Need some thinish, tough, slidy, plasticy stuff - 600mm-ish square

[Phil Addison]

Hello guys, It's good to see several names I know still here. Anyway... a few years ago I buggered up my vinyl floor covering while attempting to slide the new washing machine across it and under the worktop.

After much cussing I managed to find a matching offcut of vinyl to patch up the damage, then cobbled up a fix by fitting a washing-machine sized bit of 12mm ply for the machine to sit on. No problem with sliding it in and out now. However, the plywood doesn't look good, and I'm hoping to find a thinner nylon-type material to replace it. It needs to be thin, but tough enough to take the pressure from the 4 'skids' under the machine - maybe 3-6mm thick, and be slippery enough to allow the machine to slide over it. The vinyl under it is fairly soft,so the material needs to be reasonably stiff to spread the load a bit, and not sink into the vinyl.

Any suggestions for what material to use, and where to get it? I've tried Googling of course, but must be missing a magic trade name to give Google a clue.

Phil

[John Rumm]

Hi Phil, long time no hear. How are you doing?

UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight) plastic sheet would be the ideal stuff - is very tough and super slippery.

Not a recommendation, but the first supplier a search turned up:

(cutting boards are often made from it - so you may find a budget alternative from there)

[Phil Addison]

Hi John, doing good thanks, but diy enthusiasm declining with age - i'm 78 now! ye gods how did that happen! Might have known you'd be burning the midnight oils!

UHMW looks amazing stuff, but wonder if its too slippery, don't want the wash-machine sneaking out of its hidey-hole! Also that link says "Disadvantages of UHMWPE Sheet ... Under load, UHMWPE will deform continually as long as the stress is present, an effect known as creep. Probably unsuitable to being used higher load items or components". ... so might it deform around the 4 heavily loaded 'feet' of the m/c? I suppose such indentations could help stop the above mentioned 'sneaking out'!

ATB

Phil

[John Rumm]

Yeah, it must be this group that makes you old - I was in my 30s when I started posting here, now look at me!

Yup that might be interesting having to chase it round the room :-)

You probably need quite a bit of load for creep. They often use pads of it for feet on heavy furniture like couches and armchairs etc to make moving them round the room easier (it slides well on carpet). You could use a board with a few pads fixed onto it, rather than a whole sheet. (although make the board a bit smaller than the WM this time so it does not stick out of the edges.

You could have a trim piece that you fix to the floor once in place to stop it moving. Or, have the UHMW feet fixed to the machine, and some slightly taller bits of rubber etc handy, so you can slide the machine into place, then stick something under the edge to prise it half inch off the floor, and poke the rubber bits under, so it then rests on them not the UHMW.

[Jeff Layman]

Can't help with plasticky stuff, but I had a similar problem several years ago with my washing machine. It was very difficult to get in and out due to depressions in the lino, particularly at the back. As the only contact points were the skids, I used a couple of lengths of aluminium angle (15 x 15mm? 10 x 20mm? I can't remember) as a "weight taker"under them. The ali angle can't move outwards sideways as there are kitchen unit chipboard dividers either side.

[alan_m]

Perhaps consider placing the machine on a sheet of metal (aluminium) to protect the floor. Have two sheets so that when you want to pull the machine forward you place your "spare" sheet in front and drag the machine from one sheet on to the second sheet.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Phil Addison pretended :

On the laminate floors in my kitchen and utility, to move oven, washer or dish washer - I just use a square of carpet. If the appliance is in place, needing to come out - I lift the front, push the carpet in, then lean it forward, off the rear legs to pull it out.

[Jon Fairbairn]

+1

[tabbypurr]

= a variant on HDPE. But I'd not put WMs on slippery things, they'll move about in use & bang into things.

NT

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Hi Phil long time no see. ;-)

Did you check the feet were unscrewed enough to raise it slightly off the floor? Seen one where the transport mode had them below the sides. Which could dig into the floor.

If they were, perhaps those self adhesive felt pads to the feet would allow it to slide easily?

[Andrew]

?

[Phil Addison]

Hi Dave, Yes, I've been slacking, diy-wise;)

Yep, all ok there.

It's not just sliding over the soft vinyl which is a slightly spongy stuff - its protecting the vinyl itself as m/c is slid in/out. In fact that's really the main thing. It's on 1/2" ply at the mo and can slide it fine over that.

[GB]

Check out under desk mats for hard floors. These tend to be polycarbonate. The weight of a person in a chair on five castors is not all that different from a washing machine on four feet, so it's probably up to the task.

This sort of thing.

[Bob Eager]

May not be quite what you want, but have you seen Sliderz?

[GB]

[GB]

[GB]

Andrzej, you seem to be lost for words. You're not ill, I hope? Well, no iller than usual?

[Martin Brown]

Johns suggestion is as good as any.

The other option would be sheet PTFE aka Fluon - a bit softer and the feet will sink into it but about as slippy as any plastic ever gets.

In normal times you could probably cadge offcuts of suitable engineering plastics for this sort of thing from a local sign maker. But today...

You might find offcuts big enough for what you want on eBay. My suggestion would be an engineering plastic faced with thinner PTFE.

[Andy Burns]

ISTR seeing thin strips of UHMW plastic in Axminster for making sliding jigs etc, but can't see it listed on their website.

[GB]

Andrzej , you seem lost for words. You're ill, I hope .