Author Topic: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things  (Read 13119 times)

jc4

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Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« on: October 02, 2017, 01:25:25 PM »
Situation: Moving into a home with classic, solid, hardwood floors. Just restained. Want to protect it from furniture scratches, but I hate those felt pad things (see link below). They wear out, dirt/hear sticks to them, they fall off, and rebuying every few months is definitely not Mustacian. 

https://www.amazon.com/Assorted-Heavy-Duty-Felt-Pads/dp/B001ECITW4

What do we do? And ideas that have worked? My wife did some research, and came up with glueing cork or leather for a more durable solution? And experience or recomendations?

GuitarStv

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #1 on: October 02, 2017, 01:54:13 PM »
Posting to follow and to share my own tremendous dislike of those felt pads.  They suck.

snacky

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #2 on: October 02, 2017, 02:00:38 PM »
Posting to follow and to share my own tremendous dislike of those felt pads.  They suck.

+1

I have an antique chest that I cut a piece of cardboard to fit exactly under it, which protects the floor and was free. That wouldn't work with chairs, etc.

Samsam

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #3 on: October 02, 2017, 02:06:44 PM »
Wine corks! This could be very diy depending on how much wine you want to drink :)

Goldielocks

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #4 on: October 02, 2017, 02:08:17 PM »
LOL!  that was my one odd chore I just completed.   I found a pack of 4 velcro adhesives and 16 felt pads and proceeded to complete my set of 8 chairs.  Some had been off for over 5 years (prior home had carpet) and we just never used all the chairs a lot, so I put up with it, but then noticed last week the floor scratches...   I guess they do work, indeed.

The ones with the push-in nail post are the best.  Our have lasted 5 years with light use, and I will try to squeeze out another year.   I guess I could look to see if I could just replace the pad. 

The best bet may to to buy a large package for your drawer, a package of double sided tape, and just replace as they fall off.

ETA -- Cardboard is one of the scratchiest things on wood floors!  Snacky - It only protects (cushions against depression marks) if you don't move the chest.

Saskatchewstachian

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #5 on: October 02, 2017, 02:51:26 PM »
If you knit or know anyone that knits I highly recommend chair leg "booties" or chair socks according to google.

I have some and believe they're made from normal wool and simply cover the bottom of the chair leg. You can make them in neutral colors to match the chairs and not even know they're there or have some fun with bright colors.

Highly recommend!

bacchi

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #6 on: October 02, 2017, 02:56:56 PM »
The slick plastic pads? The ones on our dresser, using double backed tape, have been there for 8 years. The ones on the chairs have nails.

Dee18

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #7 on: October 02, 2017, 03:30:32 PM »
I just moved out of my house after 9 years and realized the felt pads on most of my furniture were on that entire time and lasted just fine.  I purchased them at Lowes.

Cpa Cat

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #8 on: October 02, 2017, 04:24:56 PM »
One of my cats makes it her life mission to get those felt things off the furniture so she can eat them.

She is amazingly adept at it.

GillyMack

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #9 on: October 02, 2017, 05:11:12 PM »
I have some old beautiful heart of pine floors in 2 rooms. For things that don't move much (a side table or arm chair for instance) I went to a fabric store and bought a half yard of brown felt that is close to my floor color.  I cut pieces of the right size and shape and slip them under each leg. 

For one heavy piece, I purchased some plastic saucer-looking things from the hardware store with carpet on the bottom.

But chairs for tables that humans slide around are a real problem as noted above. The stick-on felt things are awful. They fall off pretty quickly and then the left over glue gets spread around on the floor.  Main use of the dining room used to be teenage gatherings for Dungeon and Dragon games. After some floor scratch damage,   I finally just bought a large cheap area rug big enough to protect the floor around the table.  Places like Lowes have some that look pretty nice and once I lucked out getting an attractive bound large carpet remnant that a carpet big box store had bound on spec.

As a temp measure, I also once cut larger squares from my brown felt, wrapped them under and around the chair feet and held them on with rubber bands.  Figured the teenagers wouldn't notice. this solution was essentially a version of the knitted booties above.  Which I think is a really cool idea.

DutyBound

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #10 on: October 02, 2017, 06:31:49 PM »
I have this same hatred of the standard felt pads, and have looked high and low for solutions.

Some things that have worked for me:

Flexifelt: https://www.flexifelt.com/p-16-6328.aspx
These are amazing for metal chairs with the swivel-type feet. They shrink wrap onto the leg with a heat gun, and I have had no problem whatsoever with them degrading. The website only shows them in large quantities (boxes of 100?!), but if you email them they will send you just a few. Gonna be impossible to install without a heat gun though.

Nail-On Felt Pads: https://www.amazon.com/Nail-Heavy-Furniture-Surfaces-piece/dp/B000PB0ZTA/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1506990373&sr=8-6&keywords=felt+chair+pad
Similarly, these work very well for wooden-leg furniture that you don't care about putting a ring/hole in the bottom of. I am okay with this for all of our wooden stools and chairs, so this solved my problems. I could find them at my local hardware store, but obviously they are available online too.

At least in my experience, the felt itself last a good long time, and the problem is usually how the thing attaches to the bottom of the chair, which means these last a long time. At least a year on both and still going strong.

I don't really have a good solution for antique/valuable wooden furniture that you don't want to pound a felt pad onto.

Hope this helps!

Daisy

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #11 on: October 02, 2017, 08:36:35 PM »
Ack! I have this problem too and looking for solutions.


jc4

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #13 on: October 03, 2017, 12:04:11 PM »
Wine corks! This could be very diy depending on how much wine you want to drink :)

I really like this idea. It would take us a few years to do enough corks though. We have 15 chairs == 60 legs to do, plus other furniture.

jc4

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #14 on: October 03, 2017, 12:06:43 PM »
If you knit or know anyone that knits I highly recommend chair leg "booties" or chair socks according to google.

I have some and believe they're made from normal wool and simply cover the bottom of the chair leg. You can make them in neutral colors to match the chairs and not even know they're there or have some fun with bright colors.

Highly recommend!

How long have you had them on? Are they durable (lasts 5 years). And do they stay on well? I'd worry they'd slide off.

I joked to my wife about getting chairs socks. She crochets, and we have a ton of yarn, so she could actually make them.  We may go with this.

FLBiker

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #15 on: October 03, 2017, 12:14:19 PM »
Flexifelt: https://www.flexifelt.com/p-16-6328.aspx
These are amazing for metal chairs with the swivel-type feet. They shrink wrap onto the leg with a heat gun, and I have had no problem whatsoever with them degrading. The website only shows them in large quantities (boxes of 100?!), but if you email them they will send you just a few. Gonna be impossible to install without a heat gun though.

Flexifelt also has "sleeve" style that don't require a heatgun.  We use them on our dining room chairs.  We couldn't keep felt on them (they have big metal brads on the bottom of their feet) but the Flexifelt has lasted years.  They're expensive, but we just needed enough for 6 chairs.  We use regular felt on everything else.

I think the model we use is this one: http://flexifelt.com/product/23/6825-flexi-felt-clear-with-white-felt

Louisville

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #16 on: October 03, 2017, 12:18:28 PM »
I like the felt pads. I always use one way smaller than the surface I'm sticking it to, so that none of the adhesive side sticks out and gathers dirt/hair. Cut them down if necessary.
Also, I make sure the surface I'm applying it to is very clean (often not the case with something that touches the floor) and I apply one drop of super glue to help the adhesive.
I've got them on all of my furniture, I can't see them, and I've had to replace only maybe two or three over the years.

Saskatchewstachian

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #17 on: October 25, 2017, 04:40:05 PM »
If you knit or know anyone that knits I highly recommend chair leg "booties" or chair socks according to google.

I have some and believe they're made from normal wool and simply cover the bottom of the chair leg. You can make them in neutral colors to match the chairs and not even know they're there or have some fun with bright colors.

Highly recommend!

How long have you had them on? Are they durable (lasts 5 years). And do they stay on well? I'd worry they'd slide off.

I joked to my wife about getting chairs socks. She crochets, and we have a ton of yarn, so she could actually make them.  We may go with this.

We got them last year and they have held up well so far. It's hard to say though as we don't use the kitchen table very much. 4-5 times a week probably. They stay on very well and were knit so that they needed to be slightly stretched to fit over the leg.

If you want them more durable I would suggest knitting them too large out of wool then washing and putting through the dryer on high. The heat will shrink them significantly and close op the gaps in between strands. I'm not sure the shrinking ratio though so that might be a bit of an experiment.

NeonPegasus

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #18 on: October 26, 2017, 09:41:44 AM »
Lots of options here - https://www.mcmaster.com/#1425

I used to work at MCM and I bought a roll of 500 felt pads. We still have lots left, many years later. Too bad they're not still selling them because they stick on very well and only get replaced every 6-12 months.

Moonwaves

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #19 on: October 27, 2017, 06:26:05 AM »
I found some more robust felt pads that are actually attached to a plastic bit and have to be hammered into the furniture. Similar to some of what you can see in NeonPegasus' link above. Bonus is that they've raised my bookshelves just enough that I can now fit the hoover right in under the bottom shelf. Before I could only get the bit near the front and it always bugged me.

MBot

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #20 on: October 27, 2017, 07:40:27 PM »
To reiterate and expand on my earlier point, the plastic chair glides work great. You do have to hammer/press them into the legs, and then everything slides beautifully. We have a teak set on our hardwood floor and they slide perfectly. Link below is not an affiliate link or anything, just an example of where to buy them.

Plastic chair glides.

http://m.homehardware.ca/h5/m/en/r/hh/en/rec/index.htm/Hardware/Builders/Floor-Protection/Glides/8-Pack-7-8-Nail-On-Glides/_/N-ntjpq/R-I2347026

geekette

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Re: Furniture Pads for Hardware floors - I hate the felt things
« Reply #21 on: October 27, 2017, 07:59:23 PM »
It's probably not what you want, but area rugs work well.