kitchen floor damaged by chairs with wheels.

[micky]

My kitchen is 12' x 12 (if one goes to the wall everywhere despite appliances and cabinets) ' and it came with a floor made of sheet vinyl, No seams. The floor looked great when it was 10 or 15 years old, until I bought two kitchen chairs with casters on them.

The wheels were like a rolling pin, rolling out a pie crust, with the vinyl pushed ahead of the wheel and after 6 or 9 months the top layer of the vinyl, where all the decoration is, was falling off.

But I like wheels on the chairs, and I want to get a new one-piece floor that won't be ruined by wheels.

I was in HDepot tonight and even at 3.25 a square foot, the pattern layer was a thin layer on a thick layer of plain white vinyl. The sign bragged about a bunch of features but said not a word about wheels.

What would you all recomomend that comes in a one-piece sheet but won't have its pattern ruined by chair wheels?

I'd like to put it down myself if I can.

Although the last time I bought a floor he trimmed it in literally 4 minutes what would have taken me 4 hours. Charged only the current equivalent of 40 dollars.

Maybe make a stencil from the old floor and cut it to the same dimensions.

Thanks.

[harryagain]

Forget your stupid HD and get a commercial grade of non-patterned vinyl or rubber flooring. The colour is through and through so any scratch marks can be buffed off. In a domestic situation it will last a lifetime, literally.

If you have no floor laying skills, you will just have to pay and get someone in.

[Guv Bob]

Ditto. We have replaced everything from floors to appliance to countertops to cabinets at one time or another and always looked at Home Depot and Lowes and the other hardware stores first, but always end up with a specialty shop. Have been happy so far. Some HD stuff is fine, but I would never know what to look for and then find out 2-3 years later if it was good or not.

Talk to several specialty shops and also ask them about wheels. They may know what kind of wheel is easier on the floor.

[Hot-Text]

Micky No wheels on Vinyl Or Wood Floors For it will damage it.................

[micky]

Thanks for your reply. I'm not in love with HD and I'm sorry I mentioned it.** Are you really saying there is no one-piece floor with a pattern on it that will withstand wheels? I would not like non-patterned.

60 years ago, we got some junk mail with a coaster-sized (3" in diameter) piece of flooring 3/16" thick where the pattern went all the way from the top to the bottom. But I don't know if they still make this stuff, and I don't remember its name. ?? It had little square chips etc. floating in a clear material. It was very pretty, but we didn't need a floor.

(In a 3" diameter circle it was not very flexible, but I suppose a big piece of it could be rolled up. )

**I only mentioned HD because I was there for something else and their flooring display reminded me that the pattern was on the top in all the attractive sheet flooring I have seen in the past few years.

[ChairMan]

Armstrong use to make a inlaid vinyl floor called Solarian that was tough as hell, but it was glue down and not loose lay. Any loose lay is more than likely going to a skin vinyl and won't withstand wheels

[Vic Smith]

Probably the wheels are too small, or the vinyl was cheaply made. If I wanted wheeled chairs on vinyl floor, here's what I'd do. Take your pick.

1. Use chair mats that are made for rolling chairs. These could be made of a hard material, or tight weave carpeting.
2. Use chair casters appropriate for the flooring.

You probably want to do the second item regardless. Most people just use the wheels that came with the chair. The hard wheels on my computer chair in the basement tore up the hard asphalt tiles glued to my cement floor. Been meaning to get a mat.

I'd say no matter what wheels roll on vinyl, you need to keep the wheels and floor clean and smooth, because a piece of grit stuck to a wheel will eventually have its way, and scratch the vinyl. Even the best vinyl is still vinyl and not very hard..

That's why I'd go with mats on vinyl. And probably on any floor you don't want marred by rolling chairs.

[micky]

Solarian! That's it!!!!. I couldn't get "Congoleum" out of my head.

Also, "inlaid" is a very good word for my quest.

It's well worth gluing it down if that's what it takes.

I'm trying to find out if they still make it.

I guess not.

"Its easy for you Barry because your a trained professional with years of experience. Armstrong was getting killed on claims because of the lack of quality installers with the skills to pattern rooms and under scribe seams.

Products like that will probably never come back to residential work, to hard for the average installer to work with."

Optimist that I am, I'll keep looking for something similar.

Thanks a lot.

[ChairMan]

i installed a shit load of it (when I was much younger)and it was a pain in the ass, but any decent installer could put it in if the knew what they were doing. It wasn't considered soft goods and you could easily break it cutting in around cabinets and door frames. We use to use a heat gun to soften it and make lots of relief cuts. If anything like it is still available, it's tough as hell. I still see the pebble/chips commercial inlaid used in bathrooms, so something should be available

[clare]

Our kitchen is loose lay solid vinyl - good stuff - but wheels will have a tendancy to roll, push, and stretch a loose vinyl.- particularly small or narrow wheels.

[ChairMan]

I'd recommend a ball type such as this one

[Hot-Text]

No wheels on Vinyl For it will damage it

[micky]

It might actually have taken a year or two. I'm not sure anymore. But the rest of the floor was great so that was too soon.

I do have that in my spare bedroom/office, over carpet. It had just dawned on my that I should buy one when I found this one in the trash,

10 or 15 years ago. But now this one has chunks coming out of it, and I'm going to buy a new one, before I buy a new desk chair. (The old one broke and I'm using a metal folding chair there. But the computer broke too, and I moved my "office" to the basement.)

Oh, wow. It never occurred to me to change casters. It never occurred to me there would be a chart like this!! If anything, I looked at my casters and thought they had more surface on the floor than casters did 60 years ago (when they were just one wood wheel) , so the weight on any part of the floor should be maybe half now what it was then.

I have black hooded twin wheel, probably polyurethane, maybe nylon, but both of them it calls "not recommended".

What it does recommend is Elite Extra Soft Rubber and Twin Wheel Gray Soft Rubber.

Absolutely. I didn't quite complain but I told the guy about the damaged floor at the place that sold me the chairs (and gave no warning) and he didn't suggest a different caster either. Probably didn't know.

Wow. So I could have gotten something like that and ruined that too!

Okay. The last time, I was satisfied with the way the floor looked, until pieces of the top layer actual came off. That floor had low areas, anti-embossed areas, where iiuc dirt was supposed to hide until one washed the floor, so it didn't get ground in.

Thanks a lot.

Now I'm going to look for casters that will fit the chair.

[clare]

Not sure I'd agree. They are good casters for solid surfaces, but they cause a very concentrated pressure point - which will tend to deform a floating vinyl floor.

[swoop1338]

Hello Micky,

There is nothing much you can do on vinyl flooring. the problem is inherent for all types of vinyl, plastic or laminated flooring.

As far as patterns are concerned, there is many patterns and designs to pick from.

no one can gurantee the patterns will not be affected by chair wheels. you should consider using chairs without wheels or alternatively, have the top layer sealed with a coat of clear sealeant or protector.

this will minimize damage caused by chair wheels.

hope this helps.

below is a link for your reference.

My kitchen is 12' x 12 (if one goes to the wall everywhere despite >

[Robert Green]

They make a very wide wheel type of casters, usually for beds, that has a very big "footprint" compared to thin wheel or ball casters that might help you out.

While those may help, I believe part of your problem the that the chair casters are harder than the floor material. As the old saying goes, if rock meets glass or glass meets rock, it's going to be bad for the glass.

I got an excellent set of locking 3" rubberized casters from Harbor Freight on sale for $3 each, but they are plate caster meant to be screwed onto the bottom of a bench or something with an appropriate mating surface. The last time I looked for similar casters they were $10 each! So far, they have held up quite well.

(HeyBub, if you're reading this, I owe you an apology. I once said that there was not much of interest at Harbor Freight for women. That's before I stopped there with my wife the other day. She's already got a list of things she wants when we return in addition to the half-dozen things we bought when we were there. Also got my first multi-function tool. Oh, if only I had that tool before I ripped up the old flooring!)

I suspect your casters, if they are typical rolling chair casters, are made from very hard plastic. Switching to a rubberized wheel will greatly reduce the damage to your flooring. You're looking for something soft enough so that you fingernail will be able to make an obvious dent when pushed against it.

[micky]

Good idea, but below I think you convince me that's it's more important to be soft than wide.

Thanks. I like the standard with the fingernail. The chart Vic posted led to pages with both rubber casters and soft rubber casters. That goes with what you're saying. I havent' seen rubber casters for a long time, and they sort of remind me of the 1920's, but I guess I haven't looked.

Things came up today so haven't done more looking yet.

Thanks Swoop and thanks everyone

[Robert Green]

The problem with the fingernail standard is that it's kinda hard to apply to casters purchased over the internet. (-: I think one problem you'll find is that rubber-wheeled casters tend to be oversized and may not look so good on your chairs.