So, you’re thinking of getting a high-quality gaming or office chair for your personal computer setup, but you’re worried about how the chair is going to work with your carpet or hardwood floor? It is a genuine concern because both of these types of floors are very susceptible to damage from such chairs.
Well, then what can be done to save your floor from damage? Great question. In this article, I’ll be talking about gaming and office chairs, whether they damage carpets or hardwood flooring, why they cause damage, and how you can learn to protect your flooring from your newly bought gaming or office chair. So, without further ado, let’s get started.
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Will Gaming and Office Chairs Damage Carpet or Hardwood Floor?
Many people tend to ask this question because they’re worried about their expensive carpet or hardwood flooring. Well, gaming and office chairs tend to damage different kinds of floors as long as they’re not very high-quality.
What this means is that if you’re getting a sub-par quality gaming chair, it is possible that the casters of the gaming or office chair are low-quality add-ons, and they might not smoothly work on the flooring you’ve installed.
In that case, a gaming or office chair will end up damaging the carpet or hardwood floor that you’ve placed in your computer setup room. But if the office chair you’re using has high-quality casters which offer smooth rolling, the chair will be able to move on the carpet or hardwood flooring without a problem at all.
Many people have complained about their flooring being damaged or messed up due to their negligence of the chair they were using. So, if you don’t want to end up being one of them, you’re going to need to learn everything about this problem. Luckily, that’s precisely what I’m here to do for you.
Do Only Rolling Chairs Damage Carpet and Hardwood Floor?
Well, is it that only gaming or office chairs with wheels do the damage to carpets and hardwood flooring? Not really. All kinds of chairs can damage floors if you’re not too careful with them.
To give you a simple example, let’s say you have a rolling chair and a standard 4-legged chair in front of you, both sitting on an expensive carpet. If the rolling chair has low-quality rough casters, then rolling the chair will cause damage to the rug.
At the same time, if you take the regular chair and slide it across the carpet floor, you’re also going to see the damage. This shows that if dealt with irresponsibly, all kinds of chairs can cause damage to your floor.
But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t put chairs on your carpet or hardwood flooring. It just means that if you do, make sure you put high-quality chairs designed to perform better, and still, you need to be careful and responsible about how you move these chairs around.
Why Do Gaming and Office Chairs Cause Damage to Floors?
At this point, you must be thinking, why do gaming chairs and office chairs in general cause damage to hardwood floors or carpets? Well, there are several reasons for it.
Low-Quality Rolling Wheels
As discussed before, chairs that are inexpensive or come from brands that aren’t known for their quality have placeholder casters that are rough, sharp, or just not great.
These low-quality rolling wheels can end up damaging your floor due to the rolling movement with rough edges. It is one of the many ways gaming chairs and office chairs can be damaging to your flooring.
Excessive Weight
If you’re using a good-quality chair, it doesn’t need to be incredibly heavy to be able to hold and support more significant individuals, as we’ve seen in our experience of gaming chairs.
But low-quality gaming and office chairs are built heavy to support more significant individuals as well. This excessive and unnecessary weight on a chair can cause it to damage the carpet or hardwood floor when it is moved on it.
Irresponsible Movement
Irresponsible behavior is another reason why your office or gaming chair might end up messing with your flooring. However, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to leave the chair alone, and it is going to become sentient and purposely destroy your floor.
Irresponsibility, in this case, refers to moving the chair carelessly or so roughly that it ends up causing damage or leaving a mark on the floor that clearly could’ve been avoided.
No External Protection
If you’re using a low-quality chair due to budget concerns on your hardwood or carpet flooring, then without the necessary external protection, you won’t be able to save it from marks and damage.
External protection doesn’t always need to be expensive. For example, you can place a large mat on the floor or a plastic sheet or do something similar to this, so the floor stays protected.
Low-Quality Flooring
Material and quality matter in either case. We said that low-quality furniture could cause problems to your floor, but if the floor isn’t very high-quality itself, any slight movement might leave a mark on it.
If you’re going for carpeting your floor or getting a hardwood floor, make sure you go for a high-quality material for the flooring; otherwise, you’re going to see more damage in a shorter span.
4 Ways to Protect Your Floor From Gaming Chair
Do you think you’re ready to buy an office or gaming chair for your computer setup now that you know what damages the flooring? Well, congrats to you, but before you take that step, you need to make sure you take these five additional steps to protect your carpet or hardwood floor from the new gaming or office chair you’re going to buy. Let’s take a look at the steps.
1. Replacing the Casters
So, you’ve already got a gaming chair that isn’t very high-quality, and you’re scared that it might damage your carpet or hardwood flooring; Well, no need to worry.
What you’re going to want to do is change the casters of the chair. This will cost less than replacing the chair entirely, and it will also ensure that the chair doesn’t damage the floor anymore.
2. Using a Plastic Mat
Well, if you can’t afford to change the casters on your gaming chair, there is another solution that you’re going to like and choose to go for, to protect your hardwood floor.
All you need to do is use a plastic mat. Floor mats are a prevalent thing, and they protect a lot of floors, especially if you’re sliding furniture over them. Of course, they’ll take the fall, but they’ll make sure that your floor is safe.
3. Locking the Casters
If you’re not a big fan of moving around your chair and you like work being done in peace on an immovable chair, then there’s another excellent method you’re going to want to try out.
In some gaming or office chairs, there is a mechanism that allows you to lock the casters, which hinders the chair’s ability to move. Using this, you can protect your flooring.
4. Buying a High-quality Premium Chair
Finally, if you don’t go through the trouble of making any of these decisions, there is one last easy peasy option that you can go for to make things simple for yourself.
Buying a high-quality premium gaming chair is what you need to do. Premium chairs come with roller-blade-styled casters that are soft on the flooring and make sure that they don’t damage the floor whatsoever.
What Type of Flooring is Best for Gaming Chairs?
We’ve established that carpets and hardwood floors aren’t the best when it comes to being damage-proof against sliding chairs or rolling wheels on them, no matter how good they might look in your lounge or living room.
So, if you’re still in the process of renovating and you’re yet to lay down the flooring in your computer setup room, which flooring would be the best for gaming chairs;
The best flooring for gaming chairs or office chairs with wheels would be tiled. Tiles have a relatively smoother surface, but they’re also tough and durable in terms of strength which is why even low-quality casters don’t leave a mark on them.
Moreover, they look good, have a very decent quality to them, and reflect the epic aesthetic if you’re using an RGB lighting design for your computer setup room.
Conclusion
One of the biggest disadvantages of getting a low-priced gaming chair is the damage it may cause to your expensive hardwood floor. However, it’s not always the chair that is at fault. If your floor is being compromised because of your gaming chair, find out if you’re using the chair properly.
Gaming and office chairs can be damaging to your floors at times, but if you know how to protect your carpet and hardwood flooring, then that’s all you’re going to need.
I hope you learned a lot from this guide and that you’re going to make sure your new gaming chair works perfectly with your floor. May you have a wonderful day ahead of you!