You have just had an expensive new wood floor fitted, the joiners have packed up and gone and now it is time to put the furniture back into the room.

STOP! Before you start sliding heavy furniture over your new shiny floor, now is the time to turn it upside down and have a look at what is most likely going to ruin your day and your expensive investment.

Chairs and tables usually have brass or hard plastic studs in the feet, these are to reduce the flattening of the carpet pile that they are usually pressing into. However, they are a source of potential damage to wood flooring, so pull them off with a pair of pliers. Then fix either nail in or stick on wood flooring felt pads. Besides eliminating damage, you will find even really heavy furniture is easily moved into position and also you eliminate the annoying scraping sound of chair legs on a hard surface. Why don’t they use them in restaurants?

If you have heavy furniture with casters, these are best pulled off (easily done) and again replaced with felt pads. If you cannot do that, then for furniture that will be frequently moved, use felt backed caster cups. For furniture that needs to kept stationary e.g. a piano, place the casters in rubber cups – these will grip the floor without damage.

One final thing. Grit and small stones are easily ground into your floor if they are trapped in the soles of trainers. A really good quality washable cotton door mat at the entrance will help to track off harmful grit, dust and small stones.

If you are reading this too late, and you have already got a dent in your new floor, try this:

Place a damp tea towel over the affected area. Then, briefly iron over the dent with a steam iron. In some cases forcing moisture into the wood will make the wood expand and the dent will pop out like magic. Do try a test area first though.