Moving Reproduction Furniture without Causing Damage

Whether you plan on moving to a brand new home or refreshing the space you already live in, knowing how to safely move reproduction furniture can save you a lot of grief and frustration. After all, damaging your furniture and hardwood floors is a lot easier to do than it is to undo. This article will teach you how to be careful with both so that you don't have to worry about making any kind of repairs during the moving process, which is stressful enough on its own.

Protecting Your Furniture

First thing's first: create a moving plan. Especially if your furniture has to make it through a few doorways, onto a truck, up or down some stairs, and then through a few more doorways, it'd be a good idea to go ahead make a plan. By doing so, you'll know which doorways you're going to walk through, can measure them ahead of time, and then decide what the easiest carrying strategy would be. It's also wise to plan where you're going to place each piece of furniture on the moving truck so that there's as little moving and jostling as possible. After all, the less each piece is moved, the less chance of damage there is.

If you're hiring professional movers or investing in any kind of cargo insurance for your move, have your antique furniture appraised before you move it around. Take pictures from every angle. Look for any hidden "weak" spots. All of this will help you decide on the right amount of coverage you need, and after you've found potential weak spots, you can warn your professional movers about them beforehand. If it's possible, you should try and hire professionals who are experienced and know how to move antique furniture since they'll likely be more careful than movers who don't.

It's okay to dust your antique furniture before moving it, but don't polish or wax it. Slippery wooden furniture will be harder to grip, and any packing material used could leave unsightly imprints on the furniture's surface.

Once you've had your piece appraised, made a moving plan, and dusted your antique reproduction, you need to secure any drawers and doors so that they don't open or slide out during the moving process. This probably goes without saying, but you should also remove any fragile parts and store them safely elsewhere. Do NOT use tape directly on your antique's surface to secure the drawers and doors, as this will probably cause damage to the wood. It's better to wrap a blanket tightly around the furniture piece and then use tape on the blanket to keep everything snug.

Make sure everything is off of the floor so that you don't have to worry about hitting something unexpectedly and tripping, not only potentially dropping your antique furniture and significantly damaging it but hurting yourself in the process.

Never drag a piece of antique furniture across the floor, no matter how structurally sound it seems. You could be putting a lot of strain on one part of the furniture that will cause you problems later. As long as it's physically possible, you should carefully lift and carry your piece of reproduction furniture to move it.

When you load furniture onto a moving truck, use foam, blankets, and pads to keep your furniture from either falling over or falling into each other as the truck moves. With that in mind, don't be afraid to take your time. Move and drive as slowly as necessary to transport everything as safely as possible. It's better to be safe than sorry, especially when it comes to antique reproduction furniture.

Floors

If you have gorgeous hardwood floors or your new home will have hardwood floors, the thought of any heavy piece of furniture scratching against the floor's nice, new surface probably gives you the same feeling as nails scratching on a chalkboard. As precious as our antique furniture is, we also need to be concerned with protecting our floors as we move.

The most important rule here is one of the most important rules for protecting your antique reproductions: never drag heavy furniture across the floor without some kind of protection underneath. You'll put a strain on the furniture, but you'll also inevitably leave your floors with scuffs and scratch marks. Like we said before: if it's possible, lift and carry your heavy furniture instead of pushing or pulling it. If you can't lift something by yourself or with the enlisted help of family and friends, the smartest thing to do might be to hire some strong, experienced professional movers.

If for whatever reason, you need to move but can't hire professionals or lift the heavy furniture by yourself, there are little tricks to make your life a little easier. One way to get around the "no dragging" rule is to use furniture sliders. Furniture sliders usually come in a pack of four or eight; they are soft, little pads that you can place under each foot so that the heavy piece can be dragged without scuffing. However, since there can be a physical strain in placing the pads where they need to be, and a lot of care needs to be taken to make sure heavy furniture doesn't just tip over as you're trying to move it, we still recommend lifting and carrying whenever possible.

You can also use moving dollies and hand carts if your furniture pieces will fit on them and leave enough room to squeeze through your doorways. Professional movers use dollies all the time, and there's a reason why: it's one of the safest furniture-moving methods if done correctly. So long as the furniture you're trying to transport is small and balanced enough that you don't have to worry about losing control of it, a moving dolly can effectively protect your furniture and your floors.

No matter where, when, or how you're moving, we hope that these tips and tricks will be helpful as you try to protect not only your favorite antique reproduction pieces but also your beautiful hardwood floors.