#4 COMMON ITEMS

THIS SECTION COVERS TRICKS ON HOW YOU SHOULD HANDLE A...:

1) Sofa.

2) Dining Table

3) Dresser

4) A large rug

5) Recliner

6) Mechanical sofa

7) Hanging clothes

8) Mattress

9) Washer & dryer

10) Refrigerator

11) Headboard & bed frame

12) Mechanical bed

13) Potted plants

14) Bicycles

15) Pole lamp

16) Roll-top desk

17) Computer desk

18) Glass coffee table

19) Large wall picture

20) Table lamp

21) Dresser Mirror

1) SOFAS

sofas FORWARD TIP ANGLE

SOFAS

HOW TO GET A SOFA OUT A TIGHT DOORWAY

1-1) If a sofa is tipped forward, towards the knees, so that the head-rest is directly over the knee rest then the side view of the sofa would look like this. This tip position is called

"Head-rest over knee-rest"

1-2) By using "the Hook" technique (which will be explained soon) you can eliminate the factor of the arms of the sofa, making a sofa cross-section of head-rest over knee-rest in the general shape of a triangle when looked at from the end.

1-3) The "Head-rest over knee-rest" tilt position utilizes the fact that the distance of the "altitude" of a right angle isosceles triangle is near 30% shorter than the two other shortest sides of the triangle.

1-4) In this picture we are looking at six cross-sections of the middle of the same sofa (with no arms shown) tipped in six different ways. A, B, C, D, E & F are all photo copies of a sofa frame that is the exact same size in each tilt picture. First, just look at them all as a group and see how different tip methods gives you different clearances.

1-5A) Position (A) won't fit through this doorway width, and extends past by several inches.

1-5B) Position (B) also has the cushions and legs left on, yet with this tip position will fit through the door, with no leeway room. If you leave the cushions on and tilt it, you need to pad-wrap it.

1-5C) Position (C) is this same sofa, legs and cushions left on, but with the sofa pressed a little into the door-jam smushing and condensing the cushions a bit, and so giving a little leeway on the left where the legs could damage the door.

1-5D) Tilt (D) shows the cushions taken off, and the legs left on, giving a good bit of leeway space, and so this is the fastest way to get through a "too small" doorway, which makes this the usual way for "quick economical moves".

1-5E) Position (E) gives leeway by taking the legs off, yet leaving the cushions on, which allows the sofa to be pad-wrapped in the house with the cushions on, and so is the usual "Big High-end Move" method (for too small doorways).

1-5F) Position (F) Takes both the legs and cushions off and allows the sofa to fit through the smallest possible doorway width, and so is done only when necessary to fit through the door.

1-6) Do you leave the sofa Legs on or take them off?

The mover's default method for big expensive "high end" moves is to take the legs off and leave the cushions on before pad wrapping the sofa in the house. With the legs off, there is less of a chance of damage, there's more clearance when carrying it through a doorway, and (if the legs were left on) even if it fits through the door at the load house, you don't know what you will encounter at the unload house. But this does eat up time.

1-7) However, for "economy" moves where time savings is the more important factor, you leave the legs on, take the sofa cushions off, and carry the sofa out to the truck unpadded, then stand it up on end (on blanketing on the floor), and "droop" some blanketing on the sofa in place. You can put the cushions up on top as top loader. This method saves a lot of time, but is not as safe on the sofa or house, and looks less impressive as far as the quality of work. The Lead should be making the call as to which is the greater priority for that job, speed or safety.

1-8) The usefulness in being able to gain more leeway room, is not in just getting something to fit through a doorway or not. Having some leeway space is also useful to decrease the chance for accidental damage. You might think your quarter inch of clearance is plenty, and you'd be right 99 times out of a hundred, but on that hundredth time, that's right when your partner suddenly adjusts his grip and thrusts your corner into the doorway, or some such problem. More leeway, up to an inch of leeway, means less chance of accidents. If you already have an inch or more of leeway clearance, you don't necessarily need to bother gaining any more leeway unless you just want to. But if you have less than an inch of clearance you should use the head-rest over knee-rest "hook" technique (explained shortly).

1-9) So although you might technically not need to gain more leeway through these techniques just to fit, you are taking a bigger chance of damage if you don't use them when your damaging corner has less than an inch of clearance in the doorway. If all it takes is the knowledge of technique to turn a quarter inch leeway into two inches of leeway, there's no excuse to not be using the correct technique and gaining that safety margin.

The safety margin that matters, on a "head-rest over knee-rest" tilted sofa, is on the side that can damage something, which is the "back legs" side. The Head-rest and knee-rest corners are very cushioned and, especially if well blanketed, and so are not in danger of causing damage by touching the door frame or wall, so that side does not need leeway like the legs side does.

1-10) Again, here is a side view of the head-rest over knee rest tilt angle.

1-11) If you looked at this same head-rest over knee rest tilt angle, but looked at it from directly above the sofa (viewed from the ceiling looking down), it would look like this picture, with the arms protruding out like field goal arms. You'd mainly be looking at the back side of the sofa. This tip angle is what is portrayed in this next series of pictures, which demonstrate "The hook technique" of getting a sofa out a tight doorway.

SOFAS ROTATION OUT A DOORWAY

1-12) If you have less than an inch of clearance when trying to get a sofa through a doorway, use the Hook technique. In this picture you can see the sofa is way to big to fit through like this.

1-13) The trailing carrier heads sideways so that the leading carrier's sofa arm can go out the door first.

1-14) The joining corner point between the sofa arm and the sofa front is to be tucked up against the door jam and act as a pivot point for the sofa, to rotate the sofa through the door.

1-15) The leading carrier's hand should be placed on the farthest out protruding point, (which is normally the back leg) so that the hand will protect the door.

1-16) The joining corner point between the sofa arm and the sofa front must stay tucked up against the door jam and act as a pivot point until the sofa end has finished rotating through the doorway.

1-17) If the protecting hand over the corner gets a little too snug against the door, press the pivot point into the door jam a little harder and that will gain you more leeway.

Note that all these pictures are made of photo copies of the same doorway width and sofa dimensions, showing real-world clearances relative to the starting picture.

1-18) Do not let the pivot point corner stop touching the door jam until the sofa has finished rotating all the way to be perpendicular to the doorway wall.

1-19) Only after the complete pivot has finished and the sofa is perpendicular to the entryway wall should the sofa begin to be carried straight out the doorway.

1-20) As the sofa goes straight out the door, the front of the sofa (both head-rest and knee-rest) should both slide along the door-jam in constant contact the whole way, leaving the maximum clearance space for the other side along the door.

1-21) When the rear carrier's sofa arm reaches the door-jam, start rotating the sofa again, with the rear arm pivot point pressed into the door jam.

1-22) When this second pivot starts to happen, the rear carrier's hand should cover the back leg or back corner to protect the door.

1-23) Make sure this second pivot operation goes very slowly (like a snail) to help protect the rear carrier's hand.

1-24) Only after he sofa has pivoted sufficiently to let the rear carrier exit the doorway should the rear carrier step sideways to exit the doorway.

1-25) When both carriers are free of the doorway, straighten the sofa out along the path.

1-26) Then before proceeding to carry the sofa, flip the sofa back upright in a regular seated angle to regain the most secure grip.

1-27) Note how the whole triangle pivots outwards if either of the corners on the right wall move away from the wall at all. This means, when the sofa is going through the doorway with the Hook process, at any moment either the head-rest or the knee-rest are not flush up on the door-jam, for every inch either one is away from the door-jam means the back leg side of the sofa also moves out by nearly an inch, losing you all that leeway space. If at any time through the hook process the head-rest or knee-rest stop touching the door-jam, you are needlessly giving up leeway space and taking needless additional damage risk.

1-28) There is also a phenomena that you will either use to your advantage or it will work to your disadvantage, and it is this. Imaging you are walking down a set of stairs while carrying a bare night-stand and trying to keep that nightstand exactly one quarter inch away from the stairway railing the whole way as you step down the stairs. It is a jagged hard exposed edge that you are trying to keep exactly one quarter inch away from the wooden railing as you make your steps downs the stairs. If your body motion (as you step down the steps) varies a quarter inch to the left you will gouge the sharp edge into the railing. This scenario makes it very hard (near impossible) to not have any variant sideways movement of the night-stand.

1-29) Now imagine scenario number two. This is the exact same scenario as the previous scenario #1, with you carrying the night-stand down the stairs trying to keep the night-stand exactly a quarter inch away from the railing the whole way as you walk down the stairs. The only difference in scenario number two is that you first fill that quarter inch space with a compressed folded up moving blanket and slide the side of the thickly padded night-stand along the railing with a little pressure holding the nightstand constantly against the folded blanket and railing.

1-30) With the night-stand and folded blanket sliding on the railing, you could easily keep the nightstand exactly a quarter inch away from the railing the whole way down the stairs. When one thing slides along something else with thick padding between them, it can near eliminate the inch or two of variant sideways motion that would normally happen on all other sides of the unit if you were walking carrying something free-floating normally. This technique is called "blanket sliding" or "padded sliding", and it can be used in many different ways to steady the movement of many different types of furniture items.

1-31) When you are carrying a sofa out a very tight doorway, this "padded sliding" phenomena should be taken advantage of. The padding is already there in the form of the sofa cushions of the head-rest and knee-rest, and these can both be slid along the door-jam as the steadying anchor. As long as the sofa cushions remain constantly sliding against the door-jam, this nearly eliminates the variant sideways motion that could otherwise swing the back legs or back corner into door.

1-32) The sliding on one side protects the damage from happening on the opposite side. The motion will be steadied as if moved by a machine. The moment the head-rest and knee rest are both not up against the door-jam, the sofa becomes free-floating, and the sideways variant motion that automatically happens with carrying something free-floating becomes an unnecessary added risk factor.

1-33) And what if that free-floating variant sideways motion occurs in a sudden motion when a carrier's hand is cupping a back leg when it's pressed between the leg and the door? If at any time that a sofa is going through a tight doorway the head-rest or knee-rest stop touching the door-jam, you are needlessly adding variant swinging and so increasing the risk of damage and injury. Even if you think it's less important to do this "constant contact slide" at times, as long as it's a tight doorway (less than an inch of clearance), practicing this correctly will help this to happen correctly on those times when it is more critical. The time to prevent future damage is in these "practice" times, not to just afterwards think "there was nothing I could do" when something does go wrong.

1-34) Before even STARTING to bring a sofa into the truck, someone should first lay a blanket down on the floor of the truck near where the sofa is going to be tipped up on end. This is so that when the sofa is brought to the truck the end can be put down onto the blanket and the sofa can be tipped up right away. The blanket should be opened up completely so that there's lots of blanket on all sides of where the end of the sofa end is being put down. If the end of the sofa needs extra cushioning, fold an additional blanket and put it down for that extra cushioning. The movers can then grab the sides of the main open blanket and blanket-lift-slide the sofa into place, with the legs against the wall and the back of the sofa against the box-spring (or similar large flat protected surface).

1-35) If the arm of the sofa protrudes out from the side of the sofa in a way that would squash the arm rest or foam in the arm rest (from the sofa standing on end) to possibly deform the arm, then add support under the lower edge frame of the sofa to relieve or share the bulk of weight. It's better to use something semi-stiff as the added support, like a rolled up smaller carpet, because if you use a rolled up softer blanket the part of the blanket that presses PAST the bottom frame-bar can push the fabric in and cause stretched out fabric.

1-36) When carrying a sofa, or when two men carry most anything two-handed, the weight of the item should be spread fairly evenly between both hands, and not be very heavy in one hand and very light in the other hand. The imbalance of weight between hands means that the hand that is carrying more weight by one mover, is also placing more weight in the other movers same hand placed diagonally across the carried item. When either mover experiences a significant disproportion of more weight in one hand, they should shift the weight towards the hand carrying less weight until the weight at least comes close to evening out. Another solution to this problem is that the less experienced mover should always lift with both hands with a ballpark equal amount of lift, and let the more experienced mover control the tip angle of the carried item.

2) A DINING TABLE

For particularly nice & expensive dining tables, the default way of moving them is to take the legs or base off. However, when speed is the priority, and when the table legs can be left on for transport, you can take dining tables straight to the truck.

Often, a table with legs is going to be a little to wide to go straight out the door.

So it's usually an option to use the hook method to get out a tight doorway.

Just angle the table as shown in this series of pictures.

The benefits of leaving the legs on the table is that you don't have to take the legs off and put them back on, saving time, and reducing risk of problems with the hardware, and you can use the space under the table as a protected area in the truck, and possibly using the elevated platform of the table for other purposes. Leaving the legs on is better in situations where the doing a fast job is a higher priority than doing a zero-damage job.

It's also only a good option if the space used in the truck (or container) is not as critical of an issue (there's room to spare), and the table legs are strong (or it's getting loaded flipped upside down as top loader). If you do leave the legs on to save the customer time and expense, you should consider warning the customer that this time savings comes at the cost of a little greater risk of damage to the table.

More drawbacks to leaving the legs on (and so maybe needing to use the Hook method) is that this often uses more space in the truck or container, is harder to pack around, is more stressful on the table legs, is much harder to pad the legs, and has a greater risk of damaging the legs or table.

So when space is an issue, quality and safety are the priority, and/or you don't want to put the extra stress or risk on the table, the default official policy of moving a dining table is that you take the legs or pedestal off the table top, pad the top, and pad the legs or pedistal separately, before moving them out of the house.

3) A DRESSER

GETTING A DRESSER (OR HARD-ON-ALL-SIDES ITEM) THROUGH A TIGHT STAIRWELL TURN

If a dresser is light enough, or the movers are strong enough, just grabbing the dresser like this is the fastest way.

This example is shown with no significant stretch wrap holding the blanketing on, which is OK if the grip is sufficient (and if looks isn't a priority).

However, just be aware that if the whole thing was well stretch-wrapped, this would add a better grip for the movers.

If you need a better grip, or if it's just a bit too heavy, you can use a hump strap on one side, like this if the top has a lip.

Or the team can use black-straps.

If the stairwell is too tight to use these methods to round the corner, there are other options.

In this example, the movers are going down a tight stairway.

The answer is to tip the dresser up on end, one step up from the landing. This give the person on the lower end room to make the corner.

The straighter up and down the dresser is held, the less it extends horizontally, giving you more room. Watch that upper corner, it's what usually is the part to hit the wall. You may want to pad wrap the upper end extra thickly.

For particularly heavy dressers, if you put a few blankets down on the landing, you'd have the option to slide the dresser around the landing corner instead of carrying the dresser.

Once you've finished rounding the landing, the lower end person would pull his end out continue on down the stairs.

It's also an option to use black straps, with the dresser tipped up on end. But the movers need to change the height they're holding the dresser at different stages along the way, so they each need to be ready to adjust the strap.

If you are coming up the stairs, instead of going down, you'd do the same process in reverse order.

This is most usually called the "High Low" position, but it's also called a "Portuguese Carry" by some.

The secret to avoiding damage is to split the leeway clearance difference on both sides, go extra slow when you are near a bump hazard, and consider adding padding either on the item you are carrying or on the endangered area of the walls of the house. Splitting the clearance distance means if you have three inches of clearance on one side, and only one inch of clearance on the other side, shift the item's position to have two inches of clearance on each side. And if there is still a contact danger area, put some padding or cardboard or cushioning on that area, so we are not taking risks.

If you are going slow enough when you near a bump hazard, a bump won't damage anything. The nearer you are to bumping, the slower you should go, all the way down to a snail crawl when almost touching. And if there's still damage risk, add more padding of some kind.

4) a large livingroom rug

Living room rugs usually have a floor-gripping liner below them. If you just roll up the rug with the liner, several things happen. One is that the very first edge of the carpet that is being rolled gets rolled much tighter than the rest of the carpet, and often ends up with a long-term curve-up imparted to the carpet, preventing it from laying down flat when it is rolled back out. Secondly, the carpet liner is often filthy, and the caprpet liner transfers all its dirt onto the top of the carpet.

If instead of rolling the carpet up like people normally would, you instead fold the carpet over in half first, bringing the liner along with it, and then roll it up, this causes several good things to happen. It prevents the curve up on the edge. And it prevents the liner dirt from getting on the carpet.

Roll it up square, so the support on the end is strong and won't crumple, if stood on end. And wrap the ends (or at least one end) in plastic wrap, so if it is stood on end the fabric won't get grimy from the truck floor.

A large rug also needs to be laid completely flat, where ever it's going in the load. Carpets can easily stretch out and deform, so you can't fold them or lay them over uneven things.

When rugs are too long to go across the truck, they need to go lengthwise. If you tie them off on the wall, you need to add some cardboard to prevent the rope or strap from leaving an indentation in the carpet.

However, at no point should the bare end of a rug ever be placed on the floor of a garage, driveway, or truck floor, because that's made of fabric, it will pick up grime, and it's at a spot very hard to clean. That's one reason at least one end of big carpets should have stretch wrap or plastic covering the end.

You wan't to load rugs towards the end of the truck, so when you unload they can be laid down before the rest of the furniture comes in. When you re-lay them back down on the floor, it can help to "fluff/shake" the carpet to catch a layer of air beneath it, so it can float towards where you want it to lay.

5 & 6) RECLINER'S & MECHANICAL SOFAS

Usually, it's best to take the backs off, unless speed is a major priority over ease & safety of the item.

Most mechanisms have "KD" brackets.

These can most easily be released using a flathead screwdriver, but you can also use your finger if you don't mind a little pain.

Do the same to the other side, an lift. Sometimes a little swat from your hand or a mallet is needed.

Lazy Boy recliners have a mechanism that takes pulling the lever to release and lock it.

Lazy Boy recliner mechanisms just slip over the bar on the other side.

Other release clips look like this.

Mechanical sofas are in a different category than regular sofas due to the major difference that most of the backs come off these type items, and that changes much. Mechanical sofas are usually best stood up on end in the truck, like regular sofas, except it's usually better to take the backs off first. Many of these type mechanical sofas have a control mechanism on the end, and so should get a folded up blanket underneath them to spread the weight and relieve the mechanism.

Recliners & upholstered chairs are very susceptible to deformation of their material, and so have a very particular way of needing to be handled. You can't stack anything heavy or hard and angled on them, and that means they usually need to be "top loader", with only light fluffy things on top of them, if anything.

Any surface that presses against the fabric needs to be very flat, so it won't leave indentations in the material. Usually, the best way is to put the knees of the unit facing downwards, or standing on it's base. Resting on its knees works fine because that's the side that is usually the most well backed and strong, although some units have well backed sides too. Rarely are the back sides well backed, so these should almost never be laid on their backs. Legs to the side wall is also better.

Recliners can go on their feet, but you'd have to be very careful to only put very flat things to the sides of it, and only very light things on top of it, or it very easily can leave indentations in the material. Note the indentations on the side of this recliner. It only took a slightly not flat thing to leave these marks. If big boxes aren't available to go around it, it helps to have big sections of cardboard protecting it. If your Lead doesn't have plenty of big pieces of cardboard (unopened new boxes) available as supplies, your crew is not properly equipped to be loading up a household.

Putting the chair on it's knees, legs to the wall, back to the roof is the best way in most situations where the back doesn't come off. Partially because this doesn't let anything stretch out the unsupported material on the back, it puts the weight on the strong front knee side, things can't push in the flimsy underside material, and the legs can't hurt anything. Also, things can be stacked up inside the chair easily, but if the back side of the chair were down, you'd have to stack things on the angled back of the chair which would be harder to do, worse for the chair, and wasted time.

This is a text book laying on the knees, legs to sidewall, with the back laid on top, nice cushiony things inside, but there's no pad wrapping, which is not sufficient.

Note that the knees are not laying directly against the knobby protrusions of the bins, but rather there are several layers of flat stiff rubber pads flattening out the area underneath.

Again, these type of things go up top as top loader, with only light fluffy things on top of them. You should be saving the light fuffy things for exactly this purpose, and not just loading them anywhere they can go. The advantage of standing on it's base is that it doesn't have the weight of it's own weight pressing against its cushions (& inner foam), or pressing against its material, providing the best case scenario for the condition of the furniture piece.

Being upside down can squash the foam in the arm-tops, but it's not so bad if it's not going to be for a long time. The only advantage to being upside down is that the leg bottoms aren't pressing into what ever is below it. This would only be the way to do it if the customer said the main priority was speed. Otherwise it would at least get some stretch wrap to protect the light colored fabric.

For short & quick in-town moves, it can be OK to just lay recliner backs up high as top loader, unwrapped. But for quality moves, they should be wrapped.

The foam in the cushions does crush with constant vibrating pressure, or long term slow "storage" pressure, and you can do this to a chair if you don't follow the rules.

It might look fine to just set a removed recliner top laying down, without wrapping, but the vibration in a truck for longer distances, can vibrate a wear pattern into the material.

7) HANGING CLOTHES

If hanging clothes aren't boxed up when the moving crew arrives.....

One option is to put them on your Lead's closet pole, and just carry them straight out to the truck.

A ratchet strap would be strung across the rub railings, and used as a clothes line. It's a little higher quality job if groupings of clothing have a big garbage bag pulled up around them to prevent any bodily or floor contact.

Or, they could go in a wardrobe box.

Or they could go in garbage bags and placed as top loader.

8) MATTRESSES

Make a show to the customer of washing your hands before handling their mattress, especially if it's a lady.

Do not take the mattress out of a source room without first putting it in a mattress bag or stretch-wrapping it.

If it's light enough you can just grab it by the mattress bag. Have the closed end lead the way, so any dragging pushes the bag on instead of off.

It also works OK to carry it slung in a moving blanket.

If you stretch-wrap it, you might want to add a handle for easy carrying, like shown in the picture.

Those darn orange straps pull at a bad angle, aren't comfortable, and aren't good for very heavy mattresses.

When you add the middle extension the angle is way better, but it's still not the best way for mattresses because you need easy adjustability for height for going over stairs.

A hump strap under works ok, but can tend to slip off if the mattress is floppy, heavy or going up stairs.

A mattress carrier strap is a good way for lighter mattresses, but less so if it's a very heavy mattress.

The black straps (Shoulder Dolly) makes it the easiest to lift very heavy things, but it wants to slip off mattress bottoms.

Especially when tackling stairs. And it is a little bit of a hassle to adjust the height as needed for different parts of the stairs.

But if you put a two foot long slit in your strap at the areas that go over the corners of mattresses, it grabs around & can't fall off. The slits do not reduce it's strength for use on other items. This is the best way for crazy heavy mattresses that are a real struggle.

Another really good option is to add a hump strap to each end of a mattress carrier, and carry the mattress with the hump strap slung over your shoulder and going down and across your back and under your opposite side armpit, with you holding the hump strap end downwards with your hand. This is a bit of a rock-climber technique. This puts the weight on your shoulder, it's instantaneously adjustable for height for the stairs, and there's no contraption to put or or take off or feed through a gadget, However, it doesn't support very heavy weights quite as easily as the black straps.

Body harness orange straps are a good alternative. A demonstration is shown in this next video, on a dresser, not a mattress, but it conveys the idea. These have the advantage over Black Straps of not having the big metal clip front and center that is a danger to the unit.

9) WASHING MACHINES & DRYERS

These guys can cause a lot of damage.

Here's a picture of the floor damage from a washing machine accident that cost $10,000 to repair.

That's why before moving a washing machine it's a mover rule to text the customer a liability disclaimer that says ...

"Dear Customer. This is your moving company. We are happy to unhook or hook up your washing machine, but only if you accept full and sole liability for any plumbing or water related damage that may result. You would also need to agree to run a short test drain cycle of your washing machine while watching it so you can shut it off at the first sign of any water leakage. If you agree to these conditions please respond with a "yes". Thanks!"

After you've gotten your disclaimer, photo-document any pre-existing damage, showing the background.

Then pull out and remove the dryer first, so that you can have the better room you need to work on the washer. Put the dryer hose and clips in the dryer so we don't forget to bring them. Tape the chord onto the back to get it out of the way.

Tilt the washer out a bit to give yourself some working room.

Usually the dryer hose is long enough to pull the dryer all the way out so you can get to the back side.

It's better to have a drill & bits to make quicker work of the screws.

Sometimes there's a water line too that needs to be detached.

Get a pan, or bucket from the garage, or a towel to get ready to handle a little leakage from the drain hose and water lines.

Turn off the water valves, cut the zip ties, and drain the drain hose.

Use some pliers to unscrew the water lines from both ends. Put hose water lines inside the machine.

Either remove the drain hose and put it in the machine, or Duct tape it to the back of the machine along with the electric cord. It's better to not tape it to the top of the machine, just because of tape issues.

Put the securing bolts in place, if the customer can find theirs. If the customer can't find their bolts, get a verbal disclaimer for any problems happening with the drum.

Check the dimensions of the washer to see which way is narrower, and hand-truck the machine the narrowest way. Make sure your hand-truck has padding.

Or if you have too tight of a turn to have room for a hand-truck, slide it on a blanket around the tight corner.

If the water spickets are dripping or leaking any water, put a hose cap on it, and inform the customer that their valves won't shut off completely.

Make sure that only like size or larger flat boxes, preferably not extra heavy, go on the top of the machines. It's better if you add an entire folded blanket or two on top if the surfaces have any curve to them.

HANDTRUCKING A WASHING MACHINE, DRYER OR REFRIGERATION REQUIRES TWO MEN, A SECOND MAN STABLIIZING AND PROTECTING FRONT CORNERS, ESPECIALLY OVER STAIRS AND RAMP

ALUMINUM TAPE

VENT CRIMPER

REPLACE WASHERS if they're deeply indented.

IF WALL PLUG WRONG PRONG #

OFFER PRONG CORD

OR SWAP CORDS

INSTALL

PIG TAIL

Best way to move washer's & dryers out and into their holding bays is to pivot them on a corner, alternating in couple inch movements to work them out and in. This greatly reduces the chance of the legs damaging the floor.

When you move the washer and dryer, which one do you take out and put back in first? The answer is that if the dryer air vent hose is long enough, move the dryer out first, and put it back in last. That's because the dryer is much lighter, and so easier to move in and out in the more difficult removal and entry order. However, if the dryer air vent hose is not long enough to do it in this order, take the washer out first and put

If hot and cold is not marked on installation spigots, hook up one water hose on a random spigot, put the other end in the drain outlet, turn the water on and see if it's the hot or the cold.

When the air vent and water hoses are taken off, put them back in the machines they go to right after you take these things off the machines, so they can't be forgotten or left behind.

10) REFRIGERATORS

If the refrigerator has a water line to the ice maker and water dispenser, you need to text the customer a WATER DAMAGE LIABIITY DISCLAIMER that says ...

"Dear Customer. This is your moving company. We are happy to unhook or hook up the house water line to your refrigerator, but only if you accept full and sole liability for any plumbing or water related damage that may result to your house, now and in the future. If you agree to this condition, and agree to release us from all liability related to water damage to your house, please respond with a "yes". Thanks!"

And actually go to the customer and tell them you just now sent them this text that you need to have them read and respond to.

Rather than type this text out from scratch, you can either call Phil and have him text this Disclaimer to you or the customer, or you can pull this text up from your phone "clip board".

When you open a text to the person you want to send the text to, you should see this symbol. When you tap it, it will bring up the pre-made text selections that you have saved in your "Pinned" texts.

When you tap the desired selection, it will populate that text into the text message area, without you having to type it out. It might look like this next picture.

Once the customer responds to this text with a "yes", you can begin working on the refrigerator.

First, make sure the fridge is empty or situated with things inside that aren't going to roll around and break.

Document pre-existing damage of both the refrigerator and the walls & floor.

Then screw in the fridge levelers located in the front bottom corners of the fridge so the fridge front wheels can roll.

Then screw in the bolts that extend down the back wheels.

Sometimes these "back wheel bolts" are way out front, but sometimes they're tucked in and a little hidden like this.

You should only need a few revolutions of the back-wheel-bolt to get sufficient wheel drop. Don't screw it in so far it jams like this.

Sometimes, the front wheels are broken, missing, or are bent up inside so that they aren't down far enough for the front to roll.

Also, the lean of the fridge can create a situation like this, making the fridge seem like it's front end is anchored to the floor or frame housing, but it is not anchored.

And the front bottom outside edge of the fridge can sometimes be flat on the ground, which would scrape badly if you slid it forward.

If the front edge is down flat on the floor, the solution is to lift it off the ground while pulling back like this. You can hook onto the hinge brackets with your straps.

Here you can see the front edge lifted of the ground as the fridge is pulled out.

In these pictures, the fridge doors are off. But you really don't need to take the doors off just to move it out of its hole. In fact, the fridge doors can be opened and used like wheelbarrow handles to lift the front end of the fridge and pull the fridge out. Only take the fridge doors off if they need to come off to go out the door of the house.

Once the fridge is pulled out just far enough for you to get to the water line in back, stop pulling the fridge out before putting bad pressure on the water line.

Then look for the valve to shut off the water line, often under the kitchen sink.

Or in a valve box in the garage or laundry room.

Looking like this.

Usually the water line is in back, like this. When you start to unscrew it, do it slowly because your guess as to which water valve shuts this off might be wrong. So if water starts squirting out, you can just tighten the nuts back up and look for a different valve to shut off.

These water line connection points usually have two adjacent nuts that need to be turned in opposite directions with two wrenches.

Another common water line connection point is directly on the back side of the fridge, looking like this.

But sometimes, the detachment point of the water line runs under the fridge and is actually connected near the front, like this.

For a higher-end move, or when it's too tight for a doorway, take the refrigerator handles off. They are released by loosening some small hex heads under the handles.

With refrigerators, there is an increased risk of sideways tip hazard, and a larger than normal hazard risk of the two outside corners running into walls, so moving the fridge should really only be done with a second person using their hands to protect and stabilize the front corners, when going through hazard areas.

Keep in mind that a regular hand-truck can be used, but these are not as stable as an appliance hand-truck, so only use a regular hand-truck accepting the liability for the increased risk, and hold the fridge at a lower height making it easer to go through low doorways.

If it's too tight at the house doorway, consider taking the house door off its hinges.

If the fridge edges are at risk of contacting the door frame, you can have a crewman hold a sheet of cardboard at the contact areas.

Refrigerators should be transported standing up. If they are laid down on their side or back, they should be left standing upright for at least 24 hourse before being plugged in. This is to allow the coolant in the lines to have any air bubbles in them rise back into an OK place. Otherwise, the air bubbles can go into the wrong place and greatly decrease the ability of the refrigerator to refrigerate permanently.

If you do install the refrigerator at the other end, remember to crank the back wheels back up, so that the back end of the fridge will anchor and not roll.

11) HEADBOARD AND BED FRAME

How to pad-wrap a headboard is covered in Course #2: PAD-WRAPPING.

This section covers how to handle the headboard and frame.

Pad-wrapping a headboard, especially if it's a really big one, is one of the most cumbersome and least "perfected" operations normally done by movers.

Since headboards are moved on most every residence move, I suggest you lay two blankets our on the floor, lined up exactly on top of each other, then sew or hot-melt-glue three of the edges together making an envelope. Put some Velcro on the open end.

That way you just drop the blanket envelope down over the headboard, velcro the open end, and you're done. On jobs where you don't need a headboard cover, you still have a double thick blanket to use. Just think of all the tape, time and needless work that will save you.

HOW RAILS ARE HELD ON

SO KNOCK UP

UNSCREW CROSS SLATS

LAY SLATS ON EACH OTHER MARRIED, ON TOP OF BLANKET, THEN ROLLED UP IN THE BLANKET.

OR STRETCH-WRAPPED IF FABRIC

STANDING UP ON END IS USUALL THE BEST WAY TO GO. OFTEN A GOOD SPOT IS TO THE SIDES OF THE TIE-OFF WALL, TO THE SIDES OF THE MATTRESS & BOXSPRING.

OFTEN, STANDING RAILS NEED A SEPERATE TIE OFF, WITH SMALL ROPE.

THE FOOTBOARD IS OFTEN BEST PLACED UP AGAINST THE HEADBOARD, WITH THE HEADBOARD USED AS THE SURFACE OF ANOTHER TIE OFF WALL.

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