If you have wooden floors, it is likely that you might be worried about your furniture causing some damage to it. However, with a few simple steps, you can easily protect your floor from your furniture and prevent it from causing any scratches or greater damage.
Through this detailed guide, we will take you through various measures that you can take to ensure protection for your wood floor. Let’s get straight into it.
Will Heavy Furniture Damage Wood Floors?
The edges of your furniture will usually be pretty sharp. This might cause them to make tears or scratches on your wood floor. This can particularly be the case with heavier furniture because of the weight they exert on the floor.
Moreover, while moving furnishings around, it is possible that parts of it might get caught on the floor, especially if you are dragging it from one place to another. Frequently knocking it over could also have an adverse impact on the wood floor.
Generally, heavy furniture has a chance of damaging wood floors, particularly if enough care is not taken.
How to Protect Wood Floors from Furniture
So, how do you protect wooden floors from furniture? Some general measures you can take include:
- Attaching pads or soft cups to the legs of your furniture to prevent their sharp ends from being in direct contact with the floor.
- Placing a rug between the furniture and floor.
- Lifting the furniture up completely while moving it or dragging it using a carpet or a dolly.
Let’s look into specific kinds of furnishings so we get a better idea about this.
How to Protect Wood Floors from Furniture with Wheels
Furniture with wheels is meant to make it easier to drag across floors. However, since wood floors are prone to easier and greater damage, it would be helpful to take some precautions to protect the floor from these wheels. For instance, you can:
- Try not to push the wheeled furniture across the floor, especially if you are sitting on it. This can lead to dents and scratches on the wood floor since it is more susceptible to it. It would be a better idea to lift up the furniture if you want to move them.
- A better idea would be to replace your wheels with casters that are specifically made for wooden floors. These casters will be a bit softer than normal ones to ensure protection through cushioning.
- You can simply place a rug or furniture pad under the wheeled furniture so that the wheels do not come in direct contact with the wood floor. The furniture pad also comes in different types such as adhesive, felt, cardboard, slip-on and more. You can choose which one to buy depending on your requirements.
- An important measure is to make sure that you regularly clean and maintain the wheels of the furniture so that they do not become too rough or worn out.
How to Protect Hardwood Floors from Chairs
Protecting hardwood floors from chairs requires very similar measures as the ones described above. These include placing a rug or carpet under your chair or slipping on furniture cups or pads on the soles of the chair legs. These can either be made from felt or rubber and must be easy to slip or nail onto the chair.
This soft layer will ensure that your chair does not make too many dents or scratches on the floor. However, you will need to regularly keep cleaning these so that dust does not accumulate on them.
You must also remember to not drag these chairs across the room and to keep them from toppling over too often. For this reason, you must always keep a careful eye on your furnishings and repair it regularly.
How to Protect Laminate Flooring from Furniture
It is important to protect laminate flooring from furniture as it can easily develop dents and scratches. This involves similar methods as other kinds of wood flooring as well. These methods include the following:
- Place furniture pads made of felt, plastic, rubber or adhesives under your furniture so that it becomes easier for you to handle while moving around. Replace these when necessary.
- Use carpets, rugs or plastic flooring sheets under the furniture.
- Regularly look after your furnishings as well as the laminate flooring and repair it if required.
- If your furniture has wheels, replace them with softer material such as rubber.
- Always lift your furniture to move it.
- Laminate flooring is also susceptible to damage due to excess humidity. Thus, you must ensure that you control the humidity levels in your house.
Frequently Asked Questions
We will now attempt to answer some frequently asked questions about protecting wood floors. Hopefully, these will solve all your queries about the issue.
How Do You Keep Heavy Furniture from Scratching Hardwood Floors?
You can prevent your heavy furniture from scratching hardwood floors by ensuring you always lift it up while moving it. You can also place carpets, rugs, pads or cups under the furniture and regularly replace and maintain them. If there are any repairs to be done, make sure you do so without any major delays.
What Can I Put under Furniture to Protect the Floor?
You can put rugs and carpets that cover the entire area under your furniture. Additionally, you can also attach felt, rubber or plastic cups and pads to the legs of your furniture that you must replace or clean on a frequent basis. If you need to move it, you can use your carpet or a dolly to slide it over.
What Do You Put under a Recliner on Hardwood Floors?
You can put a rug with a rug pad under a recliner to prevent it from damaging your hardwood floor. You can also use corks or gripping cups and pads that will prevent it from sliding.
How Do I Keep My Couch from Moving on Hardwood Floors?
For this, you can once again use carpets and furniture pads that will cover the area under your couch and prevent it from moving around too much. Grippers and cups can help as well, or you can create stop blocks that you can place near your couch.
How Do I Keep My Couch from Sliding on Laminate Flooring?
You can try placing a rug or carpet on the floor. Buying rubber pads, disks or cups can also work as they will firmly fix themselves to the feet of the couch. You can also try making your own blocks or liners that will easily attach to the legs using glue or another adhesive. Make sure you use a material that will prevent skidding.
Do Felt Pads Protect Hardwood Floors?
Felt pads can be a good solution for protecting hardwood floors. You simply need to attach them to the feet of your furniture. However, make sure you attach them using a strong adhesive as it is easy for them to come off.
You must also buy high-quality felt pads, so make sure you do a bit of research before you make a decision. In addition, felt pads can gather dust frequently, so you might need to keep cleaning them as well.
Generally, if you take regular care, felt pads will definitely help. However, you can also pair them with a rug to provide extra cushioning.
The Final Word
We have now looked into the measures that you can take to protect wood floors from furniture.
Overall, it is clear that most of these require you to take a few uniform steps such as avoiding dragging, placing carpets, attaching pads or cups and undertaking regular maintenance.
Now that you know how to protect your wood floor, you can go ahead and start applying these tips and measures to your own furniture. We hope that these steps will make a difference that will prevent dents and scratches on your wood floor.
