• Broken down cardboard boxes. 
• Commercial floor coverings that were designed to serve this exact purchase. You can find them at most local hardware stores. 

Whichever you use, make sure you secure it as tightly as possible. You don’t want your floor covering to become a hindrance or even a danger instead of a benefit. Secure your covering with tape and make sure you know where it is at all times. If it ever comes unstuck and threatens to trip someone, stop everything to correct it immediately. 

Moving Furniture and Avoiding Damage to Your Floor 

Protecting your floors goes beyond just covering them up. You also need to be able to move things over and across them as easily as possible. There are a couple of ways to make this easier: 

Never drag furniture. If you drag or slide furniture, it will scratch the floor. This is true about tables or heavy furniture and just about everything. Even the lightest items scratch, mark up, dent, or otherwise damage your flooring if they’re dusty or otherwise compromised. You’re going to need special felt pads to move anything heavy over delicate flooring, which a professional moving company can provide for you. 

Use a rubber-wheeled dolly. A dolly will save you a lot of trouble. It can carry numerous things at once, including large or heavy items. It is efficient, affordable and accessible. If you rent a dolly, make sure it has rubber wheels. Wheels made out of harder materials could leave behind dents, scratches, or cumbersome scuffs. 

Preparing for the Move 

There are a few things you can start preparing even before you need to start putting together your supplies and actually covering your floors. Here are a couple of things to start keeping in mind well before the move happens. 

• Measure furniture, doors, hallways, and stairwells in advance. This will help you avoid unfortunate situations where you get stuck while you’re trying to move things. The faster, easier and more consistently you can move your stuff into your new home, the safer your floors will be. Measure hallways, door frames, corners, stairways, room size and anything else you’re afraid might be a little tight. 
• Check the weather. Moving in during bad weather is a more challenging proposition for every aspect of your move. This is true for your flooring as well.  Unless you take extra, special precautions, moving in during rain or snow could make your flooring wet. Obviously, wet flooring is slippery, which means you’ll be much more likely to slip or drop something. Ideally, you shouldn’t move during bad weather at all. If you have to, prepare well in advance. Cover your flooring, wear proper safety gear and plan to take your time. 

Keeping your floors safe doesn’t have to be a challenge. Putting down coverings and using proper furniture moving practices will help tremendously. The best way to ensure your floor’s safety during a move is to utilize the help of professional movers. Give Alliance Relocation Services a call first for a free quote.