4 Ways to Prevent Scratching Your Floors with Furniture
When the holidays roll around and the hosting duties begin, it may be time to get the home ready for hosting! Whether you plan to have a robust guest list or simply close family and friends, there is a good chance that you will need to rearrange your furniture to better suit the holiday gathering. We highly advise starting early, do not rush, and take time to make sure that you avoid scratching your floors during all of the holiday fun!
Of course, you will want to arm the entranceways of your home with welcome mats for footwear scraping and shoe racks for footwear removal. This will help minimize the amount of winter slush reaching your floors, and creating scratches from ice, gravel, dirt particles, dried leaves, mud, and more of nature’s offenders. However, it is equally important to protect your floors from the heavy pieces that are already indoors. Here are four valuable ways to prevent scratching your floors with furniture:
1. Never Push or Drag Furniture
In your rush to get furniture positioned for an event, you or your helpers may be guilty of dragging or pushing heavy pieces to open up the space. Heavy furniture can scratch or gouge real hardwood, snag carpet, or crack natural stone or tile. Laminate and luxury vinyl flooring have reinforced finishes that will not scratch or dent as easily but will be cheaper to repair if damaged. The more money you invested to purchase and install a flooring material, the more expensive it will be to repair! Always wait for extra hands to lift heavy furniture entirely and rearrange rooms the right way to prevent costly or unsightly damage.
2. Use Wheels to Move Furniture
You can also properly move furniture and other bulky pieces with the right moving equipment such as dollies and hand trucks. If you are purchasing any new furniture before your holiday event, consider finding the right piece with built-in wheels. A bar cart with wheels is much more convenient and better for your floors than using a large, heavy bar that can be pushed across floors by accident when leaned on during a party. The ideal wheels to use on moving equipment or furniture are non-marking rubber wheels or ball wheels. Avoid rigid plastic wheels and make sure to clean all wheels of debris before rolling them across your floors.
3. Use Area Rugs During the Holidays
We have already written about the importance of using area rugs this holiday season, and this certainly includes using rugs as a barrier between furniture and your floors. In addition to adding chic style and enhancing your décor, area rugs protect against scratches when furniture is bumped. Use an area rug pad to hold your rugs securely in place and match your rug pad material to your flooring type for the best results. If possible, try to have all legs from a piece of furniture or table on the same rug to achieve an even, balanced level and greater stability.
4. Use Felt Pads & Gliders
If you are not able to fit all furniture or table legs on one area rug, use felt pads or gliders underneath the other legs to achieve an even height. This will achieve better stability, prevent movement, and help reduce the likelihood of scratches to your floors. If you do not have rugs underneath your pieces, felt pads and gliders are a terrific way to reduce impact from heavy legs and corners. Since felt pads and gliders are extremely inexpensive to purchase, use the holiday rearranging time to replace older pads if you are already using them throughout the year.
Make sure to visit our Area Rug Inspiration Gallery and find out how you can get free shipping on new rugs if you need some extra soft protection this holiday season! Also, visit one of our Flooring 101 showrooms in California and our rug experts are happy to assist you before your festive get-togethers.
