Why the Damage Usually Happens in the First Hour

Most scuffs, dents and scratches on moving day are not caused by the heavy lifting. They are caused by repetition. The same route gets walked, trolleyed and dragged along perhaps fifty times before the last box reaches the van, and each of those trips carries a small risk to the floor underneath and the frame beside it. A box corner catches a skirting board. A sack barrow wheel rolls over a bit of grit and grinds it into a varnished board. Someone carries a wardrobe through a doorway and takes a slice of paint off the architrave on the way past.

In Bromley and across South East London, that risk is unusually high. Much of the housing stock is Victorian and Edwardian, which means narrow hallways, tight turns at the foot of the stairs, original floorboards that mark easily, and doorways that seem to have been built for people rather than furniture. A little preparation with cardboard and a few dust sheets pays for itself many times over.

Plan the Route Before the First Box Moves

Walk the journey yourself, indoors and out, and decide on one main route. Everyone should use it, however tempting the shortcut looks.

• Inside: from each room, along the hallway, through the front door.
• Outside: across the path, front garden, drive or communal corridor to where the van will park.
• Stairs: the full run up or down, including the landing turn.

Flag the awkward spots as you go: the tight corner by the bathroom door, the step down into the kitchen, the metal threshold strip, the gravel path. Anything that catches your eye now will catch a sofa leg later. It also helps to clear the route completely first — shoes, plant pots, doormats, the recycling box — so nobody has to step around obstacles while carrying something heavy.

Coverings for Hard Floors, Carpets and Stairs

You do not need commercial-grade kit. Flattened cardboard from your own packing boxes will do a great deal, and most removal crews carry runners as standard.

• Hard floors: lay heavy-duty polythene runners or dust sheets along the main route, then add flattened cardboard over the highest-traffic sections. For very heavy items such as a piano, safe or full American fridge-freezer, use hardboard or MDF sheets — polythene alone can ruck up under weight.
• Carpets: use self-adhesive carpet protector film. Press it down well at the edges and lift it within a few weeks of the move, as leaving it too long can leave residue or pull at fibres.
• Stairs: protect the treads with corrugated cardboard or purpose-made stair protectors, fixed with low-tack tape. Avoid loose plastic sheeting on stairs — it is genuinely dangerous underfoot.
• Tape matters: use low-tack masking tape on painted, varnished or delicate surfaces. Gaffer tape is fine for holding cardboard to concrete or tile, but it can lift lacquer and paint if left in place too long.

Door Frames, Skirting Boards and Handrails

Doorways are where most visible damage occurs, and it is nearly always the architrave that suffers. Slit foam pipe insulation lengthways and push it over the frame edges, or tape folded cardboard around the jambs — a U-shape covering the sides and top is ideal for the doorway everyone is using.

Beyond that:

• Run a strip of cardboard along skirting boards on the main route, especially where furniture will be pivoted.
• Wrap handrails and newel posts in bubble wrap or foam, secured with masking tape.
• Protect radiator valves and pipework near the route with foam lagging.
• Take doors off their hinges where a wide item needs the extra clearance, and store them flat and out of the way.

Getting the crew to carry rather than drag is worth more than any covering, but assume that at least one person, at least once, will run something along a wall. The protection is there for that moment.

The Front Entrance and Communal Areas

The front door and the approach to it take a beating. Lay a heavy mat or a sheet of hardboard over the threshold, and if the path is gravel or uneven paving, put down a plywood board as a small ramp or bridge so trolley wheels do not sink or snag.

If you are in a block of flats, speak to the managing agent before the day. Many require notice, some ask for a lift to be booked or padded, and nearly all appreciate a protective covering in the communal hallway. A short email a week ahead avoids an awkward conversation at 8am with a van blocking the entrance. In rented properties, floors are a standard item at check-out, so protecting them is really protecting your deposit.

Clearing Up and Keeping the Goodwill

One of the quiet advantages of laying protection is how quickly the day ends. Instead of scrubbing grit out of a hallway or hunting for scratch remover, you simply roll up the runners, fold the cardboard for recycling, and peel back the carpet film. Do that before the furniture is fully in place, while there is still room to move.

Keep a bin bag for used tape and a cloth for the odd mark, and do a final walk of the old property once it is empty. If anything has been marked despite your efforts, deal with it then rather than after the keys have changed hands. A small pot of colour-matched filler or a furniture touch-up pen handles most minor scuffs on skirting and architraves in under ten minutes.

The principle is simple: a couple of hours with cardboard, tape and dust sheets before anything moves saves days of regret afterwards, and it makes the final clean-up — at both ends of the journey — far easier for everyone involved.