I'm floored that I'm writing the HiveMind about THIS.

August 29, 2008 11:43 AM

How best to protect hardwood floors from chairs?

I did a search on "protecting hardwood floors" and didn't find much.

We've just moved into our nearly-new condo, and have company over quite a bit, and we sit around the dining table in wooden chairs. Despite putting those sticky felt pads on the chair feet, the dining room floor is still sustaining a lot of surface scratches and scuffs - the pads shift under people's weight, they slowly slide off the chair feet, deform unevenly, etc.

We're likely eventually to get a rug in the dining room (partially for this reason, and also to cut the echo), but until we do, how best to protect the floor, because the pads aren't cutting it?

I suppose we could get a cheap(ish) remnant and put that down until we can afford a real rug, but even a remnant would run near $100, not look terribly great, and then only get used for a few months until we've got a rug - but at the rate this is going, I can't wait a few months to deal with the problem.

Help me hivemind!

posted by canine epigram to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

You know those magical sliders from the commercial where the tiny woman moves a giant piece of furniture just by pushing it? They actually work. They have some designed for chairs that will cap over the bottom of the leg and ones that are nailed on.
posted by theichibun at 11:49 AM on August 29, 2008

You might have better luck with better chair glides - the self stick felt things never seem to stay on very well. Check out something like this, I have a friend that uses something similar, and seems to work pretty well.
posted by pupdog at 11:50 AM on August 29, 2008

You could try something like these ... Maybe find a classier solution based on them? Perhaps little pouches on the bottom?

Maybe get some thick felts or other material and construct them in a way that they attach a few inches up the chair leg, so they can't slip around so much. I've always used the felt things, sometimes with a stronger adhesive... I've found I do need to change them once in a while.

Good luck :)
posted by nitor at 11:53 AM on August 29, 2008

I've been using the self-stick felt pads with no issues for over eight years now (yeah, a dining room rug never seems to hit the top of the priority list); maybe it would be worth trying another brand. The ones I got were beige squares almost 1/4" thick that could be trimmed to fit.
posted by magicbus at 12:00 PM on August 29, 2008

My experience with the felt ones is that they just get a piece of dirt or small rock or whatever stuck in them and drag it around, scratching the floor relentlessly.

I've had better luck with either the stainless steel or white teflon ones, which are too hard to "absorb" any granules of anything scratchy.
posted by rokusan at 12:03 PM on August 29, 2008

Extreme solution: cut tennis balls.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 12:23 PM on August 29, 2008

I found thicker felt pads at Home Depot, in several diameters to fit your particular chair legs (can't find a pic). They were in the section where furniture glides are displayed. The glides attach via a small metal piece on the back that you pound into the bottom each chair leg. The glides are not only very stable (I've had them on my chairs for years and they've never shifted) but they protect better than the nylon slides, which do still tend to leave marks, albeit mostly removable ones.
posted by mumstheword at 3:58 PM on August 29, 2008

I've had fairly good luck with the nylon ones, although the ones I've used have been nail-in ones. Fine for everyday furniture, but it might depend on your comfort level with nailing things into the leg ends if the chairs are more expensive/antique/whatever.
posted by gimonca at 4:48 PM on August 29, 2008