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of joints and veneers.
Never hurry when you are moving furniture.Scratches,dents and gouges from transportation bumps, doorways and other furniture are always more likely when one moves things in haste. Each item needs to be approached individually, without any rush, and with sufficient manpower present.
Make sure you have a firm, grip on the piece. Do not wear cotton gloves: your hands should not slip from a piece of furniture while it is being moved.

Never slide or drag furniture along the floor. The vibration can loosen or break joints, chip feet, break legs and worse to say nothing or what dragging does to the carpeting or finish on your floor. Whenever possible, use trolleys for transporting heavy pieces.
Remember if you don't break it .it doesn't have to be fixed!
Have helpers on hand to guide the movers so they don't crash into walls or other pieces of furniture.
Anticipate trouble: think through every step: plan ahead: and do everything with care.

BIO-PREDATION
An often overlooked environmental problem is bio-predation. Wood is subject to attack by both animals and micro-organism, including pets, rodents, insects and fungi. The best protection against bio-predation is to monitor your furniture, or at least stored in sealed containers.

INSECT INFESTATION
Insect infestation, in particular, can destroy your furniture in a very short time.Termites, ants, larvae and other insects can severely damage wood by eating channels beneath the surface.
Larvae tunnel through the wood until they are ready to emerge through exit holes at the appropriate time in their life cycle: chewed and digested wood is often pushed out as the insects exist. These are important clues for you in monitoring furniture, as the sides of recent exit holes have the colour of newly cut wood dust.
Piles of insect excrement and wood dust under or on your furniture may indicate an active infestation. Quarantine the suspect object immediately. If the infestation is confirmed, Fumigation will be necessary. You should also monitor objects near the affected furniture, as the likelihood of their being infested is now greatly increased.

RODENTS
Rodents usually do not eat the wood for its own sake, but rather gnaw through it to get to the food on the other side. The best way to prevent rodent damage is to not store any food, including condiments; it is a good idea to keep food as far from your collection as possible.
The presence of rodents in a piece of furniture is more symptomatic of problems with the building envelope, which must be sealed to keep rodents out.

MOULD, MILDEW AND FUNGI
Mould, mildew and fungi are everywhere on furnishings, walls, and in the air. But fungal infestation will occur only in the presence of an external moisture source or when the fibre saturation point-nearly 100 per cent relative humidity (RH)-is approached. Still air and high temperature also encourage rapid growth of this organism. Moulds and mildew growing on the surface of wood may stain it, while other fungi can completely destroy it.
It is important to locate any source of excess moisture and determine what can be done to remove it. Underground walls should be sealed and vapour-proofed. Leaks should be repaired in roofs and walls.
Fungal damage, or rot, can only occur in areas of extreme dampness at moderate temperatures. Less your furniture gets wet and stays wet, this type of damage is not normally a severe problems.However, if your furniture is stored in areas where water incursion is a common problewm, and these parts must be surveyed every time it rains.

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