Heavy furniture that stays in one place for a long time can pose a real risk to your flooring. That’s especially true if your flooring happens to be an expensive roll of carpet.
Carpet isn’t just something that covers your floor, it’s also an investment. If it looks bad, it’ll drag down the value of your home. So you’ll want to do what you can to protect it so that it keeps looking spiffy.
We put together this article looking at what risks you face when you place heavy furniture on top of carpet, and what you can do to reduce the possibility of long-term damage. We hope you find it useful.
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How to protect carpet from heavy furniture
The best way to fix indentations from heavy furniture is to prevent them from happening in the first place.
While you can put things under your furniture to prevent it from leaving indentations, there are a couple of things you can do beyond that.
The first is to rearrange your furniture every so often. Most of us like to do this, anyway, to maintain a sense of freshness in our homes.
There is no precise guide in knowing how often to do this. It comes down to how often you like to change up your room, how easily the fibers in your carpet will compress, and how heavy the furniture is.
One thing to keep in mind is that the heavier your furniture is, the faster it’ll leave indents. But, also, the heavier your furniture is, the less you’ll want to move it around because it can be a real chore.
Something else to remember is that if your heavy furniture takes up a lot of space that your rearranging options might be kind of limited.
In those cases, just remember that you don’t need to move your furniture all that far. It just needs to be enough that the feet of your furniture are on top of a new part of the carpet.
What can you put under furniture to protect carpet?
There are also things you can put under your furniture to prevent indentations in the carpet. Some of them you can purchase, some you might just have around the house.
One of those DIY solutions is taking pieces of carpet leftover when you installed it and turning them into padding. It’s like doubling up the carpet, except that the top layer is just a little bigger than the feet of your furniture.
If you have an area rug at home, you can also lay that down between your furniture and carpet. This barrier is a good way to even out the weight from the furniture and spread it out. It might still compress but will do so a lot more slowly.
You can substitute a piece of plywood for the area rug if the furniture is large and heavy. It operates on the same principles. Spread out the weight and compression will take place at a slower pace. The plywood is better equipped to handle the weight.
You can also purchase furniture casters. These work just like drinking coasters, except that they protect against indentations rather than water stains. Purchase enough and of sufficient size for all the feet of your furniture.
Some of these are designed to help spread out the weight of your furniture. Some will make it easier to slide the furniture around on your carpet so you can occasionally redistribute its weight.
Can heavy furniture damage carpet?
Heavy furniture left for a long time in the same place can cause your carpet fibers to compress. While the damage isn’t necessarily permanent, it can create appearance issues and will take time to fix.
While prevention is absolutely the best way to fix compressed fibers, if you have heavy furniture eventually you’ll have to deal with it.
What can you do?
Presumably, you’re moving furniture around when you discover the compressed carpet fibers. So, you’ve got a new space that you’ll want to clean up.
Start by vacuuming the carpet where the heavy furniture was. This will pick up the dust and little bits of dirt that you’ll want to clean up, plus it might be enough to spruce the carpet back up.
If that doesn’t work, try steaming the spot. Be careful to not use too much heat, especially if your carpet is delicate. Use just enough to loosen the carpet fibers and cause them to expand.
Dampen a white cloth and place it over the top of the indentation marks. Place a clothes iron heated to the cotton setting over the top and iron the area just outside the dents. Lift the iron away and leave the cloth to dry overnight.
You can also use the furniture attachment on a steam cleaner to apply some heat directly. Just don’t use too much heat, or you might damage the carpet fibers directly.
A classic trick is to allow an ice cube or two to melt on an indentation spot overnight. This is a time-tested way to help carpets bounce back from heavy furniture indents.
Doing it is simple. Just place the cubes in the indentation, and allow them to melt overnight. As they do, the carpet fibers will absorb the water and swell. In the morning, brush the fibers with your fingers or with the edge of a plastic credit or gift card.
Conclusion
Left on top of carpet long enough, heavy furniture can compress carpet fibers. The damage isn’t necessarily permanent and can usually get repaired, but if your carpet is delicate, you might have permanent damage.
Your carpet is a major investment in your home and probably an integral part of your decor scheme, so it’s important to keep it safe. Fortunately, you can do some quick, easy things to prevent heavy furniture from compressing carpet fibers.
We hope you found this article of value. If you did, or have tips of your own, feel free to leave a comment down below. You can also share it on your social media networks. You might even have friends also dealing with this issue.