What you’re moving out of the way of the skip is rarely just furniture. In a Surrey Hills period home, it’s more often the dresser that came from a parent’s house, or the writing desk that’s already outlived one or two owners before you. It has survived a century of ordinary life. What it hasn’t survived, not yet, is your renovation. A scaffold pole catches a corner, a garage stays damper for longer than anyone planned, and twelve weeks can undo what six decades didn’t. It’s the one thing you were trying to avoid.
In a hurry? Start here:
- Renovation running 8 to 16 weeks, furniture just needs somewhere dry and safe? Skip to where it waits.
- Not sure how to pack it? Go to the antique-care crossover.
- Piece already fragile or showing woodworm? Read the one exception before you store anything.
Why Period Furniture Isn’t Just “More Stuff to Move”
Ordinary renovation storage is a logistics problem: get the sofa out of the way until the plaster’s dry. Period and inherited furniture is a different problem wearing the same clothes. Age and provenance change what’s at stake, not just how heavy the piece is to carry down the stairs.
Furniture that’s already outlived one house move
A piece that’s already been through a move or two, and a set of owners before you, has a track record: damp Surrey winters, probably one previous renovation. That history is exactly what makes it worth protecting properly this time, not assuming past survival means it can shrug off anything.
A house’s original pieces vs. a renovation’s temporary chaos
Even if you didn’t inherit it, you might have bought a period property with pieces already in it, tied to the house’s own story. Either way, it needs somewhere better than a corner of the site.
The Surrey Hills Problem Nobody’s Written About
The Surrey Hills National Landscape has one of the highest concentrations of period and listed homes in the South East, so this problem, inherited or original furniture caught mid-renovation, comes up here more than most places. That makes it a local pattern rather than a generic storage-while-renovating question.
Why the Surrey Hills has more of this problem than most areas
Search for storage around here and you’ll mostly find antique dealers and upholsterers, not anyone answering the real question: where does a piece like this go, safely, for the length of a renovation, without driving it three towns over to a faceless unit. That’s the gap this page is for.
Dorking and the A25 corridor
Dorking sits on the edge of the Surrey Hills, on the A25 corridor running through Reigate, Guildford and the villages between. If you’re renovating anywhere along that stretch, a local answer beats a distant one, for peace of mind and for how often you’ll want to check on the piece.
The Antique-Care Crossover: Blankets, Not Bubble Wrap
Conservation authorities agree: antique and period wood furniture stores better wrapped in breathable materials, a cotton sheet and a padded furniture blanket, than sealed in plastic or bubble wrap, which traps moisture against the finish.
Pieces that outlast their owners deserve proper care, and the biggest mistake most people make with period furniture is reaching for the same bubble wrap they’d use on a flat-pack wardrobe.
The five-step crossover
- Dust first, gently. A soft, dry cotton cloth on flat surfaces, a soft brush for carving. Never a scrub.
- Take the strain off the piece. Remove drawers, marble tops, mirrors and glass before it moves, and carry them separately.
- Give it a breathable skin, not a sealed one. A clean cotton sheet directly against the wood, not plastic.
- Add the padded layer outside that. A furniture blanket, tied loosely with fabric tape, never cinched tight against a carved edge, and never plastic sheeting sealed around the whole thing.
- Keep it off the floor and out of damp. Raised, supported, and away from a concrete or brick surface it could draw damp from.
Why plastic works against you, not for you
A dresser sealed tight in shrink film for a twelve-week loft conversion looks protected on day one. By week six, trapped condensation has clouded the varnish and lifted a corner of veneer that survived three house moves untouched. The plastic did in six weeks what six decades hadn’t.
The National Trust’s own conservation guidance says the same thing directly: don’t seal precious objects in bubblewrap or plastic, because it traps moisture. Conservation bodies who deal specifically with wood furniture echo the same principle: breathable first, padded second, plastic never.
For the full method, including sizing your unit and insuring an irreplaceable piece, Wigwam’s antique-furniture storage guide covers it in depth. This page is the local, short version.
What Not to Do (and the One Exception)
Three mistakes undo most of the good intentions above, and one situation means you shouldn’t be following this advice yet.
The three mistakes that undo good intentions
Sealing a piece in plastic sheeting, bubble wrap or shrink film directly against the wood. Tying a blanket so tight it presses into a carved edge instead of cushioning it. Standing it straight onto a concrete or brick floor, where it can draw up damp. Some storage guides still suggest bubble wrap; conservation bodies disagree.
The one exception: active woodworm
If a piece shows fresh frass (the fine wood dust woodworm leaves behind) or exit holes, don’t wrap it the normal way and don’t put it into general storage. Isolate it and get a specialist to look at it first. An active infestation needs assessing, not just packing.
A word on advice. Everything above is general good practice, not professional conservation advice. If a piece is genuinely valuable, already damaged, or you’re not sure what you’re looking at, a professional furniture conservator is the right call, not a storage company. Wigwam’s support team can help with unit sizing, availability and booking; they won’t advise on the condition of your furniture, and they shouldn’t.
The Custodian’s Job: Handing It On Intact
Here’s the part that has nothing to do with packing materials. If the piece was handed to you, your job was never really to own it. It was to look after it for a while and hand it on intact. A renovation is the moment that job gets tested.
You’re not just storing furniture, you’re keeping a thread intact
Every owner this piece has had left it a little better cared for than they found it, a polish here, a small repair there. The renovation is one more link in that thread. Storing it properly for these few months is how you make sure your link holds.
What “doing it properly” actually looks like
In practice, it looks exactly like the crossover above: breathable materials, no plastic, raised off a damp floor. Nothing more mysterious than that. The emotional weight is real, but the answer is practical.
If that’s where you are right now, see if Dorking has the right space for what you’re storing. No pressure, just a straight look at whether it fits.
Where It Waits: Wigwam Dorking
Wigwam Self Storage Dorking sits on the edge of the Surrey Hills, built for exactly this kind of temporary, careful hold rather than long-term clutter.
Dorking, on the edge of the Surrey Hills
If you’re renovating anywhere along the A25 corridor, Dorking is the local option rather than a drive to a unit three towns over. It’s a place you can get to easily if you want to check on the piece, not somewhere you forget about until the renovation’s finished.
What’s actually on offer here
Storage access runs 6am to 10pm, seven days a week, never round the clock. Units range across more than eleven sizes, from 10 sq ft up to 300 sq ft, with larger available on request. There’s no climate control on offer, and none implied; what you get instead is clean, dry and secure, which is what the packing method above is designed to work alongside. Sites are unmanned, so if a courier or anyone outside your own household needs access, someone from your side needs to be there with them; nobody else can let them in.
What Wigwam Dorking Isn’t (So You’re Not Guessing)
Being clear about what’s on offer means being just as clear about what isn’t.
No climate control, and why that’s fine if it’s packed right
There’s no temperature or humidity control at Dorking, or anywhere in the Wigwam network. For a renovation running weeks rather than years, proper packing, the breathable-materials method above, does the job climate control would otherwise be asked to do.
Not a container site, not a vehicle store
Dorking doesn’t offer container storage; that’s only available at three specific Wigwam sites elsewhere in the country, not here. Nor does it store vehicles, motorcycles or caravans. This site is set up for household and period furniture, plain and simple.
Getting a Straight Answer for Your Piece
Most people reading this aren’t ready for a quote yet; they want to know the method’s sound and that somewhere local can take the piece. If that’s you, the antique-care guide has the full method, and the Dorking section above has the practical details.
When you are ready, get a quote for the right size unit for what you’re storing. It’s a small, practical step. The bigger job, keeping the thread intact, you’ve already started just by asking the right question.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Wigwam doesn’t offer climate control anywhere in the network, including Dorking. What matters far more for a typical 8 to 16 week renovation is packing the piece correctly, breathable cotton and a padded blanket, not plastic, and keeping it off a damp floor. Clean, dry and secure storage plus proper packing does the job that climate control is often assumed to do.
Don’t seal it in plastic sheeting, bubble wrap or shrink film directly against the wood. These trap moisture against the finish, which can cloud varnish and lift veneer over the course of a renovation. Use a cotton sheet against the wood and a furniture blanket over the top instead, tied loosely rather than cinched tight.
Properly packed and kept in a clean, dry, secure unit, period furniture can safely sit through a typical renovation of several weeks to a few months. The method matters more than the calendar: breathable materials and being raised off the floor are what keep a piece safe for the length of the stay, not the number of weeks itself.
No. Container storage is only available at three specific Wigwam sites elsewhere in the country, not Dorking. And no Wigwam site, Dorking included, stores vehicles, motorcycles or caravans. Dorking is set up for household and furniture storage.
