Wood floors are one of the easiest to maintain and keep looking good. Just some touch of sweeping across and some mop will get it looking really nice. Besides if staining would be needed, maybe once a year would get it looking new all again. This article focuses on how to keep rocking chair from scratching wood floor.
However, the furniture we have might end up distorting the nice stain of our wood floor and this is the greatest challenge with wood floors. A rocking chair could be the greatest deal here. It is often the one scratching the wood floor most. That’s why it would be important to know how we can keep rocking chair from scratching wood floor.
Why Rocking Chairs Scratch the Floor Most
The rockers of the rocking chair often get very rough with time. The friction caused when rocking back and forth on the floor is the main cause of wear and tear on both the rocking chair and the floor. The rockers are often heavy.
To add on the weight of the person sitting on the chair, that would so much weight, now when the rocking chair moves on the floor, there is a force applied on it and this adds up to the friction against the floor surface, causing multiple scratches every time you move.
How to Keep the Chair from Scratching the Floor
If at all we have to keep rocking chair from scratching wood floor, it would mean that we have to make the rockers smooth enough in order to cancel the friction that is created on the floor. Now, this entails a whole process with several steps.
However, there are some alternatives like having a mat for the rocking chair or something else that prevents direct contact with the floor. However, the main method is to make the surface of the rockers smooth enough to avoid scratches.
This entails the following simple processes:
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Cleaning the rockers
The first thing before you consider anything else to need to turn the rocking chair upside down to expose the rockers from where you will be able to clean them thoroughly to make sure that any layer of dirt is done away with. First, wipe away the dust from the surface and then use a cloth soaked in a multipurpose wood cleaner, and let it dry.
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Sanding
After the chair’s rockers are now clean, we can further clean the rocker surface by sanding. A 320 grit sandpaper is highly recommended. According to your preference, you can choose to have it wet or dry but either does a great job in the end. Sand the rockers to get rid of any roughness and then wipe off the sanding debris from the rockers using a tack cloth.
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Felting off the surface of the rockers
Once the rockers are clean and smoothly sanded, you will need something to cover them off so that when you get using them again, there will be no wear and tear on the ground. A felt strip is usually used. A felt strip is usually self-adhesive and it can cover the mid surfaces well to avoid wear and tear on the ground. Here is how to do it,
Cut the felt stripping into two equal strips. After that, you will need to stick them one by one but making sure that they are properly aligned and they perfectly fit in the middle.
After cutting them, remove the paper covering on one side of the felting tape to expose the self-adhesive side of the stip. After that, stick them carefully and apply pressure to each one of them to make sure it sticks properly.
The edges should hold properly to the surface to make sure that the tape is not coming off that easily. Reinforce the strips well at the edges to ensure that they do not turn over while ricking. After all that is done, you can carefully turn over your rocking chair and continue to use it as usual.
How Long Will This Last?
This process seems so simple and does not require that much. People might tend to doubt if it can really last any long or work as required. The felt stripes hold on to the surface very tightly and they can not be a culprit if friction like wood would be when used on a wood surface.
What we have done is just create a smooth surface that will reduce friction. The felt stripes will last for long before they wear.
Any Alternatives?
As we mentioned earlier, there are some alternatives that can replace felt stripping. Now, there are several of them and they can be very efficient in making sure that your rocking chair does not get you staining the same spot every time. Let’s look at some of them;
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Using a rocker cover
A rocker cover is a simple cover that you can put your rocking chair on to prevent contact with the floor. A rocker cover can either be purchased or made.
One good thing with this option is that you can get a rocker cover that matches your indoor aesthetics and general surrounding. It might have some problems but the ultimate end is that it can end up. If you do a good selection, you might not even notice the change in what you have included in favor of your rocking chair.
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Using a rag
A rag is another simple option that can really turn out to work well. You can select any rug that can cover the whole rocker surface well. It is advisable to use one that is bigger than the surface covered by the rockers. The one downside with such a method is that there is no means of sticking the rag down on the floor and that might mean that it will move from side to side.
What this means is that you should be able to adjust the rag from time to time. However, the need to adjust the rag when you use a bigger one will come after a long time. So consider using a big rag for this purpose.
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Rubbering the rockers
Rubbering the rockers is more or less the same as using any other covers on the rockers. The only difference with this is that the material being used is rubber only. The process is quite similar to the others only that rubber has no adhesive of its own.
What you will need to do is cut out suitable stripes of rubber and .aje sure they are well aligned with the surface of the rockers. After that, apply an adhesive on both the rubber and the rockers before securing the rubber stripes to the rockers.
All those are perfect alternatives that you can have for your rocking chair not to destroy your wood floor. However, you might still be able to adjust and implement some of your own new ways of how to keep rocking chair from scratching wood floor.
There can be many more which can be implemented. The main thing is to know how to make sure that there is no direct contact between the wood on the rockers and the wood floor. The friction is what makes the scratches. Just find any way to cover the floor.
Some still choose to extend the carpet to the rocking chair so that the surfaces don’t get in contact. It could still work out very well depending on how you place the chair and how much more carpet you have to extend to have your rocking chair in the right position.
You can also find other attachments to the rockers on the rocking chair to make sure that you have no contact between the two wood surfaces and you will be good to go now with little worries.
What’s the Most Efficient Method?
The best thing with this is that all methods can be as efficient depending on how you do them. However, the easiest and the efficient one is looking for a rocking mat. It’s as simple as sticking it on the floor then putting the chair on top.
However, if you have been using your chair for some time on the floor, rubbering felt padding might be the best way to handle this. You might want to choose from any other available methods but all in all the way you do it is what will make it a success.
How to Keep Rocking Chair from Scratching Wood Floor – A Final Word
How you keep a rocking chair from scratching your floor is quite about how much you are able to avoid its contact with the wood floor. We have gone through a number of ways you can do this. There could be more depending on one’s preference.
The good thing is that you will take very little time doing this and it will help for a very long time. With all these methods, you are already sorted and you don’t have to worry anymore about how to keep rocking chair from scratching wood floor.