I know. I bet you’re wondering what the #%^& am I talking about. I recently learned that not all caster wheels are made the same. I’m not just talking about the obvious difference which is that some have an axle in the middle of the wheel with a bracket over it. I’m talking about the regular caster wheels that you have on casters of office chairs. There’re usually two wheels that make up these casters with a cover or fender like a bike wheel has. I learned that they’re not all made flat so that you have a flat smooth surface that rolls over the floor. Apparently, some manufacturers make them with an edge which makes un-moulding the wheels much easier during manufacturing. However, once installed on a chair, the chair is actually rolling on edges and not flat surfaces. Think of what this is doing to your floors.

If your floors are getting quickly damaged it may not be just the standard caster wheel causing the damage but the edge that the wheels are riding on. What can you do about this? Flexi-Felt has Caster Covers which help protect floors from hard flat nylon wheels but unfortunately, they don’t help those with the edge. The edge ends up cutting the Caster Cover. Just goes to show you what it can do to floors. So, if you have chairs with these types of wheels, the only option is to replace the entire caster. If you go with new hard nylon casters, make sure to use the Caster Cover to protect the floor from the nylon wheel.

Just for the fun of it I did a web search for floor protectors. There’s a whole range of protectors available but the one that I find surprising (a polite word for what I’m actually thinking) is the chair sock. Did someone one day find that their floors were being scratched and decided to put their kids socks on the chair legs?  Not only that but some sites have these frilly little sort of booties, with lace or ribbons and floral material. I don’t know about you but maybe my great grandma would have uses them way back when that was the style but that definitely wouldn’t do in my house or anyone else’s house that I know of. Everyone to their own of course but  I like a floor protector that doesn’t take away from the appearance of my furniture. Imagine an expensive dining chair with little booties.

And what if you have pets like a cat or puppy. I bet they’d have a great time trying to pull them off or even your toddler. Even kids would have fun removing them or doing other stuff to them. That doesn’t help with protecting the floor.

Just buy good quality floor protectors that, when installed, are almost invisible

I had always assumed that glues were pretty much all the same. Gradually, like most of you know, I found out that there are wood glues, glues for leather, ceramics, glass and anything else you can think to glue together. Often, I’ve used the wrong glue on something and of course, it didn’t hold. Or, it held for a while, got wet and separated. I’ve also tried to stick sticky pads on dusty or greasy glass or walls for holiday decorations and either an hour or a day later I find the stuff on the floor.

From these experiences, I leaned some very valuable lessons.

1. All glues are not created equal. You must buy the right glue for the right usage.
2. Some glues are designed to take a pulling force (the guy with the hardhat hanging from a steel beam) and some glues are designed to take shear force (glued felt pads on chair legs and someone sitting in the chair is pushing back from a table).
3. The surface that the glue is being applied to must be clean and have no oil on its surface. I know to use peanut butter to take off glue but didn’t realize it was because the oil in the peanut butter dissolved the glue.
4. I’ve bought various floor protectors and found some that had adhesive strips. The strip doesn’t hold to the felt or to the bottom of the chair leg. I’ve bought various felt with glue on the back. Most of them either don’t hold, hold a bit then slide off and glue goes on the floor or stay on but the felt gets paper thin very quickly.
5. When I tried the Flexi-Felt floor protectors I discovered that the glue that’s used is designed for shear force which is the right glue for this type of product. This glue also won’t let go if it gets wet.

Now when I buy glue I make sure to use the right one for what I intend to glue together. For floor protection, make sure the glue is  impregnated into the felt, cheap double sided tape simply won't last.

Installing new hardwood floors can be somewhat overwhelming considering you’re selecting from a wide range of colour, type of wood, finishes, costs, looks, etc.…

I’d like to take the opportunity to guide you towards the basics of selecting a hardwood floor.

We already know hardwood floors are very durable but did you know that there are only 2 types of wood flooring? Solid hardwood flooring and engineered hardwood flooring.  The difference is solid hardwood flooring is milled of solid wood logs and engineered wood flooring is made of layers of plywood and composite materials than surfaced with a solid hardwood.

Having said this, keep in mind that solid hardwood flooring is subject to expand and contract depending on a home’s humidity level. The engineered flooring, due to it’s multi layers, can handle your home’s different humidity levels much better. Engineered flooring is ideal for areas and regions with high humidity.

In the flooring market, various types of woods are available. The harder the type, the more durable it is. The softer the wood, the more easily it can be scratched and damaged.

I suggest you visit a flooring specialist to see what’s available to you. They can show you the various selections that will fit your home décor as well as take into consideration the type of usage that your floor will experience (be sure to mention if you have pets). The styles and finishes are really a personal choice and there is an almost endless selection.

One small advice, protect your floor. Any thing can happen to that brand-new floor, so be pro active! I learned my lesson the hard way years ago. The floor was only one month old, no floor protectors, moved a piece of furniture, made a very visible scratch on the floor. The cost to fix that scratch depending on the coating you go with can be astronomical as sometimes there are no easy fixes. Keep that in mind. Protect that floor!

The title isn’t a typo. There’s a saying to measure twice and cut once. This applies not only to when you’re cutting wood, material or anything else. It applies to when you order stuff off the internet. Don’t you hate ordering something, getting it and finding that it’s not the right size.

You know the sizes of your and your family’s clothes and footwear, but do you know the exact size of your chair legs to buy floor protection? In these cases, it’s very important to measure twice before you order, or you’ll end up with the problem of having to return them and re-order. Do it right the first time and save yourself the hassle and frustration. 

If buy chance you do happen to order the wrong size from Flexi-Felt, no problem simply return and we will refund your order or supply the right model.

Just for your information: When ordering Flexi-Felt floor protectors measure the length and width of chair legs that are square or rectangular and the diameter for round legs. If the legs change size in the first inch from the floor, take the measurement at 20mm up from the floor.

I was looking at the screw in felt pads the other day and wondered if they would be a good solution for floor protection. The ones I was looking at have a felt pad that the manufacturer attached to a metal piece then put a screw through both. You then take the piece and screw it to the bottom of the chair leg with the metal part against the wood and the felt to the floor. This might seem like a good idea at first, but what happens when the felt either flattens or wears down. You then either have the screw scratching the floor, the metal piece scratching the floor or both scratching the floor and you can bet that they’ll do more damage then just a bare wooden chair.

When you are looking at floor protection products have a think about the consequences if a part falls off or the felt delaminates. Sometimes it's just not worth the cheaper options. Have a look at the Flexi-Felt clear range for a product that will stand the test of time and looks. 

Tight Wheels

Not all castors are created equal and by tight wheels I mean caster wheels that have a fender, like on a bike that’s very close to the wheels. If you check your castor wheels, you’ll be surprised to find out that there are quite a number of different models of castor wheels.

If you are having trouble with your castor wheels scratching your new floors than some of the Flexi-Felt heat shrink covers may be a solution. These are able to be shrink wrapped around most castor wheels and the soft plastic sleeve helps protect your floors.  

Image 1	Image 2	Image 3

There are however exceptions to what they will fit on. In both figures 1 and 2 you can see that there is a normal amount of space between the fender and the wheels. In figure 3 the wheel is very tight to the fender. The reason that this is a concern is when you have these types of wheels damaging your floors. The Castor Covers we sell are great for installing on the casters of both figure 1 and 2 but they simply cannot be installed on the casters in figure 3.

Unfortunately if you find those types of casters damaging your floors your only option would be to replace them with either the expensive nylon casters or casters similar to the models in figures 1 and 2 and install Castor Covers.

Keeping your Floors Scratch Free

No matter how we look at it, the dirt and muck that is tramped into our homes from our footwear is quite remarkable. Unfortunately this stuff doesn't mix well with newly polished timber floors and we end up with scratches and scuffs from from the dirt being trampled into the floor. So if you are like me it doesn’t take long for the vacuum cleaner, broom or mop to come out to clean up the mess.

My question to you however is, have you thought about keeping your floor protectors clean? There is every chance some of the felt under your furniture has picked up some dirt or debris and every time you move your furniture around you are scuffing up your floor.

Cleaning Felt Soloution

We can all agree, gouged and scratched floors will cost you a fortune in labor and floor replacement material.

Solution? Firstly make sure you have some sort of felt protection under your furniture in the first place and secondly make sure you keep them clean.

It’s simple, for the adhesive wool blend felt pads you have a choice of vacuuming them, wiping them with a damp cloth or rubbing another felt over the felt on the bottom of the furniture leg and seeing the dirt roll off.

As for the removable floor protectors such as the Flexi-Felt clear sleeves, sled base models or any of the tube and swivel models, simply remove the product, wash it under running water with a little dish soap, rinse well, let air dry and re-install them (be sure that they are good quality felt products, some may not be cleanable). Easy as that. So, for now, I wish you a gouged and scratch free floor while you tackle the everything else that needs to be done around the house.

Interesting Felt Facts

We buy felt pads to put on the bottom of our chairs but really don’t think of what an interesting product it is, so I’ve dug up a few facts about felt:

• It doesn’t wear easily
• It maintains its physical properties as it wears
• It’s resilient. It can be compresses and released thousands of times without changing shape
• Its great for polishing and protecting items such as floors
• It can be exposed to the elements
• It’s highly absorbent
• It cuts with a clean edge that won’t fray or unravel
• It can be cut to any shape, size or thickness
• It’s excellent at reducing noises and vibrations
• Can be made soft as wool or hard as wood

Wool Felt

Felt can be made with both natural fibers, such as wool, and synthetic fibers like acrylic and polyester. Wool felt has these additional properties:

• Wool Felt is highly resilient, retaining its strength and unique properties for decades
• Wool Felt is chemical resistant
• Wool felt is a renewable and environmentally friendly resource.

When buying felt keep in mind the job that the felt must do. In the case of floor protection, you want a felt that is soft but durable, that isn’t like wood (look out for those really hard felts that are out there) and ideally environmentally friendly (one that contains wool Like the Flexi-Felt).

Felt Miracle Product

People hear that the Flexi-Felt is a great product and will stay on no matter what? I would agree, but they are not a miracle product. They are however excellent when installed properly and used as they were intended.

Felt Installation 

The first thing many people do wrong is to not clean the bottom of their chair legs properly. I’ve done myself using the products that go on windows for hanging strings of lights or Xmas decorations. I put it on without cleaning the surface and less then an hour later what I put up is on the ground. You HAVE to clean the surface properly to remove all old glue, dirt and grease. Do a final wipe with rubbing alcohol to remove any oils that may be on the surface (the products that remove old glue contains oil which will interfere with the new glue holding on). Only then can you apply adhesive pads. Let the pads set for a while so that the adhesive has time to bond with the surface.

Felt Adhesives

Secondly, adhesives do not bond well with rubber and some plastic products. You can try it, but you’ll find that they don’t always stay on.

Tiny Chair Legs

Thirdly, a little pad won’t hold onto a tiny leg or a heavy chair. The adhesive that Flexi-Felt uses is designed to take shear forces but the adhesive must have sufficient surface to adhere to in order to grip properly. Too small a surface for the forces being exerted on it and it’ll slip off. Or, just plain to much force from a heavy piece of furniture (or furniture and a person) and of course the pad will move.

Net time your pads don’t stay on you’ll know why but what’s even better is to install the pads correctly to greatly reduce them from slipping off.

For more information on how to install our self adhesive pads correctly please watch our installation video.

Almost all the furniture that you buy these days have white plastic nail-in feet protectors. They also sell them in most hardware stores. Anyone thinking that these actually protect floors will soon find out that this is not the case. Many of them are just ½” in diameter. Basic physics tells you that the smaller the surface the greater the forces exerted on that surface. You have a person sitting and moving back and forth on that little half inch circle, it’s bound to cause damage to the floor over time. So, if you have those plastic nail-in feet protectors, take them off and put on proper floor protectors such as the Flexi-Felt floor protectors or the Flexi-Felt self adhesive felts.

Make sure to cover the entire bottom of the chair legs so that the weight of the person sitting in the chair is distributed over the entire surface and not on just a tiny ½” circle.
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When two products perform the same and last about the same amount of time then it is not always the best idea to buy the most expensive one. In that case the more expensive product does not justify buying it. I have found a big difference when buy the cheapest or mid priced products in soaps, shampoos, cookies and other baked goods, towels etc. When I buy the cheap soap it just doesn’t wash very well so the mid-priced product is better. Cheap baked goods are not very good. Extended warranties are also not a good investment because if they are offered it means that the manufacturer expects the product to last for the extra year or two which is the length of the extended warranty. So when should you pay more for a product?

Someone recently asked me to justify spending more money for Flexi-Felt Floor protectors then other products on the market. In this case it was easy to justify. Who has or wants to spend their time constantly replacing cheap felts? I know I would rather spend a bit more, put them on and take that worry off of my list of things to think about replacing. I don’t have the time to constantly run out to the store to buy them. I would keep wasting gas to go to the store and come back and never mind the cost of constantly buying product that lasts maybe a month.
I was told years ago to look at the payback time (maybe not the correct term here but once you read it you’ll know what I mean). Yes , again a bit of math. Say you pay something $100. And it lasts 2 years. You buy something cheaper that costs you $10 but only lasts 1 month. In 10 months the more expensive item is paid off because you don’t have to constantly replace it and you actually end up ahead money wise. Over 24 months (2 years) x $10/month the cheap one costs $240 but the more expensive one was $100 so you end up saving $140. You can do the math on a lot of things and see what is worth spending more money on and what is not. Look at how long it will last and what it cost – then do the math.