What is the most hard-wearing flooring?

I was in a carpet shop last week and noticed some wood effect sheet vinyl in the £20 - £25 per square meter range. It looked indestructible to me, but then it should be for the price.

My office has an industrial grade vinyl - 3mm thick and impregnated with particles of what I think is mica. It has had heavy use since 1989 and is still in good condition, apart from a couple of places, where it was damaged by tubular steel chair legs after the end caps wore off them. I bought it from a small, local specialist carpet shop. Alternatively, you can buy desk chair mats - thick clear plastic mats; roughly circular with a stub that goes into the desk footwell. However, I've not tried those.

Colin Bignell

Message-ID: from DIY contained the following:

Office quality carpet tiles?

Steel chequer-plate with underfloor heating.

Owain

I always use industrial carpet tiles under castor chairs. Never had a problem. R.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am going to investigate the vinyl option first and then perhaps carpet tiles. We tried the chair mats over our current carpets and they did a good job for a short time, but after a year or so started cracking and coming apart, especially under my heavyweight husband's chair! They also become quite discoloured and appear dirty.

Thanks again all! Jude

Yup, found the same problem with my one.

That's a good one: The other is industrial grade vinyl.

A third is cheap disposable rugs.

I have good news and bad news....

The good news is that the carpet in my study is fine after nearly 15 years of my chair trunding about on them, even under my considerable bulk.

The bad news is that we inherited the carpet with the house, and I have no idea where it came from. It's a "cord" type, with no pile.

Was it a flexible PVC one or a hard polycarbonate one?

IME my PC one has lasted a few years of hard use on a not-that-flat floor and is still clear although a little 'matt' under the chair itself.

If scratching is a problem then there are 'soft' castors (see Ebay) for laminate floors that will avoid this.

cheers, Pete.

What you describe is generically known as Altro Flooring The particles are aluminium oxide. which accounts for it's wear resistance.

I didn't know you had a heavyweight husband John?

Hard to say - its fairly stiff; you could not fold it for example, but not brittle (at least to start with.

I thin in my case it is not aided by a fairly deep pile carpet that is not really suited to office use (but it came with the house, and is the only one I have not got round to replacing), plus the large FB who sits in the chair!

Careful, I will tell him!

Thanks for all your comments.

Yes, our mats were on a thickish carpet too.

Now I'm thinking of replacing all the flooring so that it doesn't turn into too much of a mish-mash. We have a bungalow. Carpet in the hall, study, lounge, sanded floorboards in the bedroom, vinyl wood- effect planks in the kitchen, vinyl tiles in the bathroom. Having looked around, its really hard to find anything that would look OK in all rooms AND stand up to the office chair punishment. As there are old floorboards everywhere, I'm guessing that a layer of hardboard would be needed underneath too. Unless these really thick Rhinofloor type vinyls would work without it?