How To Protect Your Floors From Your Furniture
Sometimes all it takes is dragging a heavy chair, a table, or even pulling out a refrigerator to clean behind it, and voila – you’ve added a heartbreaking scratch to your beautiful floor. And the worst part is every time you walk by it; it will remind you of what happened. Repairing or replacing floors can be costly and time-consuming. It’s never too late or too soon to add an ounce of prevention when it comes to your floors.
Here are some easy and effective ways to protect your floors from your furniture.
Start With Coasters, Mats, and Sliders
Your local flooring expert is the first place to look for ways to protect your beautiful floors. From selecting tough, scratch, and dent-resistant flooring materials, to choosing the specific protective accessory that works best with your particular floor, a flooring expert can help you make the right decision. No one wants to spend all that time and money on a new floor only to end up disappointed.
Think Of Floor Protection Ahead Of Time
If you’re replacing a heavy kitchen appliance, plan ahead to keep your floor protected. There’s no better time to make sure your refrigerator can be rolled out without tearing up your floor. Dishwashers and stoves are moved less often, but if you ever have to, it’s worth the peace of mind to know your floor won’t be damaged.
Appliance rollers can be used under kitchen appliances. Even if you’re not replacing a washing machine, you should probably install a washing machine spill tray. They are inexpensive, and with a little help, you can slide one under your machine. It’s the cheapest way to protect from flooding your laundry room in case of an accident.
Temporary Floor Protection
There are so many inexpensive and easy ways to protect your floors. The challenge is remembering to do it. Everyone protects their floors during a renovation, but what about all those other times you wish you could stop an innocent accident? Here are some temporary floor protection ideas you may not have thought of:
- Room Transitions: Have you thought of adding a doormat at the doorway to your attached garage? Everyone has trouble getting their kids to clean up their rooms. Instead of locking them in (just kidding), you can add a throw rug inside their room in front of their door.
- Shoe Brush/Boot Scraper: If you’re gardening in the backyard, you can fumble around trying to switch from indoor to outdoor shoes, or you can get a boot scraper/brush and keep it by the door.
- Poly Floor Protection Film: If your flooring experts don’t stock this, you can find it at a box store. It’s a giant roll of kitchen plastic wrap. It’s much tougher, and it will cling to your carpet to protect it. You can roll it out wherever you think you might have an accident. It’s perfect for a children’s birthday party or whenever you think things are going to get messy.
Perfectly Matched Area Rugs
When your gorgeous, brand-new carpet is installed, you can have some area rugs made from what’s left over. It’s one of the added bonuses of choosing carpet for your home. Some people order perfectly matched area rugs ahead of time. Your flooring expert can help you with this.
Save Your Back And Save Your Floors
Even if you’re fit and strong, don’t move a piece of furniture by yourself. Some types of furniture can be unbalanced and awkward to move. Edges can catch on the floor and walls. A little drag here and a little bump there, and before you know it, accidents happen.
If you insist on moving something like the couch on your own, be sure to use a mat or heavy towel underneath the other end so as to lessen the chance of damaging the floor. Here are some other little helpers.
The Cleaner, the Better
If using coasters, rollers, bumpers, mats, and sliders under your furniture and appliances doesn’t appeal to you, then please make sure your floors and furniture legs stay as clean as possible. You see, most of the time, scratches occur when a small piece of hard grit gets caught between the floor and the bottom of the piece of furniture where it meets the floor.
Even if you’ve added a high-quality coaster or felt pads under the leg of a chair or table, if a piece of grit gets caught between it and the floor, that grit can scratch even the toughest surfaces.
Small Scratches Can Add Up
Small scratches that are hardly visible at first can accumulate, and before you know it, you have a dull spot on your floor. Think of that area your table legs hit the floor. That dull spot is usually made up of layers of tiny scratches. Even the best coasters won’t prevent this if dirt gets caught in between the coaster and the floor.
Protect Your Carpet/Broadloom
One of the most enjoyable benefits of selecting wall-to-wall carpeting is the pure luxury feel of it. High-quality, deep-pile carpeting with a thick foam underpad can give you the impression of walking on a cloud. Unfortunately, heavy furniture can leave a lasting impression of a different kind. In fact, the thicker and softer the carpet feels underfoot, the deeper it will be crushed under most pieces of furniture.
Long-Term Protection For Your Floors
Most of the ideas in this article come into play when you’re moving a piece of heavy furniture. There are also some other, longer-lasting ways to help protect your floors.
- Use Area Rugs
Determine where you have the most traffic and the most wear and tear on your floors. Then choose an area rug or mat to protect it. For example, entryways, room transitions, and common flow patterns in your home are ideal opportunities to add some protection.
- Use Comfort Mats
Whether it’s standing in front of a kitchen sink or sitting in front of a desk in your home office, purpose-specific mats can help. In the kitchen, you may want a soft, resilient mat to cushion your feet while you stand. More and more homeowners are choosing hardwood floors for their kitchens. These soft floor mats add comfort.
A desk chair rolls easily on a plastic mat made for that purpose, and it can protect against scuff marks.
- Don’t Forget Outside
The best way to keep your floors clean is to make sure the dirt stays outdoors. A good quality doormat can encourage everyone to clean the bottom of their shoes before coming in.
- Bathroom Mats Keep Things Dryer And Safer
It’s a matter of personal preference. Not such a long time ago, most homes included mats in every bathroom. They’re coming back.
(214) 390-0850
Dan Ratcliff
Dan Ratcliff is the CEO and President of Flooring Direct in Dallas / Fort Worth. Over the last two decades, he has grown Flooring Direct into a premier Shop-at-Home traditional & hardwood flooring company. With a true dedication to customer service and integrity, Flooring Direct has become DFW's largest highest-rated Dallas-local flooring dealer. Dan has lived in Dallas all of his life and was raised in Dallas with family roots and love for the community and local sports. It's with that sense of family that Flooring Direct has contributed to and sponsored children's organizations like Jonathan's Place and scholastic athletics like Plano's Girls Soccer.
