I would suspect that wood or laminate warranties would not cover that kind of repetitive wear, but I'm sure some of the people who know more about that kind of flooring could say for sure. I don't know how transferable casters are when supplying them "aftermarket" -- might be a question for a good hardware store (not one of the big-box stores) or an office-supply place. I like carpet tile -- I put it all over my house (kitchen excepted). I wanted the color and the texture and like that it will wear far better than standard residential broadloom. It's also easier to move things on it. :-) Personally, I would avoid padded carpet tile, which knocks out the Legato and Tesserae available at the big-box stores and some FLOR lines. But you can get carpet tile on-line from various sources or from some local places that handle flooring exclusively.

I need to buy a special office chair for myself since my back is hurting and my prior high back chair that was specially made for me 11 years ago fell part. I am very petite at not quite 5' so it is difficult to buy a chair in the store since the seats are too deep, not enough padding and the width of the seat is too wide so the arms are not comfortable. I found a place that will custom make a chair for me and will give me a quote in a few days. I hope it is not as much as a few other sites that I priced out the chairs on. My main question is if I should add the memory foam to the seat and/or to the back. The owner of the place says I will love it and it will be more comfortable. But I worry about the gassing off of the memory foam and wonder if there will be a smell like the memory foam pillows. I sleep on a natural latex pillow with no smell. But maybe the seats fabric will cover the foam enough that their will not be that gassing off? Anyone here with experience of memory foam on chairs? Thank you.

I got around to reading the JSF Online link for rubberwood and I need to correct their ignorance on the subject trees and wood. First, rubberwood (aka rubbertree, parawood, etc.) is not "a member of the maple family". The Maple family is Aceraceae and it is mostly a temperate group of trees or woody plants which includes the highly valued sugar maple (Acer saccharum). Rubbertree is a member of the Spurge family (Euphoriaceae) which is mostly tropical in occurrence. Sugar Maple is a significantly harder or denser wood than rubberwood. Sugar maple has an average specific gravity of .56 (weight overdry, volume green). Rubberwood is at .49 using the same specific gravity standard (source: USDA Forest Products Laboratory). So rubberwood is the same as a soft maple species (red, Acer Rubrum) in wood density and not hard maple. Rubberwood lumber is cut from very young trees ("26-30 years"). The problem with young trees is the presence of juvenile wood in the core or center of the tree. Juvenile wood has very poor wood strength and stability characteristics compared to older non-juvenile wood. This may not be important for a kid's toy car, but is very important with load bearing chair legs, as an example. Most sugar maple trees are 60-80 years old when cut.The heart of the tree goes into low grade products like ties, pallet cants, or low grade flooring, while the clearer non-juvenile wood becomes grade lumber for things like chair legs. There is very little waste in any wood manufacturing industry today. Slabs from a sugar maple log are chipped for making paper. The bark and sawdust are used as a hog fuel or for animal bedding or for mulch around homes. Some plants even produce their own electricity from wood waste. The JSF online statement of "so unlike other woods that are cut down for the sole purpose of producing furniture," is really ignorant considering the variety of end products made from N. American woods and the complete utilization of the tree. Manufacturer or retailer websites often use false information to help sell their products. LET THE BUYER BEWARE!

We have chair mats from IKEA, and they are designed for non-carpeted surfaces: they don't have the little nubs on the back. I was having a difficult time finding something locally (all had the little nubs on the back to grip the carpet) and lo and behold, IKEA had just what I needed. We have had them for about a year on a cork floor and they have held up really well.