At a home office environment or alternative area where seats have wheels, the kind of flooring selected for the space matters. Thick carpet and wheels do not play nicely, and a few types of chair wheels or casters may damage delicate flooring. Instead, pick a tough, durable floor surface like wood or tile to ensure the floor doesn’t face premature wear in the chair wheels.
Hardwood Flooring
Wood that’s extremely hard like maple and walnut prove extremely durable and can withstand a lot of misuse as flooring. A hard-wood floor will almost certainly outlast the chair with wheels used on it, offering a feeling of beauty that requires minimal care. Even harder woods might be excavated, nevertheless. Sweep the floor often and pick up small debris like seams tracked in from outside; otherwise, these can get trapped at the chair casters and pull throughout the floor, creating a scratch. Engineered hardwood flooring is just another permanent alternative, but in some situations it might not be quite as durable as walnut or maple.
Concrete Floors
A concrete floor holds up well under traffic from chair wheels and casters. Concrete flooring has evolved well beyond the basic concrete garage or utility-room slab — it can be polished, stained or even patterned and stamped to look like everything from slate to marble tile. It’s also relatively simple to clean and won’t trap the allergens prevalent to carpeting. The downside to a concrete floor is that fragile items dropped upon it might break, and standing on the floor for extended intervals might be a little uncomfortable beneath your feet.
Tile Flooring
A tile floor — from ceramic to stone — functions as a long-lasting, durable surface that can defy chair casters. Pick shingles which are smooth and require extremely thin grout lines; otherwise, the wheels might have trouble navigating the texture changes, or they might chip the tiles.
Selecting the ideal Casters
Sometimes, altering the wheels or casters on the seats can help keep them from damaging the flooring. Select soft casters made from rubber, urethane or polyurethane for the best protection on any kind of smooth, hard floor. Inexpensive office chairs offered with wheels intact might feature tough plastic wheels that can scratch a few surfaces, like linoleum. No matter which type of casters your chair includes, clean them frequently to reduce damage or marks on the floor. A mat or carpet reporter under the chair also can help protect the floor from damage.