There’s nothing like having natural stone furniture in your house to allow you to marvel at the beauty of nature. Certain stone surfaces–such as granite–can be breathtaking yet extremely durable, which is why so many people opt for natural stone countertops and tables. But the same details that make them beautiful can be their downfall during a move. Natural stone is super heavy, so you’d think it could withstand some jostling and maybe an accidental fall when you’re moving, right? Wrong. It turns out those cracks and fissures on the surface make the material more fragile than you’d think, which means you need to tread lightly when moving stone.
THE DANGERS OF MOVING STONE ON YOUR OWN
The problem with natural stone is that it weighs a lot more than your other furniture does. This is not a job you can just do with a buddy in exchange for free pizza and beer like you did with your giant desk. You’re going to need several buddies…or better yet, a few professionals.
That’s because even if you have a small table–such as a natural stone nightstand–that you can lift, there’s no guarantee it won’t break when you pick it up. You’ll find that with the Texas humidity, the stone gets sticky over time and actually sticks to the surface it’s laying flat on. So you might try lifting the stone straight up from a counter or table, only to find that the weight goes to the center of the surface and the whole stone cracks in two! Unless you’d be happy with two smaller nightstands, it’s best not to try this job on your own.
HOW THE MOVING PROS DO IT
So what makes stone moving professionals good at this job? They know how to move stone without cracking it in half! That’s a pretty helpful talent. More specifically, they know better than to pull the natural stone surface straight up. Instead, they take the table and lean it over onto the side so the stone touches the floor.
Then they put some padding on it to protect it. Once the table is on its side, they pick it up vertically so the weight is never in the middle of the stone’s flat surface. Think about the process of trying to get a large item through a door. Just like sheets of glass would break if you carried them horizontally, so too would a large sheet of natural stone.
WHAT MOVER TO HIRE
If these tips on how to move natural stone don’t make perfect sense to you and you’re starting to panic, don’t worry. You’re not the only one. That’s why most people just hire someone to move natural stone. But who should you hire: stone movers or a regular ol’ moving company?
Stone movers may sound perfect for this job, and they often are, assuming you have a large amount of stone to move. Let’s say you have a huge conference table covered in beautiful granite that you spent thousands of dollars on. Yeah, it’s probably worth it to you to hire the pros who move natural stone all day every day. They have the equipment–such as an A-frame–to move your stone without breaking it.
But as you might guess, it’s pretty costly to hire a specialty team just to move one or two items in your house. That’s why most people end up getting their movers to do the job. They’re already going to be at your house moving everything else, so what’s one or two more items? It’s more economical to hire a trusted moving company for this chore.
And at Aloha Movers, we do moves with stone just about every day, so we’ve gotten good at transporting natural stone from one spot to another. Contact us today to find out more about the items we can safely move in San Diego!