Moving a sofa is really challenging

One of the biggest challenges when moving is dealing with your big, heavy, bulky sofas.  They can be a real pain to move because they are so darn heavy and don’t easily fit through most doors.  Not only that but if you have to take them up or down a flight of steps it can even be quite dangerous to move them. Many people have been injured moving sofas for this very reason.

Taking a sofa apart is the solution in many cases, but it’s not as easy as it sounds.  Most are put together in a factory and don’t come apart like a regular piece of furniture.  Sofa-beds are even worse because they are very complicated and very heavy.

Emergency Calls: “Help my sofa won’t fit!”

If you’re moving and can’t get your sofa out (or in) the door to your home or apartment DON’T PANIC! There are trained professionals that are experts at moving and taking apart sofas, and they do it with a light touch so that your sofa won’t get damaged.  I’m talking of course about the furniture specialists at Dr. SOFA!  They are the Sofa Surgeons and they can get the job done without killing the patient. If you’re in a bind because that sofa won’t budge, call them at 1-888-8DRSOFA and their technicians will come to your home and take care of the problem ON-SITE.

Emergency calls are NO problem for Dr.SOFA! They have the knowledge and experience to move big sofas and other big furniture, and can take them apart and put them back together so well that you’ll never know the difference. Plus, they won’t damage them or the doors when moving those bulky things!

So if you’re moving and that darn sofa (or sofas) won’t budge don’t panic, call Dr. Sofa today and let the Doctor handle it! Their team of professional sofa technicians will have that sofa moved in a jiffy. Your sofa will be glad you did, and so will you!

Sofa disassembly video -How to make it fit in

Taking apart sofas for moving

When it comes to moving a sofa one of the first things that needs to be done is take apart anything that needs to be taken apart, especially if it is an overstuffed sofa. The reasons for this are because a big sofa is harder to move around and fit through doors, and if you need to take it up and down a flight (or flights) of stairs it will weigh much less in pieces than all put together.

Procedures to Taking Apart a Sofa

The legs on most sofas screw off, so check those first.  Some sofas have backs that can come off, usually by removing a few screws, nuts, or bolts from the back.  Check the back and make sure to also check under any fabric flaps as sometimes they are hidden underneath. If they are there, unscrew them and put any nuts, bolts, and/or screws in a plastic bag and attach them to the sofa with tape somewhere safe like under the sofa so that you don’t lose them.

Once the screws or bolts are out the back it will usually lift off of the base quite easily.  Of course you should remove all sofa cushions too, and put them in plastic bags to keep them clean and protected.  They can be used as ‘stuffing’ when you are loading the truck, but be careful that you don’t put them between something that will rip or gouge them while in transit.

Sofa Bed Knockdown

For a sofa bed, which can be a very heavy item, you need to use a strap, tape, or even a bungee cord to attach the bed to the sofa frame so that it doesn’t open while you are moving it.  This can be a VERY dangerous procedure.  It is best to put a piece of cardboard around the sofa base, and then place the strap around the base and the bed frame. This will protect the sofa material. To lighten the sofa-bed weight remember to remove the mattress and either ship it as is or put it back in when it is safely on the truck.

As always, make sure you have plenty of help and use your legs and NOT your back when lifting anything heavy, or call the professionals at sofa disassembly to do it the right way for you where as both you and your furniture will remain injury free.

Getting a big sofa in or out of a small door

If you have decided to move yourself there are a few things that you need to know, and one of the most important is how to fit a large sofa through a small door.  It can be challenging and sometime frustrating, but with a little patience and a bit of advice (that I will give you now) even the novice can get that sofa out (or in) the door.

Steps to take for fitting a sofa through a door:

First you will need at least 2 tools, including a tape measure and a moving pad (or a large, heavy-duty comforter or blanket). The tape measure is to measure the sofa and also any doors that it needs to pass through. The pad is to safely and easily slide the sofa across the floor if you need to.

Keep in mind that if you are moving OUT of a house any furniture, including sofas, which are already in there, had to go through the doors.  If it got in it can get out!

Begin by measuring the doors that will need to be passed.  If they aren’t big enough one quick thing you can do is remove the door from its hinges and set it aside.  (In extreme cases you can always carefully remove the molding from the door, but this is a LOT of work and can damage the frame.)

Sofa still won’t go through?

Taking any feet off of the sofa will help too, and having a bunch of people with big muscles is a good idea. If the sofa won’t go through straight, as in 1 person on each end, then you may have to stand it on its end and slide it through (thus the need for the blanket).  Lay the blanket, folded, on the floor and place the sofa standing up on one end. With one person stabilizing the sofa another can pull the other end of the blanket slowly and safely through the door.

Remember to take your time, be careful, and use angles to your advantage.  Try several ways and don’t force anything.  If the sofa is overstuffed you can also use a blanket to cover it and carefully force it through without damaging the fabric or the door.  Good luck!

Sofa Stuck in a doorway

It’s not easy to determine if a sofa will fit through a door or up a flight of stairs or into an             elevator.

  The most important lengths of the sofa are: the sofa width and the height of the sofa’s back (the back of the sofa when you’re sitting down – measure from floor to top of back).

• First, Measure the dimensions of the sofa: height, width and length, then you need to measure the height, from the floor to the top of the sofa’s back.
•  Measure the dimensions of the opening, whether it’s a door or stairwell or elevator door.

If the sofa’s back height is longer than the door’s width, then the sofa’s width will need to be narrower than the door’s width.

For example, a door’s width is 45″ and the sofa’s width is 48″ and the sofa back height is 40″. This means you can turn the sofa so that the sofa’s back is facing the ceiling.

The sofa should slide through as long as the inside space will accommodate it (hallway or foyer).

If both the width and the back height are too long for the width of the door, then you need to consider the sofa’s length. Measure the length of the sofa and the height of the door opening. The sofa’s length will need to be shorter than the door’s height.

Also check the entrance way to see how much room you have to maneuver – there should be at least a foot or more of space on either side of the doorway in order to shimmy the sofa through. If the inside space is a narrow hallway, the couch may not fit.

If for some reason, even after you have taken the precautions to measure you find that your Sofa doesn’t fit, or if you simply “must have that piece”, feel free to give us a call.  We firmly believe that size doesn’t matter and we will be more than happy to help you get that piece of furniture inside your home where it belongs.

It seems that over time the furniture has been getting bigger and bigger, but the houses that we live in are not growing accordingly.

Sofa stuck on a doorway

Granted, it can be hard to gauge the size of furniture in a store, where the ceilings are often high and the showrooms loft-like.

But retailers show no sign of dropping the biggest pieces from their lines, even at a time when many Americans are downsizing in response to the housing crash and recession. The median size of a new home, as of the third quarter of 2011, was 2,244 square feet, down from 2,308 square feet in 2006, said David Crowe, chief economist for the National Association of Homebuilders. He added that the square footage should level off at about 2,200 — a trend line that hardly screams Texas depth…”

Thank you to all of our friends for making us the preferred choice when it comes to dis assembly and reassembly your furniture!!!!!!!!!

Welcome to the Sofa and Couch Disassembly blog at sofadisassembly.com