Hardwood Floor Protection and Maintainence (Home Depot, sofa, vacuum cleaner, paint)

[B K R]

We are moving to ur new home which has nice hardwood flooring. Prior to this all the places we lived at had carpet so I need some pointers and tips on moving and laying furniture down on the hardwood floor.

Moving
I have laid down old carpet with plush side down along the route that we will be walking to move in (i.e from the door to the hallway leading to kitchen as well as bedrooms. Hopefully it will stop any unwanted particle that could be brough in when we are making umpteen trips to get things from the truck into the home.

Are there any other precautions that I should take.


Bedrooms

We have kids bed, for which currently we put the box frame directly on the carpeted floor to reduce the height. In the new home, would it be OK to put the box frame on the floor. Do I need to pad the edge of frame with something.

The guest room bed has metal frame which stand on Castor wheels. Can let the wheels rest directly on top of the floors. I am guessing if I lock the wheels they won't move, but would they scratch or indent the floor.

Our Master bedroom bed has a wooded frame, again is it okay to let it rest on the floor or should I be looking at coasters of some sort.



Living Room

Can the couch and recliners be left directly on the floor or are they better of on some sort of coaster or other medium being placed betwwen the furniture and the floor. I am sure with the living room activity the couch could move a little bit from time to time, so I do not want it to drag itself and damage the flooring.


Thankfully, the family room is carpeted, so I do not need to worry too much about the kids play area.

[2cold]

Moving
I have laid down old carpet with plush side down along the route that we will be walking to move in (i.e from the door to the hallway leading to kitchen as well as bedrooms. Hopefully it will stop any unwanted particle that could be brough in when we are making umpteen trips to get things from the truck into the home.

Are there any other precautions that I should take.


Bedrooms

We have kids bed, for which currently we put the box frame directly on the carpeted floor to reduce the height. In the new home, would it be OK to put the box frame on the floor. Do I need to pad the edge of frame with something.

The guest room bed has metal frame which stand on Castor wheels. Can let the wheels rest directly on top of the floors. I am guessing if I lock the wheels they won't move, but would they scratch or indent the floor.

Our Master bedroom bed has a wooded frame, again is it okay to let it rest on the floor or should I be looking at coasters of some sort.

From experience I can tell you that the wooden frame and casters will scratch the floor without some sort of felt or similar padding underneath. They sell stick on stuff that generally does a fine job. Casters have even gouged my wooden floor in the past.

Living Room

Can the couch and recliners be left directly on the floor or are they better of on some sort of coaster or other medium being placed betwwen the furniture and the floor. I am sure with the living room activity the couch could move a little bit from time to time, so I do not want it to drag itself and damage the flooring.

Ditto, use those coasters or stick on felt pads. You can find them at hardware stores or places like Walmart, etc.


Thankfully, the family room is carpeted, so I do not need to worry too much about the kids play area.

[Uconn97]

We use the pads also. In our bedrooms we find the beds tend to move a few inches over time so we actually used that pad that goes under area rugs and I cut a few pieces the same shape as the legs of the beds and that works like a charm! no more wandering furniture...

[icibiu]

You may want to reconsider the upside down carpeting for moving in, sound like it could be very slippery and your foot could get caught under an edge and make you trip. This may not be big deal when you are just walking around but when you're carrying a big heavy akwardly shaped item it will be a PITA. As an alternative you can get a large roll of kraft paper or similar (they sell a reddish one that contractors use but I can't remember the name) hold it down with painters tape.

You should definitely put some kind of pads on the furniture so it doesn't scratch the flooor and/or move around as much. We got these great rubber squares that go under the legs of our sectional they are great because one, they protect the floor and two the sectional doesn't move around on you everytime you sit down.

When is come time to clean DO NOT use oil or waxed based products, you'll be tempted as they give a nice high sheen finish to the floors but over time they actual dull the finish and attract and hold dirt. You can just use a dust mop most time and when it's time for a big cleaning you can mop with a water based cleaner or even just water and vinegar, the floor will look best if you buff it dry after mopping. They really are much less work than carpet though, and MUCH more sanitary!

[B K R]

Thanks for the advise folks. Looks like I need to go get some furniture pad/felt/gripper thing mentioned above. Is there a particular kind to be avoided or preffered.



As for moving protection, the upside down carpet are approximately 8ft long and have 25 or 35 inch width. I have taped some down using a painters tape so they are not moving on the floor. The under side of the carpet (which is now on the top) has some sort of wire mess which provides additional grip and also does a scrubbing action so by the time we reach the non covered section hopefully the bottom of shoe is clean.

Once more thing. Hardwood Vacumm Cleaners are those a must haves ? Not sure but do they come in any variations such as Steam / Non Steam, etc.

[icibiu]

You definitely don't need a hardwood vacuum cleaner, I never even heard of those things and I've had hardwood floors all my life as have all of my friends and none of us has one. You are coming from carpet so I'm sure you have a regular vacuum, you can run this on the hardwood if you want

There is this great system they sell from Rubbermaid you can get it at home depot, the handle is yellow the base is black and it comes with two different washable attachements one is light blue and is almost like a terry cloth, this you dampen, wring & "mop" with. The other one comes in all white or white and green (green is antimicrobal) which is for dust mopping which you can do in place of sweeping (think janitor type push mop) The four pieces cost $24.99 and I think the replacement cloths are like $6 or $7 but you can wash them quite a few times before you need new ones. I love this system regualr mops are FOUL.

[Treenoid]

I use spare carpet pieces under beds, dressers or anything I want to slide out to clean behind. The slipping of the sofa and bed have never been a problem for me (I guess I do not play as hard as some)

Use the carpet just like you are doing for entering the house (plush side down). The casters on the bed will exert alot of force in a small area, so you might want to use two pieces, one on top of the other.

You may want to make the house a NO SHOE house. The bottom of the shoe can easily pick up a small rock or sand that will be really hard on the finish. Do not wear high heel shoes - same principal as the casters - more psi on a small space - dents in oak are easily done

[lifelongMOgal]

For cleaning look at the minwax products. As has been said, limit wearing of shoes in the house, sweep/dustmop often, keep pet nails trimmed!

http://www.minwax.com/products/wood_maintenance_and_repair/hardwood_floor_care_system.html (broken link)

For you move consider using carboard to protect floor paths and tape in place with blue "painters tape".

Felt or casters are a good investment. Better to be safe now than sorry later. Same with dining room chairs. Anything that will be moved should be covered (refrigerator base too)

[Dusty8940]

Use Bona Hardwood Floor cleaner with a micro fiber dust mop. If you put rugs down use the rubber stuff that goes under them. Don't put rugs in areas that get a ton of light. Putt felt bottom on the bottom of each piece of furniture.


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