How To Protect Laminate Flooring From Rolling Chairs | 3 Pro Tips

Rolling chairs are fun, you sit on them, let the chair do the moving for you without getting up. But have you ever wondered what does it do to your floor, especially if it’s a laminate floor?

Over time your expensive laminate floor gets damaged thanks to all the silly fun you did with your rolling chair, assuming it was harmless. What’s even worse, the warranty doesn’t cover the mechanical damage.

Therefore, the best course of action is to prevent it before that happens. Don’t know how to protect laminate flooring from rolling chairs? Bear with us.

Tested Ideas On How To Protect Laminate Flooring From Rolling Chairs

Laminate floors look posh. In naked eyes, they look as good as hardwood, but they’re not damage proof. A rolling chair could wear down any floor. This is why there is no alternative to seeking protection measures to ensure your precious laminate floor stays good for a long period.

Generally, people use any kind of office chair mats to protect floors. That might work with hardwood but laminate floors need more care than just your run of the mill mats. Below, we will talk about some ways to protect laminate flooring from rolling chairs in depth so we can provide you with a more befitting answer.

Solution 1: Using rubber casters

Replacing the casters on the rolling chair with soft chair casters are the best solution for your laminate floor. The regular casters are usually made out of plastic or steel and can easily scratch your laminate floor, and it’s downhill from there. Changing it out for rubber caster to protect floors from office chair prevents that possibility. Benefits of rubber casters are:

• Doesn’t put any scratches.
• Avoids damage.
• Easily replaceable.
• It is easy moving with rolling chairs.
• Heavy-duty, so they can endure a lot of load. Good quality casters can even endure up to 650 lbs.

Solution 2: Placing an office chair mat

The question could come to your mind that, do you need a chair mat on laminate floors? The answer is, absolutely.

Especially, if you’re not too interested in spending some money to get a new set of casters, then the next best alternative is getting an office chair mat. Chair mats are usually smooth to make it easy for the chair to move around but rigid enough at the same time. There a few popular types of office chair mats described below:

Wooden chair mats

These are common wooden mats for office chairs. Strong, rigid, and smooth, they are the perfect counterpart for your problematic rolling chair. However, a good wooden mat is kind of costly for a mat.

Plastic chair mats

Plastic mats are a good alternative to wooden mats. Mats made out of PVC plastic are durable, flexible, and cheaper, making it a popular choice amongst many.

Polycarbonate chair mats

These kinds of mats are growing rapidly in terms of popularity. Its highly durable high-quality polycarbonate material with enough stickiness to keep the mat at a fixed position helps prevention from slips.

Tempered glass chair mats

This type of mat provides a premium experience. Tempered glass chair mats have a weight capacity of up to 1000 lbs, and they also come in different sizes. This is suitable for medium to large-sized offices where foot traffic is a lot. Although it’s the most expensive thing in this article, the result it provides is outstanding as well.

And most importantly, it is Eco friendly.

Cushioned foam chair mats

Also made out of high-quality PVC material and triple-layered footrest for anti-fatigue, yet being of a reasonable price; this is the best of both worlds. This mat is smooth and durable enough at the top for the rolling chair and has anti-slip properties at the bottom layer.

Bamboo chair mat

A natural alternative would be the elegant bamboo chair mat. This type of mat is pretty durable and yet has an affordable price and is a good solution for rolling chairs.

And, bamboo chair mats are good with any kind of floor surface, not just laminate floors. Bamboo having high tensile strength is a great material to make chair mats as they can absorb a lot of loads.

Initially, bamboo mats would like an expensive investment compared to plastic but its long-term return is substantial.

Solution 3: Place a carpet or rug pads

If you don’t fancy a mat, then the last-ditch effort to save your precious laminate floor is placing a carpet or rug pads under your chair. It should be at least large enough to cover the space you move with your chair. The material also has to be thick enough so that it doesn’t slip easily and provides a smooth surface for the rolling chair.

This should really be a last-ditch effort as the previously mentioned solutions are much safer if you truly want protection for your laminate floors.

FINAL WORD

So, to protect laminate floors, you have to make sure that no harm comes to it in the first place. After reading this article, we’re confident that you’re leaving with a piece of more in-depth knowledge about how to protect laminate flooring from rolling chairs and will take the necessary steps to prevent any harm to happen to your precious laminate flooring.

Autem Decker

This is Autem Decker. Main Author of ‘TheHomeDigs‘. You may not find her on the list of top 10 contemporary Canadian interior designers, but everyone who knows her says she was born to be an interior designer.

She makes her plan in her head and draws them in her years-old diary with a note in the corner. The way she plays with color and shape amazes us.

Connect Her On – Twitter