A domestic appliance is the heaviest point-loaded object in most buildings and it is almost always moved by pushing rather than lifting. A fridge-freezer on four small feet concentrates several hundred kilograms into four contact patches, and dragging that across a finished floor leaves four parallel grooves that no amount of protection will hide if the protection is too soft.
Why appliances are worse than furniture
Furniture sits on legs or a plinth and it gets lifted. Appliances sit on small adjustable feet, they are top-heavy, and the people moving them cannot get a grip underneath – so they tilt and push. That produces a rocking motion on two feet at a time, which doubles the pressure and adds a scrubbing component. It is the worst possible load case for a floor.
What protection has to do
Spread the load and survive the scrub. Spreading means a rigid panel rather than a soft one: a soft cover under an appliance foot simply dents and the foot reaches the floor anyway. Surviving the scrub means a top surface that is hard and smooth enough to slide on, which is not the same face as the one that goes against the floor. Two requirements, two faces – the same logic as the standard two-face panel.
Use a sledge or a slider
The reliable answer is to get the appliance off the floor entirely: lifting straps, a sledge, or furniture sliders under the feet. All three turn a scrubbing point load into a distributed sliding load, and all three cost less than a floor repair. They belong in the delivery plan rather than being discovered at the doorway.
The doorway is where it happens
Appliances get delivered to the door and the move starts there. The threshold is a change of level, it is the narrowest part of the route, and it is where the appliance gets tilted hardest. A ramped transition over the threshold and a continuous run from there is worth more than protecting the rest of the route perfectly.
What to tell the delivery team
Where the route is, what the floor is, and that the appliance is not to be dragged on its feet. Two sentences, given at the point of booking rather than at the door. Most appliance damage happens because nobody told the two people carrying it that there was anything to be careful about.
Unpacking and the packaging problem
Appliances arrive wrapped in cardboard and strapped to a pallet, and the packaging gets dragged off and left on the floor. Cardboard holds water and grit against a finish and the strapping has sharp edges. Unpack outside or on a sacrificial sheet, and get the packaging out of the room before the appliance is moved into position.
Levelling feet and what they do over time
Appliance levelling feet are small and adjustable, and once the appliance is in position they stay loaded on the same four points for years. On a resilient floor that produces four permanent dents. A spreader pad under each foot, fitted at installation, removes it and costs nothing – and it is far easier to fit then than later.
Where the appliance sits
Appliances under a worktop sit on a plinth and the load is spread; freestanding ones sit on their own feet and it is not. The freestanding items – fridge-freezers, washing machines, range cookers – are the ones that need the pads and the panels. The integrated ones usually do not.
The choice between the two devices that move heavy loads, and which suits which floor, is set out in using sledges and dollies on protected floors.
What we can do
We supply rigid honeycomb panels that spread appliance feet, with a hard wearing face on top and a soft face underneath. Tell us what is being moved and what the floor is, and we will say where the run needs to go – including when sliders and a sledge are the better answer than more panels.