Transporting wooden items over long distances is never easy. They are prone to breakage if you are not really careful with them. One good way to ensure the safety of your belongings is to hire one of the interstate moving companies that have extensive experience in relocating furniture. But even with their help, you may want to prepare your items for the road ahead. Protecting wooden items during transport is all about disassembling them properly, as well as securing and loading them properly onto the truck. In this article, we are going to provide you with a set of guidelines to make this process a lot easier.
Tips for protecting wooden items during transport
Here is what you may want to consider doing:
- Use proper moving equipment and protective materials
- If possible, disassemble your furniture
- Secure the drawers in order to protect wooden items during transport
- Clean and polish your wooden items before transport
- Load bulky and heavy wooden items last
- Avoid stacking items on top of the wooden pieces
- Hire professionals to help you protect wooden items during transport
However, some specialty pieces may require further attention. Pianos, for example, are notoriously difficult to transport and they may require professional assistance. Make sure that your cross country movers Florida are experienced in relocating such items before you hire them. Try and find customer reviews that say how they handled such items in the past. But if you want to try your hand at moving wooden items, here’s how you need to go about it:
Use proper moving equipment and protective materials
The first thing you need to acquire is proper moving equipment. Depending on your items, you may need anything from a moving dolly to more specialized equipment. But if you need an expensive piece of hardware to ensure the safety of your belongings, it might be best to contact a professional mover or even hire full packing services. Additionally, you may want to invest in the protective sheathing. Ideal materials for this purpose are packing paper, moving blankets, and furniture pads. You will want to secure the corners and legs first, as they are the most vulnerable parts. An important note here is to never use any plastic wrapping directly on the wood, as it can trap moisture inside and damage your piece.
If possible, disassemble your furniture
The best way to transport wooden items is by disassembling them into pieces. Of course, this is not always possible but you should disassemble what you can. It is well worth your time and effort, as you can then wrap each part separately and completely protect it. As an added benefit, it will require less space in the moving truck, as well as fewer storage services. If you are not proficient in the task, you may want to ask for help from either a professional or someone knowledgeable. It is really easy to damage your wooden furniture during this process, something that you wish to avoid at all costs.
Secure the drawers in order to protect wooden items during transport
If your items have drawers on them, it is important to make sure that they are as secure as possible. They present the greatest risk and are often overlooked, even by some movers. The drawer can swing out and knock into other items, potentially scraping the wood or dislodging the drawer itself. A simple solution to this problem is to tape the drawers before securing the rest. You can use a soft twine for this purpose, or sturdy tape. Before transport, try to make the drawers “pop-out” by shaking the piece somewhat vigorously. You will immediately realize if you need to secure it further.
Clean and polish your wooden items before transport
Dust and dirt particles can damage your furniture during transport. Therefore, it is vitally important that you clean every piece thoroughly, even applying a bit of polish. While this may be a lengthy task, the added protection is more than worth it. Using furniture polish will also alleviate some of the dryness, making your furniture less likely to crack at any point. Make sure that you have enough time on your hands, as this is a process that you really do not want to rush.
How to protect wooden items during transport – Load bulky and heavy wooden items last
When moving your items to the truck, you want to save them for last. Just make sure that there will be enough space in the truck. You can disregard this part if you hired a professional mover, of course.
Avoid stacking items on top of the wooden pieces
Try not to stack any items on top of your wooden belongings. The wood can get scratched really easily, and there will be friction during the transport, you can be sure of that. Even if you use a protective coating, the damage can still go through. Therefore, if you can help it, avoid stacking anything on top of your furniture. That way, you will minimize the chances of any damage occurring while your items are on the road.
Hire professionals to help you protect wooden items during transport
Lastly, as we mentioned several times in this article, your best option might simply be to hire professionals to take care of your furniture. Protecting wooden items during transport is what they do best, after all. However, you might want to oversee the process anyway and, if you see that they are not following these principles, feel free to step in. Even though they know their job, there can be times when their mind is on another matter. Another pair of eyes is always helpful, after all. But if you hire a great moving company, you will not have to worry about that. Experienced movers seldom allow for any potential damage at any point of the relocation process.
