How to Move Appliances... Without Destroying Your Floor

Small repairs to vinyl floors are relatively easy to fix with a kit. You can buy a pro-quality kit from Cal-Flor Accessory Systems (Flooring Repair Kit, about $93, plus shipping). A less expensive DIY version can be purchased from Lifetime Repair Kits (Vinyl Floor & Tile Repair Kit, about $10).

For future moving jobs, keep in mind that a dirty floor is a damaged floor. Dirt and grit under the foot of an appliance can increase the friction enough to rip vinyl pretty easily. So the first step in ?rearranging appliances is to damp-mop the floor. When it's dry, lay down a piece of -inch hardboard (often referred to as Masonite), shiny side up. Lift or lever the appliance and lower it onto the hardboard, then gently coax the appliance forward. For really heavy machines, slip a furniture glide under the front feet once you get the appliance onto the hardboard. Slide the appliance forward and place two glides under the back feet.

Can you move an appliance using the furniture glides alone? Maybe. I once flipped a scrap of carpet upside down and moved around a kitchen range like nobody's business. (That method depends on the quality of the carpet. If an appliance foot punches through, it could wreck the floor.) Given that a half-sheet of -inch hardboard costs only $10, it's inexpensive insurance.

Here's a final point. Vinyl floors are especially prone to damage from pivoting, which causes the appliance feet to grind into the surface. So avoid that motion as much as possible.

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