How to Prepare a Room Before Fitting Day
A room by room checklist for the days before your flooring is fitted: furniture, doors, appliances, decorating order, parking and what fitters need on site.
Most flooring jobs that overrun do so for reasons that had nothing to do with the flooring. A room that was not cleared, a door that could not be removed, a car blocking the only unloading point, or a decorator still working in the room.
Half an hour of preparation on your side usually saves an hour on ours, and on a job priced by the day that difference is real money. Here is what actually helps.
One week before
- Finish all decorating, including gloss on the skirting, so nothing is wet on the day
- Confirm the fitting date and the expected arrival time
- Check whether doors will need trimming and agree who is doing it
- Arrange parking close to the property, and a permit if your street needs one
- Make sure someone over eighteen will be present for the whole visit
The day before
- Empty wardrobes, drawers and bookcases so heavy furniture can be moved safely
- Take down curtains and blinds where they hang into the working area
- Disconnect and pull out washing machines and dishwashers if the floor runs under them
- Remove everything from the floor including rugs, floor lamps, toys and pet beds
- Take doors off where you can, and lean them somewhere safe out of the room
- Lift and store anything fragile, because fitting is physical work in a confined space
What we need from you on the day
Access to a power socket for cutting equipment, somewhere to unload material near the door, and a clear route from the van to the room. For solid floors, access to water is helpful if latex is being mixed.
It also helps enormously if the property is at normal living temperature. Wood and vinyl both need to be at room temperature before they are fitted, and a cold house in January can add hours to a job while material acclimatises.
Furniture: what we move and what we do not
| Item | Who moves it |
|---|---|
| Sofas, beds, wardrobes (emptied) | We can move these, agreed in advance |
| Full wardrobes and chests of drawers | Must be emptied by you first |
| Pianos, safes, fish tanks, gym equipment | Specialist removal, arranged by you |
| Washing machines and dishwashers | Disconnected by you, we can slide them out |
| Fitted kitchen units and appliances built in | Stay in place, we cut around or run beneath |
| Televisions and electronics | Please move and unplug before we arrive |
Doors, thresholds and the details people forget
A new floor is almost always thicker than the one it replaced, so internal doors frequently need three to six millimetres taken off the bottom. Not every fitter carries the tools to do this properly, so agree it in advance rather than discovering it at four in the afternoon.
Also think about where the floor stops. Every doorway needs a threshold trim, and the finish should be agreed before the day rather than chosen from whatever is in the van.
Pets, children and dust
Fitting involves knives, tack strips with sharp pins, adhesive and power tools, so pets and small children need to be out of the working rooms entirely. A closed door is not always enough with a determined cat.
There will be dust, particularly if an old floor is being lifted or latex is being sanded. We sheet up and clear away, but keeping doors closed to the rest of the house makes a noticeable difference.
After we leave
Ventilate the room for a day or two, especially with new vinyl or adhesive. Wait 24 hours before putting heavy furniture back onto a glued floor, and 48 hours before turning underfloor heating back on, raising it gradually.
Keep any offcuts we leave you. They are the easiest way to test a cleaning product safely and the fastest route to a matching repair later.
If you are having several rooms done
On a multi-room or whole-house job, the order of work matters as much as the preparation. Agree a room sequence in advance so you always have somewhere to put furniture and somewhere to sleep, and expect to shuffle contents from room to room as the work moves through the house.
Clear a staging area near the front door for material and offcuts, and keep one route through the house clear from front door to work area throughout. Fitters carrying a four metre roll cannot pick their way round obstacles.
Plan for the messiest stage first. If any latex screeding or old floor removal is happening, get it done at the start of the job rather than between two finished rooms, so dust travels through spaces that are still empty.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need to empty the room completely?
- For hard floors, yes. For carpet we can work in halves if necessary, but a clear room is faster and gives a better result.
- Will you trim my doors?
- Usually yes, if it is agreed when we quote. Fire doors and glazed doors need particular care and may be a joiner's job.
- Do I need to be at home all day?
- Someone over eighteen needs to be present, though they do not have to be in the room while we work.
- How long before I can walk on the new floor?
- Carpet and click floors are immediate. Glued floors are best left for 24 hours before heavy traffic or furniture.
Keep reading
A realistic timeline of what to expect on the day your new flooring is fitted, and how to prepare your home beforehand.
Realistic timings for carpet, LVT, laminate and vinyl fitting, including subfloor drying times, stairs, whole houses and what delays a job on the day.
Why doors stick or catch once a new floor goes down, and the straightforward fix for it.
See how we survey, prepare and fit carpet across Kent.
See how we survey, prepare and fit LVT across Kent.
Talk it through with a fitter, not a call centre
Book a free measure from our Gillingham warehouse and we will bring samples suited to the room discussed here, check the subfloor and leave you with a written quote.