The Best Ways To Keep Furniture In Position To Prevent Floor Damage

What are the best ways to keep furniture from sliding in your living room?

Take a look at these popular options.

Firstly, untreated rubber grip pads, which are very highly rated, and can be cut into the required shapes and sizes.

Secondly,  these screw on (or adhesive) feet have a special white 'O-ring' which grips and protects.

For prevention of scuffs and scrapes, you may be more interested in these furniture socks, or padded protectors which cut down on scraping noises. You can purchase specialized 'silencers' to stop awful chair leg scraping, or rubberized socks which protect floors.

These are perfect for living room and kitchen furniture.

Damage Prevention

For those who are mostly concerned about damage to floors, you may also be interested in these ideas:
 
 
Simple tips

• Look underneath your furniture for any signs of splintering or sharp edges on furniture legs. Sand them down. 

• Avoid wearing high heels inside. I've heard of high heels being referred to as a wooden floors "worst enemy". Certain sports shoes can also cause damage.

• Abrasive dirt and grit can scuff and dig into your floor's finish, meaning you shouldn't get too lazy with vacuuming/sweeping.

• Excessive exposure to sunlight can cause changes in your wood's color. This can be influenced by moving large rugs and furniture regularly to encourage a more uniform change in color.

• Be careful with your vacuum, use a brush attachment where possible and vacuums with beater bars should be avoided.

• Keep your dog's nails trimmed. Not only will this keep your floors in better condition, but you also won't have to listen to your dogs nails tapping every time they walk around the house. This can be especially annoying at night if your dog sleeps indoors.

Moving heavy cabinets and appliances

We all know how hard it can be to move large and heavy items, such as washers and wall units, without banging and scraping them on walls and floors.

The lifting straps above can make the job far easier, and will save damage to your floors, and possibly your back, hands, wrists etc. Large items end up hurting your hands and back, meaning you can be forced to choose between your back and your floors, resulting in attempts to drag them across floors. Dragging these objects is easier, but can cause serious scrapes and dents to flooring, and can dent walls and doors.


Hard Plastic Casters (furniture wheels)

It is also good to be aware of the potential for damage to be done by furniture wheels made from hard plastics.

Not only can the wheel itself cause scrapes, but pieces of grit and debris can become wedged in the plastic, causing damage as the furniture rolls. This is obviously not a good idea for valuable floors. Unstable beds and furniture can be a source of irritation. 

I just got a little off track...


The original topic - Grip! Stop sliding! 

I recommend reading my blog post on the most popular and effective gripper pads as it discusses the most highly reviewed pads for grip and protection.

Whilst other types of flooring such a laminate aren't as valuable, and generally aren't given the same level of care as hardwood, it becomes a problem when damaged as it cannot be repaired. You're basically stuck with the damage until it's replaced. Therefore, it can still be worth spending a few bucks to provide a little protection, even when your floors aren't considered to be a valuable investment.

Stop Chairs and All Other Furniture From Sliding On Floors

Whether you have tiles, wooden or laminate floors, these will provide friction for pretty much anything to be kept in position.

Basic Details:

1. Diameter 3" (can be cut to fit any sized furniture leg or appliance).

2. Self adhesive "peel and stick" design.

3. Great for furniture, appliances and any other item which you need to secure. 

Click to view on Amazon

Place them under any piece of furniture or appliance in order to prevent infuriating movement. Clean the bottom of the furniture leg before sticking these on. It goes without saying that placing them over a layer of dirt will not allow for proper adhesion.  

Whilst not specifically designed for furniture, this is essentially an all purpose movement stopper, preventing horizontal movement of basically anything you sit it under. It's a good combination of simplicity and effectiveness.

These work on all kinds of flooring and on all sorts of surfaces. Most of us tolerate these annoying little problems in life for too long, mostly because we're unaware of solutions and how cheap and simple they are. This is one of those problems that is easily fixed. 

It's not only annoying to have to keep re-positioning your couch and armchair, but your back also probably doesn't like having to awkwardly shove or pull them around to return them to their proper position. Sofas and tables moving out of their positions makes it hard to keep your living room looking neat and tidy. I had a washer that used to walk across my laundry floor. It was huge pain and a bit of a back breaker having to move it back into position on almost a daily basis. I resorted to jamming it in position using bricks, which looked awful and was surprisingly ineffective. It would have been nice to have been aware of these at the time. 

D.I.Y with Balloons?

I've read that cutting the tops off of balloons and stretching them over a furniture leg can create friction.

Didn't work for me

After testing this theory on a table on laminate floors, I have determined that it was basically useless. Placing a little pressure on table still caused movement. Also, the balloon simply slid downward, began to tear and simply came off. I had expected it to work much better. Perhaps the quality of the balloons I used was poor or I needed to use several balloons on each leg? I don't know, either way it was a fail for me.

Perhaps placing whole balloons underneath thicker legs would work? I'm a little doubtful as I'd assume they slowly slip out from underneath. I also read that some balloons can deteriorate into "balloon goo" and adhere to whatever they're touching, which will obviously be a concern for people with valuable floors.

You'll need some strong rubber which can create sufficient friction.

The legs of couches, recliners and beds can easily wear away or tear weaker materials (such as balloons) as obviously they weigh a fair bit, and the edges of the legs have the potential to dig in. Therefore, you need pretty strong material to provide the durability required to remain in one piece long term. Also, if you're going with a homemade option, it can be a good idea to feel underneath to see of there's any sharp edges or splintered wood in case sanding or filing is required.

Try reading my blog post about multiple uses for rubber shelf liners, such as stopping couch cushions slipping outward and making D.I.Y grippers.

If you're considering 'stick on' leg gripper pads click to view adhesive gripper pads on Amazon