How to protect your floors on moving day

Most floor damage happens on moving day itself, and it is caused by grit underfoot and furniture being slid rather than by dropped objects. The path from the front door to the rooms takes almost all of it.

A fresh timber or engineered floor is at its softest in the first month. The finish has cured enough to walk on and not enough to argue with a dropped bolt. Marks made in that window are the ones people are still looking at years later.

Before the truck arrives

Start at the entry. Nearly all of the grit that scratches a floor walks in on boots in the first hour, and it keeps walking in all day. A doormat outside and a second one inside catches most of it, and someone sweeping the entry at lunchtime catches the rest.

Then cover the run. Not the whole house, just the path the furniture takes: front door, hallway, and into the two rooms taking the heaviest pieces.

Ram board or hardboard is the proper answer and it costs very little for one day. Flattened moving boxes taped together will do, as long as they are taped, because a sheet of cardboard that slides underfoot is worse than bare floor.

Corners and doorways need the most cover and usually get the least. That is where furniture gets pivoted onto one leg.

What causes the damage

Sliding is what does it. A three seater dragged half a metre to line it up will leave a mark that no amount of oil hides, because the grit underneath acts like sandpaper under a few hundred kilos.

Lift and place, even for the small adjustment. If it cannot be lifted, put it on felt sliders and move it slowly.

Take drawers and doors out of anything tall before it moves. A wardrobe with the drawers still in weighs half again as much, and the extra weight goes straight into whoever is walking backwards.

Watch the hardware more than the furniture. A bolt left on the floor next to a bed frame is what makes the dent.

Felt pads

Every leg, every piece, before the piece goes to its final spot. It is a boring job and it is the highest return fifteen minutes of the whole move.

Get the thicker felt rather than the thin stick on discs from the supermarket. Those come off inside a month and take some finish with them. Chairs that get moved daily are the ones that matter most, so do the dining chairs first.

If it does get marked

Do not attack it on the day. Most of what looks like a scratch on moving day is a scuff in the finish, and it comes out with the right cleaner once the dust has settled.

A real dent in engineered flooring usually means replacing a board, so it is worth getting an opinion before anyone starts sanding at it. In older solid timber there is more room to move.

Why the first week is easiest

The other argument for doing all of this properly on day one is that an empty house is the easiest house to work in. Every wall is reachable. Nothing has to be shifted to get at anything. Shelving, curtain rods, TV brackets and the whole hanging list take about half as long before the furniture lands as they do after.

That is why most people book us for the first week rather than the first month, and why we cover the floors before we bring anything in.