Keep Hardwood Floors Scratch-Free With This Smart Rollerblade Trick

Though hardwood floors fail to reign supreme over softer surfaces like carpet and luxury vinyl tile, they still rank pretty high in most U.S. homeowners flooring material of choice. However, hardwood flooring planks are one of the pricier options; as a proud owner of such a floor, you're likely intent on finding ways to keep your wood flooring looking like new. The problem work-from-homers might have noticed is that their office chair stutters every time they roll from the desk to the bookshelf. Those unsightly marks and, worse, gouges and grating sounds are the work of a seat fitted with standard hard casters — or wheels to those not up on office furniture lingo.

Thankfully for house-proud remote employees, a new type of office chair wheel has emerged, and from an unlikely source to boot. It's the sport of rollerblading to the rescue! Chair caster manufacturers looked at how smoothly the wheels on a pair of rollerblades propelled their owners across pavements and railings and thought, "Huh, these just might make my office chair roll across a hardwood floor with ease, too." All you need to do in most cases is pop off your old set of casters and snap on a set of rollerblade-style office chair wheels in their place. And no, you don't need to buy an entire chair. You can grab a set of these wheels from online or in select hardware stores for a fraction of the price of a whole new piece of quality furniture.

Rollerblade or rollerblade-style office chair wheels, sometimes also called heavy-duty chair wheels or gaming wheels, feature a single wheel (as opposed to the double-wheeled traditional caster) made from the same soft synthetic material used on rollerblade wheels. It's most often polyurethane, but could also be neoprene, or soft rubber. Some of these chair casters use ice wheels — wheels originally designed for artistic roller skating. These durable, rubber-like (or actually rubber) plastics grip rather than roll over hardwood floors, so there's no chance of the scratches or scuff you experience with traditional nylon casters.

A silent roll makes these wheels a good choice for anyone living in condos or apartments with downstairs neighbors or those worried about disturbing family members watching movies in the living room directly below your office. Rollerblade-style casters also roll well on low pile rugs and carpet, especially when you regularly move your chair from a hard to a soft surface and vice versa. They're not without their downsides. Most rollerblade-style casters are slightly taller than their hard counterparts, meaning they may add a smidge of height to your chair once installed. Some chair wheel reviewers argue these rollers are less maneuverable than double-wheeled casters, while others state they're slippery to the point of becoming an annoyance. Depending on your surface and the amount of friction you desire from your chair, they could be the perfect solution.

Most wheelsets come in a pack of five, which matches the standard number of "legs" on a desk chair. For sets at the cheaper end of the range, head to a big box retailer like Walmart, which sells HOLKIE rollerblade wheels for hardwood floors for well under $20 a pack. They do note, however, that these casters won't work on IKEA chairs. If you're willing to spend a bit more, shell out around $40 for The Original Rollerblade Office Chair Wheels from The Office Oasis. We're also partial to the Magic Chair Wheels by STEALTHO — about $35. They feature attractive teal wheels that glow in the dark (!) so you won't trip over the legs at night.

Flip your office chair on its side and remove the old wheels by gripping the caster with one hand and bracing the wheel bracket as you pull. It should just pop out. If the old wheels are stuck fast into their holes, wedge a screwdriver, hammer (the claw side), or pair of pliers into the gap at the top of the wheel stem and apply pressure to wiggle them out. Reverse the process, inserting the wheel pin on the new casters into the same hole you pulled the old ones from. Some manufacturers recommend lubricating the pins before attaching the wheels as an optional step. Best of all, once you've ​​installed these desk accessories every home office needs, you can finally ditch that unsightly chair mat!