Best no-scratch solution for wood floors?

August 2, 2016 7:56 AM

I'm getting brand new hard wood floors shortly, and I want to avoid the horrible chair scratching that plagued my last floor. I've tried simple felt pads and plastic nail-in pads, but neither worked particularly well. Can you suggest some protection for my chairs, or is this is a lost cause?
posted by evadery to Home & Garden (12 answers total)

What went wrong with the felt pads? The only two issues I've had with mine are (a) the glue fails and they fall off and (b) I get some kind of scratchy object like a small rock or large piece of sand onto the floor, and set the chair on top of it, such that it becomes embedded in the felt and will scratch things up until I notice and pull it out. I don't think there's a solution for issue b, other than sweeping my floor more regularly and not tracking pointy dirt around; though after one incident of that, I now sort of wipe off the feet on the rug when I'm about to sweep and vacuum.
posted by aimedwander at 8:43 AM on August 2, 2016

Are we talking kitchen/dining room chairs, or lounge/armchair types of chairs? Are your chairs super heavy? Or was the wood of your last floor possibly really soft? Felt pads have been working wonderfully for me on my kitchen chairs; everything glides on them. I have oak floors (hard) and wicker chairs (light).

These are amazing. I have them on our sofa and the heavier chairs in our living room. They tap into the bottom of the leg. They can be ugly on say... a kitchen chair, if the leg style allows them to be really visible, but on some sofas and arm chairs, they are just perfect.
posted by the webmistress at 8:46 AM on August 2, 2016

@webmistress, your link shows both plastic and felt glides. Which are the amazing ones for you?
posted by JimN2TAW at 8:48 AM on August 2, 2016

Ooops sorry...the felt glides. The felt is thick and really stands up to a lot of moving around.
posted by the webmistress at 8:53 AM on August 2, 2016

Talk to your floor installers about what finishes they are using and the scratch resistance thereof.
posted by SemiSalt at 8:53 AM on August 2, 2016

This could be unattractive if done wrong, but I had a great deal of success with attaching small pieces of old berber-style carpet, carpet side down, to the undersides of furniture. The floor was not scratched. I used a staplegun at the time (the furniture wasn't that great), and had to be super careful that the staples went in well so that they didn't scratch the floor. However, I got years of excellent use and easy repositioning from that system.
posted by amtho at 9:03 AM on August 2, 2016

I can't get felt to stay on chair legs but furniture socks work great!
posted by foxfirefey at 9:21 AM on August 2, 2016

I've been using Magic Sliders for this with very good success.
posted by biogeo at 11:22 AM on August 2, 2016

I had an awful time keeping Magic Sliders from coming off despite using strong adhesive. They extended beyond the edges of the bottom of legs of the chair I had them on, which I think made them lever off when the chair was tilted back. I had better luck with glides that nailed or screwed into the wood of the leg.
posted by exogenous at 12:00 PM on August 2, 2016

Nail-in, reinforced felt pads work best for my chairs. You have to remain vigilant and replace them when they're worn or falling off, but they protect the floor well. If you don't want to deal with it, an area rug can be a good solution for a higher-traffic/high-use area. A low-profile carpet or Flor tiles are easy to move chairs over and also clean-up well.
posted by quince at 2:42 PM on August 2, 2016

We found some two-part feet that worked. One end is flat and you stick a normal felt pad to it; it ends in a ball joint. The second piece has a socket joint, and is hollow so you can screw through its long axis into the bottom of the chair leg. When you snap the two pieces together, the resulting ball-and-socket joint pivots to make the felt pad lie flat on the floor.

Pretty sweet!
posted by wenestvedt at 3:37 PM on August 2, 2016

I got some carpet samples from a carpet store, cut them to fit the bottoms of the chair legs and glued them on, carpet side facing the floor. They last a lot longer than felt pads because carpet is designed for traffic.
posted by Gwendoline Mary at 4:36 PM on August 2, 2016