Furniture dollies consist of wheeled platforms that are made of aluminum, wood, plastic or steel. Furthermore, these materials are available in different shapes and designs to make allowances for the movement of heavy items and equipment.

The pricing and costs of furniture dollies depends mostly on simplicity of the model. Furniture dollies typically range from $34 to $300. Use the following steps to find a furniture dolly that meets your business requirements.

1. Decide if your business needs a standard furniture dolly or one that makes allowances for specific circumstances as you can expect to pay more for a specialty item.

2. Weigh the pros and cons of using wood, steel, aluminum or plastic furniture dollies for cost effectiveness.

3. Rent as opposed to buying one if the option is available and it makes good business sense for your company to do so.

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Buy furniture dollies with a basic design unless your business must cater to specific needs

Dollies for moving furniture are inexpensive unless they're built to accommodate a specific need. For the most part, a basic model furniture dolly sales for far less than a model that's comprised of costly materials or custom built to accommodate particular circumstances. Expect to find basic models starting a little over $30 and topping out around $100, with a 18' x 30' basic carpeted dolly with 3' hard rubber casters being on the low end and a 24 x 36' solid wood top model with 5' polyurethane ball bearing casters being on the high end.

I recommend: Learn more about the use and design of dollies on Industrial 101 before you make a purchase. Decide which type of dolly can best meet your business needs and shop with purpose. L.G. Rathbun makes hardwood dollies to order. Review their site to see other resource offerings that include jumbo, rubber end and carpeted dollies as well as detailed descriptions of castors. Nationwide Industrial Supply stocks the Whisper-Quiet Furniture Dolly for use in hospitals, libraries, schools, laboratories and other environments that require silence.

Review the product life of various types of furniture dollies when considering price

Determine if your business needs are better met by a durable plastic furniture dolly made of polyethylene as it may last longer than an item made of wood, aluminum or steel. These furniture moving dollies are easy to assemble and maintain as the non-porous platform is mildew and rot-resistant. Choose a style that allows your business to move furniture with dollies that are designed for the job.

I recommend: Global Equipment offers a variety of plastic dollies that include heavy duty models with a flush deck or rubber padded deck and 4" casters for less than $60 as well as lightweight models with 4" non-marring rubber wheels at prices that range between $45 and $70. Wooden Dollies.com sells industrial strength wooden dollies with a minimum capacity of 1,000 pounds each. Prices start just under $20 for a low-end standard plain top dolly, ranging upwards of $200 for more heavy-duty ones like the Lawn Rover Dolly. Rand Materials Handling and Packaging Supplies sells steel and aluminum dollies that are available in a variety shapes and sizes at prices that range from $50 to $300.

Rent used furniture dollies and save money

Get furniture dollies for sale or rent one if it better meets the needs of your business. Renting is the best option if you only need a furniture dolly for one major move or infrequent moves and your office lacks the storage space.

I recommend: U-Haul rents a four-wheel furniture dolly with the capacity to move 1,000 pounds for less than $15. Visit Moving Day Boxes and learn about furniture dolly rentals and associated expenses, like dolly pads and additional dolly rental fees. If renting isn't an option, Uline sells hardwood, solid top and plastic dollies with prices that range from $35 to $75. Pay less when you buy more than one when.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Look for ergonomic features on furniture dollies that carry over 1000 loads.

Furniture dollies make rearranging office furniture or swapping furniture between offices a much simpler and quicker task than when you lift and carry the furniture. Not only do dollies improve your efficiency, furniture moving with dollies significantly decreases the risk of injury to your employees.

Just about any small or medium-sized business should buy a furniture dolly and because of their affordability, consider buying more than one; some dollies are task specific and some can perform multiple functions. In your search for dollies, consider the following:

1. Move furniture with dollies to ultimately help protect your bottom line; you certainly want to avoid any potential Workers Compensation situations created by unnecessary and unsafe heavy lifting.

2. Buy furniture dollies to improve your employees' efficiency; you want them to produce, not waste extra time moving furniture.

3. Select furniture dollies for sale with the right configuration, size, shape and weight capacity to meet your needs.

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Buy furniture dollies for many uses

Dollies for moving furniture typically resemble a flat deck on wheels, so they can serve as multifunctional work horses, too. Besides furniture moving, use furniture dollies to move supplies or water coolers or even as a holding table for things you want to store temporarily like reams of copier or computer paper.

I recommend: Buy a furniture dolly like the solid wood one at Hand Trucks 'R' Us. To protect the surface of the items you're moving, transport furniture with dollies that have carpeted ends or rubber bumpers like the ones at Global Industrial Equipment. Order the convertible dolly at HandTrucks.com that works as a two-wheeled utility dolly with a 500-pound weight capacity or as a four-wheeled dolly that holds up to 1,000 pounds.

Purchase dollies constructed for specific purposes and types of furniture

Manufacturers have honed dolly construction to match specific pieces of furniture. Some furniture dollies for sale work perfectly for moving desks, while others allow you to easily move folding tables, and filing cabinets.

I recommend: Regardless of whether your desk has one pedestal or two, the desk mover at L.K. Goodwin can handle the job. Consider the pair of dollies at Office1000 for moving furniture like file cabinets. You won't find many things less enjoyable than breaking down a room after a meeting and stacking and moving chairs out of the way. Invest in at least one of the chair dollies at BizChair, and purchase the TableMover dolly at C&H to move folding tables out of sight.

Rent a furniture dolly if you don't want to buy

If you don't have the storage space or can't justify the purchase, you can always rent furniture dollies when you need them.

I recommend: Find the nearest U-Haul and inquire about a furniture dolly rental. You can also rent a furniture dolly from New Haven or Dollies & Boxes Unlimited.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  When using more than one furniture dolly to move a single piece of furniture, ensure at least one other person helps to avoid injury. Even though you can lift one end of an object to place on the dolly, the object may roll away as you position another dolly on the opposite side.

When it comes time to move furniture, whether residential or commercial, furniture dollies are a must for protecting your back and adding speed to the job. These simple industrial tools make shipping time a lot quicker. Many of these simple flat-deck dollies are ultra-portable for convenience. For businesses that want the right kind of furniture dollies for the job, knowing some key terms will help buyers make informed decisions.

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Bumpers

Industrial bumpers are rubber or other padded hardware made to protect the edges of a piece of equipment like a dolly. Furniture dollies often include rubber bumpers for making sure the dolly does not gouge walls or other obstacles.

I recommend: Learn more about industrial bumpers on GlobalSpec. See furniture dollies with rubber bumpers at RandMH.

Casters

Casters are small wheels attached to dollies so that they can be wheeled around. Casters come in many shapes and sizes for fitting onto furniture dolly designs.

I recommend: See a definition of casters at the Office Guide.

Carpeted furniture dollies

Carpeted furniture dollies are models that include carpet on the top as padding. The carpeting protects cargo from grinding against the wood or steel frame.

I recommend: See examples of carpeted furniture dollies at WoodenDollies.com.

Convertible dolly

A convertible furniture dolly is one that converts into a hand truck for smaller cargo. Convertible or multi-use dollies are great for shipping a variety of items.

I recommend: See examples of a how a convertible dolly converts from a dolly to a hand truck at Office Zone.

Furniture sliders

Furniture sliders are often used in conjunction with furniture dollies. Sliders go under the legs of furniture and allow for sliding the cargo around the room.

I recommend: Learn more about furniture sliders that you can use when a furniture dolly is too cumbersome at Decorate-Redecorate.com.

Polyethlene

Polyethlene is a plastic type substance that manufacturers are using for a wide range of industrial hardware. Polyethlene decks can be used on furniture dollies as a durable substitute for wood.

I recommend: See more on polyethlene and its role in industry at Bay Tec Containers. See examples of polyethlene decks for furniture dollies at Hand Trucks R Us.

Businesses of all stripes look for furniture dollies to help get everything they handle from point A to point B. Simple furniture dolly tools do the work of moving heavy items across a flat (or slightly inclined) space using some of the "simple machines" touted in high school physics.

There are a variety of furniture dollies types and styles out there on the market that have "evolved" to serve specific purposes. Businesses can find the types of furniture dollies that work best for them on the Internet, by browsing the sites of trusted vendors. Readers online can find and purchase furniture dollies for:

1. Moving a large quantity of similar items (possibly in an industrial situation) where the cargo will all be nearly identical and work the same way with the furniture dollies that the business buys.

2. Getting all shapes and sizes of furniture from one site to another to move clients, serve customers, or deal with furniture moving for house inventories.

3. Keeping these tools around for incidental moving in a warehouse or other facility, where "troubleshooting" for inventory or equipment is sometimes complicated, or in large offices where managers want to move furniture with dollies.

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Get open frame furniture dollies

One option for businesses are open frame furniture dollies. These furniture dollies utilize a basic structure: cargo that is mostly flat can stand on the frame and be swished around to anywhere it needs to go.

I recommend: Simple open frame steel designs are on sale at Caster Supply. Find models like the Black Cat Heavy Duty furniture dolly with features like 10 inch pneumatic tires at Tractor Supply for jobs where the business needs to buy furniture dollies that can handle the heft wherever there's a big job to do.

Acquire 'wood-slab' furniture dollies

Other types of furniture dollies available are crafted from wood. Wooden closed-frame designs accommodate items with legs, cargo with a very uneven surface, or a collection of smaller items such as boxes.

I recommend: Locate solid hardwood dollies as well as other dollies for moving furniture at RandMH Industrial Equipment and Safety Supplies. The "hardwood deck" of this Great Plains Wood Platform Dolly accommodates heavy cargo--find it and other options at HandTrucks.com.

Look for specialized furniture dollies

Other designs and furniture dolly sales abound in the market. Businesses with delicate cargo can find carpeted furniture dollies for sale at affordable prices that will cushion the load from the surfaces of the dolly. Other designs include cylindrical furniture dollies that are perfect for moving drums or other cylinders, where the furniture dolly may have a better 'directional flow.'

I recommend: Hand Trucks R Us offers the carpeted dolly for around $100. Find specialty drum dollies for cylindrical "furnishings" or other equipment from Morse.