Best way to fix bed frame with broken wheels?

February 9, 2015 4:43 PM

The wheels on my bed frame are broken or absent. Supposing I am not at all a handy person, and the bed sits on a hardwood floor -- am I better off buying new wheels for the frame or caster protectors? What is the easiest possible thing to install that would look decent and allow the bed to be moved without damaging the floor?
posted by shivohum to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

Some pieces of furniture will allow you to just pop the wheels off, no tools required, and pop in new ones purchased for that purpose. I have added wheels to furniture that did not have them by using this method. So, first check if the wheels can be removed without any tools and replaced that way.
posted by Michele in California at 5:32 PM on February 9, 2015

If the wheels are off, I'd get those sticky felt pad things for wood floors that you pop on the bottom of furniture. A hardware store should have what you need. With big/thick enough pads you should be able to slide it around without damage. You can also get these mover things if you need to slide it around.

Also, bed frames - if it's a standard metal one - are pretty cheap if you don't want to fuss.
posted by Crystalinne at 6:25 PM on February 9, 2015

Lowes, HomeDepot or your local hardware store will have magic slider mover thingies. Usually plastic, with silicon on the bottom, they are super slippery and better than wheels.
posted by theora55 at 7:42 PM on February 9, 2015

Or you could just buy a used bed frame that has good wheels - it would probably cost less than trying to work with the one you have now. Thrift stores and Craigslist have plenty of them.
posted by aryma at 8:01 PM on February 9, 2015

For beds, which tend to be heavy and which tend to have sharper ends if you take the castors off, better than the sticky felt pads are furniture cups.

They can still be used if you replace the castors. (That does not fulfill your requirement of minimum effort, but it does maximize your options and the protection to your floor.)
posted by gingerest at 9:29 PM on February 9, 2015