Office Floor Materials

September 18, 2009 1:54 PM

What flooring for my home office can withstand constant pressure from office chair casters? The chairs and users will be moving between different stations in a very small office area. This makes chair floor guards unusable. I would even consider natural stone if it would stand up to the chair movement. I have also considered machining large circular pads with carpeting or some other sliding material on the bottom to replace the chair casters. These would spread the weight of the loaded chair over a larger area.
posted by Raybun to Home & Garden (10 answers total)

Rubber tiling?
posted by clorox at 1:58 PM on September 18, 2009

Polished cement, which looks pretty much like slate anyway.
posted by rokusan at 2:25 PM on September 18, 2009

How small is the "very small office"? Is the traffic pattern the chairs will be moving through constant and predictable? I ask this because you can get the large, sheet-plastic floor guards custom-cut to fit some surprisingly large areas.

How about terrazzo?
posted by Thorzdad at 2:29 PM on September 18, 2009

My office chair right now is rolling on industrial grade glue-down carpet squares. It works fine. Coffee spills are easier to clean from a solid surface, however.
posted by Midnight Skulker at 2:30 PM on September 18, 2009

Flor makes industrial carpet squares that are pretty sturdy. If a spot gets worn, pull up that square and put down a fresh one. Bonus: carbon neutral.
posted by seanmpuckett at 2:46 PM on September 18, 2009

We just bought a large carpet offcut from a carpet store company and had it hemmed to fit the area under and around the desks. Then we put that down over the lovely wooden floors (basically as a big rug) and no more chair scuffs. It was flat, hardwearing office-style carpet, didn't cost much, doesn't move or buckle, looks fairly decent, and doesn't actually do anything to the floor underneath (important for us as we rent).

Our office is small enough that the carpet covers most of it but you just need to block off the space you move around in. Much better to cover the whole floor than try to make small moving carpet patches for the chairs and probably about the same amount of money/effort.
posted by shelleycat at 4:16 PM on September 18, 2009

We just bought a large carpet offcut from a carpet store..

By the way, by 'just' I mean that's all the effort we put in not that it was done recently. It's been three years, the floor and carpet are still in perfect condition, and the whole system works very well. Here's a photo.
posted by shelleycat at 4:20 PM on September 18, 2009

we recently put down a chilewich woven floormat for just this purpose. it's woven plastic in fairly sylish patterns. and it seem almost indestructible.
posted by bruceo at 5:04 PM on September 18, 2009

A high quality laminate (Pergo type) floor is what I'd suggest. Preferably a Wilsonart Flooring product. They have the best overall lineup of well-made, high quality laminate floors on the market. Also, all of their products are commercially rated, meaning they will be more resilient to your roller chairs. Their actual commercial product has been used in restaurants, hotels, auto dealer showrooms, retail spaces, etc. If you follow the link to their website, take a look at Our Advantages to see how they differ from other laminate floors.
posted by nickthetourist at 10:28 PM on September 18, 2009

Sorry, but links aren't working for me today.

Concrete flooring is great for this. If you like a softer look or concrete isn't practical, then go with Forbo's linoleum. http://www.forboflooringna.com/Default.aspx?MenuId=27.

It has the highest castor resistance of anything out there. http://www.forboflooringna.com/ModuleFiles/mod_doc_download_center/793/TS%20Marmoleum%20Sheet%20v2.22.pdf. And, the colors are fabulous!
posted by mightshould at 5:57 AM on September 21, 2009