Desk Chairs with rollers

17 years ago

Does a desk chair with rollers actually "mess up" hardwood floors (causing permanent damage)? I was told I NEEDED a chairmat to protect my floors. Is this basically a scare tactic to make you buy overpriced chairmats?

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Comments (5)

knot2fast
17 years ago
Any dirt or grit picked up by the rollers will be ground into a fairly small area in front of the desk.

The casters have a large amount of "trail" built into them to make them roll well in any direction. The swiveling action of the wheels each time the chair is moved in a different direction tends to grind the wheels into the floor even more. Nobody sits perfectly still.

The entire weight of the chair plus you is distributed across only the contact points of the five or so wheels of the chair. You can estimate the contact patch sizes and weights to determine the pounds per square inch, but it's pretty high. Just a small amount of dirt from your shoes and the swiveling action of the wheels under load will destroy a wood finish pretty quickly.

I use a chair mat.
glennsfc
17 years ago
Good answer! Hardly anything stands up well to these rolling loads.
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Vinyl plank in your price range will burnish easily from the weight of the chair rolling back and forth across it. Laminate in that price range will also not be durable enough. The cheapest and most durable choice in your price range is porcelain tile. It would be a "forever" solution. If you upped your budget a bit, you could put electric warm wires underneath and it would be warm instead of cold in the winter. As for VCT, yes, it's durable. They roll forklifts over warehouses with it on the floor after all. But, it does need to have an acrylic top dressing. For home use, probably one coating and buffing would last 5-8 years or longer if you don't use a bucket full of ammonia to clean it. In a commercial situation, they usually have it cleaned and buffed every week, and stripped and a new topping done every 6 months to a year. You might be able to find a DIY acrylic coating at a janitorial supply company that you could apply with a sponge mop. It might not be a "perfect" application, but it would probably be fine for home use.
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Hello! Natural fiber rugs are beautiful and add a lovely touch to any room. The only thing you may want to consider if you have decided on purchasing a natural fiber rug for this space is that you may not want to get an office chair with wheels/casters. When running the wheels across natural fibers - especially if you are continuously doing it; they can easily snag and fray and may potentially ruin the rug very quickly. If you are doing a stationary office chair this should not matter. However, if you prefer an office chair with wheels/casters on it you may want to purchase a low pile and/or machine made rug. Polypropylene or polyester blends with wool or cotton are usually very durable, will stand up to chairs with casters, and can be cleaned easily. You could also look into wool or handwoven rugs, but keep in mind wool or handmade will be more expensive than a machine made version! There are hundreds of handwoven or wool rugs that are a very low pile or a flat weave. I hope this information is helpful!
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woodswell
17 years ago
On another forum, someone recommended GlassMats for under office chairs. He said that they hold up much better than the standard chair mats and protect the floor better. The person doing the recommendation is not an employee of the GlassMat company (and neither am I), he was just mentioning a couple of good items he had found for his office. I have used the other product he was recommending (a type of light) and know that it is a good one, so I think the GlassMat might be worth checking out.

Anne

Here is a link that might be useful: GlassMat
floorman67
17 years ago
No wood flooring finish will stand up over time to the rolling load of those chairs.

Plastic mats can sometimes mar a wood floor as well.

I recommend a carpet reminant or a area-rug rug with a plastic office-quality chair mat on top of it that will spread out the rolling load.

Also, use a good quality non-crawling area-rug pad as well to keep the area rug from crawling away as the chair rolls over it and to protect the wood finish from the carpet backing.

.
glennsfc
17 years ago
If the plastic mat is one designed for use primarilly over a carpeted surface, then...yes...it can mar a hardwood floor surface.

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Desk Chairs with rollers

Comments (5)

knot2fast

glennsfc

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