How To Protect Your Carpet From Your Office Chair
Without office chair mats, there’s always a risk that the feet of wheeled or regular office chairs will damage your carpet. Not only does it flatten the carpet pile irrecoverably, but the damage is there for all to see, leaving unsightly indentations across a wider area as you or your staff wheel around. And with more people working from home, many carpets will run the risk of needing to be replaced. So how do you protect your carpet or hard floors from your office chair? Using high-performance chair mats is a good place to start.
Do office chairs ruin carpets and hard floors?
The simple answer is yes - they do. Every movement made with a wheeled or a regular office chair will cause some level of damage to your carpet. This issue can be reduced by the type of wheels your chair has and your carpet's quality. But even regular office chairs will leave damage as they’re moved and scuffed across your carpet.
Hard-wearing office carpets will also suffer damage from office chairs over the long term. And with home carpets likely to have a thicker pile, the damage will be more visible more quickly. Even placing an old mat or piece of carpet on hard flooring for protection presents personal safety and injury issues. But using a chair mat is the best way to avoid personal injury and long-term damage to your carpets.
How to protect your office carpet and hard floor from desk chairs
The best thing you can do to protect your carpet or hard floor from damage is to give them some protection. Here are a few tips – individually, they should work well, but if you combine them, you’ll extend the life of your carpet or floor, saving you money in the long run.
Use office chair mats
An office chair mat will give your carpet and hard floor the best chance of surviving any damage caused while providing important anti-slip safety. A chair mat will give you the best carpet and floor protection, coming in different shapes, sizes, and materials – even custom shapes and sizes to suit your office layout and space covered from your desk.
Buy carpet-safe wheels
A wheeled office chair is designed for ease of movement, but every movement made will cause some level of carpet damage. Carpet-safe wheels are typically made from metal or hard nylon, so buying your chair with them or changing to them can keep damage to a minimum.
Buy a new chair
If you’re not in a position to buy a chair mat or change your wheels to protect your carpet, or if it’s in need of a complete replacement, you might consider buying a new one. It’s the perfect time to choose an ergonomic model that suits you or your staff, and one that has carpet-friendly wheels.
Things to consider when buying a desk chair mat
Like any other purchase for your home or office, there are a few things to consider before choosing and buying the right desk chair mat, including their backing, their material, where they’ll be used, and the size of your desk space.
Mat backing
Your two main choices of mat backing are flat back or gripper. If you have a hardwood floor, you should choose a flat back mat to avoid any scratches, scuffs, or marks when your chair is wheeled around. For carpeted floors, you should choose a gripper back. The design ensures the mat holds to the carpet to prevent it from moving or slipping, or getting snagged in the wheels, avoiding damage and user injury.
Mat material
There are also different materials to choose from when considering your chair mat, depending on the flooring you have and how it will look in your desk space. But the material can also affect the mat’s durability, functionality, and price, but will improve overall chair safety.
Polycarbonate mats
Polycarbonate chair mats provide a tough option for offices with strong impact resistance. They’re suitable for all floor types and come as a gripper or flat back option. Polycarbonate is also transparent, so you don’t lose the effect of the carpet or hardwood flooring.
PVC mats
PVC mats are a more flexible chair mat option. While PVC will still protect your carpet or flooring, its durability is nothing compared to its polycarbonate cousin. This could lead to issues with tearing or becoming brittle over time, but they can be a more low-cost option suitable for a short-term fix.
Desk and office size
While your desk chair mat should be large enough to cover the area most heavily used by your chair, it shouldn’t be so big as to stand out in context to the size of your office. A typical size of chair mat is 90cm x 120cm (36” x 48”), which can give ample coverage beyond your desk, as well as underneath.
What are the benefits of an office chair mat?
Office chair mats are used in offices and workspaces up and down the country and are often invested in during office deep cleans, refits, and moves. But however big your office, and whatever your circumstances or flooring type, chair mats give you key benefits in three areas:
1. Floor protection
Proven to protect hard flooring from scratches, scuffs, and marks, and carpeted flooring from indentations, a chair mat is your first line of protective defence. With the prolonged movement of wheeled chairs, a chair mat allows even weight distribution to prevent all these things. It will also protect any staining from tea, coffee, or food spills.
2. Increased safety
Carpets can impede the movement of wheeled office chairs and can cause accidents. Taking more effort to move around could cause muscular or joint pain or more serious injury if the chair goes over with you in it.
And a simple tap is all it takes to move a wheeled desk chair on hard flooring. That can be a serious accident risk if you’re unaware of the movement and you attempt to sit down again. Chair mats alleviate all these issues making your desk job easier and safer, and avoiding physical injury.
3. Reduced static
Depending on their materials, office carpets can often be static-prone. This static electricity can transfer to shoes, clothing, and chairs before being redistributed through the body and released when touching something. A chair mat can help reduce this build-up between the chair and the carpet to save your electricals.
Protective desk chair mats from MatsDirect UK
If you’ve ever wondered how to protect your carpet and hard floors from office chair damage and increase office safety, then a desk chair mat is certainly the way forward. With so many benefits, these hardwearing, anti-slip, anti-trip, transparent mats will make your office space safer and prevent premature wear and tear.
When you need specialist advice on different chair mat types, styles, or sizes, our expert team at MatsDirect UK will work closely with you to find the product most suited to your office environment. Contact us today by sending us a message, calling our customer service team on 0161 797 6785, or emailing sales@matsdirect.co.uk today for your quote.