And All the Chairs Wore Tennis Balls

One of the main concerns in installing a new wood floor is protecting it from being damaged from the furniture. The problem is especially important around the dining room table.

I often recommend felt for the bottoms of chair legs to protect them from marking or scratching the new wood floor. These may be purchased in the coaster section of most hardware stores. There are several varieties from hard steel cups with carpet like material on the bottom for heavy sofas and furniture to small felt pads which have peel and stick or resemble a large tack with felt on it that is nailed into the bottom of the wooden chair legs.

Just recently I was invited in to help with a wood floor installation. This is pretty common for me as I teach do it your-selfers how to get professional results on wood floor installations. What wasn't common was that the customer had solved the chair protection problem with tennis balls.

It wasn't the most attractive set of chairs I had ever seen but I thought is was pretty clever. The woman of the house had cut a 2 inch slit in four tennis balls for each chair. The she had just stuck them on the bottoms of the legs and the natural shape of the tennis balls held them in place.

I naturally had to take some pictures of this interesting idea. I take lots of pictures of everything I see that might be useful later from submarine sandwiches to tractor trailers at the interstate rest area.

Another one of the problems I often find is moving the refrigerator and stove back in place in the kitchen without damaging the new wood floor. I always suggest buying 2 foot by 4 foot sections of Masonite to roll or slide these heavy appliances over. By having three pieces the pieces can be moved so that two of the pieces are under the appliance and the free piece can be moved from behind to in front to move longer distances.

This Masonite idea also works for pianos and other heavy pieces which aren't practical to lift and place.

.