Talk to the flooring contractor. When we had new flooring put in, we packed up the easy stuff (small lamps, things on top of furniture, etc.) but left the heavy lifting of furniture to the flooring contractor. They move the furniture room to room and can do it quickly and efficiently. But don't leave the small "knick knacks" etc. for them to move; a waste of their time and greater chance of breakage.

My SIL just had all the carpet, tile, taken out of her weekend beach house and hardwood flooring installed. I asked her what they'd done with all her furniture, decorative pieces, lamps etc (it's heavily, professionally decorated) and she said 'I don't know'. !!! It was finished, things back in place the first time she saw it, other than a couple of pieces of trim around the base of kitchen island not yet replaced.

There are two large decks front and back, and it wasn't raining that week, my only guess. But the contractors somehow took care of it, that much is obvious.

Your contractor will remove furniture, however it does cost extra and is included in your quote unless you specify you will do the removing yourself.

Thanks everyone, this is very helpful. I would think that all surface items, even most drawers, should be moved by the owner. I guess flooring companies are used to this sort of thing.

If nothing else, rent a POD if you have room, and get help moving stuff in and out of it. It's a quick and efficient way to get stuff out of the way and keep it safe and dry.

get help moving stuff

Olychick, that's what is perplexing me. Hire movers?

When I had my hardwood floors done, a guy from work and a strapping neighborhood kid moved my stuff in and out. Now I'd prefer a more professional arrangement.

Linelle, DH is a carpet installer. All the stores he works out of request the homeowner to move small breakable trinkets and such but the installer will move the furniture and put it back. The cost is worked into the installation. We have a price for remodel, new, furniture or no furniture, take-up, etc. YMMV but that's how it's done here. Some people opt to do it themselves to save money. If you have stuff under the bed and the floor of the closets, you'll want to have that picked up and out of the way too.

When we had hardwoods refinished in our first house, moving the furniture was included in the bid. We had to take down art and move the small stuff ourselves. We did have to specify this as different companies wanted to handle it differently.

If you end up needing to move stuff yourself, contact local moving companies and ask them for quotes. My mom has paid a local company a few times when she wanted to rearrange furniture (moving stuff from different floors of the house and my parents are older). The one she used charged by the hour so they would come and move three or four pieces for her and charge her for two guys time for an hour.

If you have HD or Lowes do the floor, some moving of furniture is included. If there is what they deem an unreasonable amount of stuff to move, they may charge extra. That is either on their website or printed somewhere. I guess it would be up to you to move small treasures. Good luck. It will be gorgeoso.

We just did this last week! Removed the awful white carpeting that was installed to sell the house 13 years ago (I'm ashamed to admit we put up with it that long!) in three bedrooms, a hallway, and the stairs themselves. The installation of the flooring took 2 long days (8am-8pm) and on the third day they stained the stairs (the rest was pre-finished) and tweaked trim & other details. We live in a very high cost area and the charge for moving the furniture was something like $250 out of an $8k bill!

It was still a huge hassle since my kids seemed to have an infinite number of books and legos to extract from their rooms. I also stuffed away anything else that I could move easily, plus emptying the closets was a time-consuming task. I spent all of Saturday putting things back together while doing a lot of purging at the same time. There's still a fair distance to go before our dining room is fully back to normal. But all in all, it was a week's disruption for a very good end.

I'm glad to see this post. I have a bunch of hardwood flooring install questions and this was one of them. Of course, I'll ask the flooring companies when it comes down to it, but I like to know how things can work or are 'supposed' to work before I go there.

A POD has been mentioned before but our neighbors rented a UHaul truck and just moved their furniture out into that and left it on the driveway. We thought they were pretty smart.

and on the third day they stained the stairs

Straight out of Genesis. :)

You guys are the best. I'm relieved to know that this is often part of the entire job and I'm not the only one who cannot make their furniture, etc. simply go poof.