How to Install the Best Chair Leg Glides
Today, we are learning how to install the best chair leg glides. These chair leg floor protectors not only guard your floors from damage, they minimize noise and they also keep the bottoms of your chair legs in great shape!
HOW TO INSTALL THE BEST CHAIR LEG GLIDES
Since April, I have been battling the “chair-leg-pads-war”.
If you have ever tried to add protectors to the bottom of the legs of your chairs or tables, you know what I mean, right?
So many chair leg floor protectors to choose from. I mean, SO MANY!
And, which one should you choose? Well, it depends.
Do they all work? Well, it depends. (Yes, I know I said “depends”… twice!)
This past weekend, one of the projects on my list was to install the best chair leg glides I could find.
Why did I need the “best” (besides the obvious fact that we all always WANT the best)?
Let me give you a little back-story…
When the Neighbors Complain…
About three days after we had moved into the new My Wee Abode, a neighbor came a knockin’ on my door at 9am…
“Are you the new neighbors that just moved in?”
*Oh how nice… someone coming to welcome us* “Yes, we just moved in on Saturday.”
“Oh, welcome. We live right below you. We hope you enjoy the community.”
“Well, thank you!”
“Yes… we have been hearing you move your furniture around for the last week. Would you please keep in mind that we are trying to relax at 9 o’clock in the evening, and it is difficult to do so when we are hearing your furniture being moved all the time?”
*dumbfounded, because we’ve only been here 3 days, and we aren’t moving furniture at 9pm* “Uhhhh, sure?”
“Thank you!” And she walks away.
*goes to move a side table across the dressing-area floor… twice*
( ONE YEAR UPDATE: The neighbor has NEVER been happy, and we have been visited a total of three times this past year for the same reason. Landlord says they are being ridiculous. Two weeks ago, neighbor moved out! Woot!)
This post may contain affiliate links, at no additional cost to you. For more information, see my complete disclosure HERE.
What Can You Put on Chair Legs to Make Them Slide Easier?
I quickly realized that it wasn’t ‘furniture’ that we were moving that was causing our neighbors inability to de-stress at 9pm…
It was the dining room chairs being moved around!
Every time we would slide a chair to sit down or get up, the wooden legs of our IKEA dining room chairs would grate against the texture of our LVP floors and make a grinding noise that was surely heard directly below us, and maybe in the next building, too!
I had already planned to add something to the bottom of the legs of my chairs (it was on my list of items to purchase) in order to easily slide my mom in-and-out from the dining room table. Her lack of mobility makes it difficult for her to do this herself.
So, I started the search.
What Are the Things on the Bottom of Chair Legs Called?
There are different types of chair leg pads and/or glides to choose from in order to protect your floors and give chairs the ability to slide easily:
- Felt pads (self adhesive): I found these easy to stick to the bottom of the chair legs, but the slide-ability left A LOT to be desired.
- Furniture sliders (self adhesive): These can be purchased on Amazon, but you can also get them at your local DAISO store. I LOVE how these slide, but after a month or so, they started to shift and the slider started to come off, probably because of the texture of my LVP.
- Chair leg caps: I have to admit… I didn’t try these. But, I was afraid that with the texture of my floors, these caps would go janky on me and pop off.
Now, with all of these products, the noise level was brought down to almost nothing. However, Mom still couldn’t slide herself in-and-out from the table.
GorillaGlides chair sliders have been the perfect solution to dampening the noise in our third-floor apartment.
These chair glides not only reduce the noise level by about 90% (more if you are very careful with sliding your chair), they also protect the floor (the best out of all the options, btw).
And the best thing, in my opinion? My mom can now slide herself in-and-out from the dining room table. Win-win!
How Do You Put a Glide on a Chair?
The GorillaGlides are probably the most ‘difficult’ chair leg glides to install, but they are still SUPER easy to add to the bottom of your chair legs (and tables, for that matter).
As I said before, most chair leg floor protector pads are self-adhesive, which I found to be challenging.
Then there are the ‘cap’ style chair leg slides that slide on. Like I said, I didn’t try those, but I was a bit leery.
Another way to put a glide on a chair is the nail-in style. I decided to not try those because I could see it being difficult to hold the nail, steady the chair, and hammer all at the same time by myself. And there was sure to be a yelp or ten after I hit my fingers with the hammer!
And then my neighbors would be visiting me… again. (I’m NOT bitter.)
With GorillaGlides, you can choose to use the self-adhesive route, or add in the screw-on method WITH the self-adhesive. I chose the latter.
What You’ll Need
You’ll only need a few items in order to easily install the GorillaGlides:
- GorillaGlides (there are 8 in a pack)
- Power drill with 5/64 bit (the directions say 3/32, but the 5/64 worked better for me) This one is highly rated and super affordable. I use my power drill all the time.
- Phillips screw driver (Here’s a nice starter set by a brand you can trust!)
- Butter Knife
How to Easily Install GorillaGlides
These really are super easy to install!
Pro-Tip
Be sure to measure the bottom of your chair legs and purchase the correct size of GorillaGlides.
Here are the instructions that come with the package:
Now, let me SHOW you how you can do it!
- First, clean the bottoms of your chair legs as best you can (Photo 1). This won’t really matter, since these will be screwed in and the adhesive works as just an “extra” bonding material.
- Next, take four of your GorillaGlides and remove the caps with a butter knife or flathead screw driver (Photo 2). (This is super easy to do.)
- The GorillaGlides have adhesive on the bottom. Remove the white film to expose the adhesive (Photo 3). Set aside.
- Drill the center of the chair leg about 1-inch deep (Photo 4). Simply ‘eyeing’ the middle works just fine if you have purchased the correct size of GorillaGlides. Being a smidge ‘off’ from the center won’t affect the end result.
Here is a video to show you how easy it is to drill!
- After drilling, screw-in the screw about 2/3 in, and then remove (Photo 5). This makes it easier to screw in the glide.
- Take the glide ‘seat’ and screw-in until tight (Photo 6). The screw must be installed completely in the seat (Photo 7).
- Now replace the cap and repeat for the other three legs (Photo 8)!
Voila! You are all set!
Do Chair Glides Wear Out?
With consistent use, yes, the chair glide caps will wear out, especially if the chairs on on flooring with texture. Think Luxury Vinyl Plank.
But this is an easy fix! You can simply purchase these affordable replacement the caps! Easy to install, and, after a year, I just replaced them on the one chair that gets a lot of use at the dining room table!
Easy-peasy!
The Finished Product
The GorillaGlides really don’t affect the aesthetic of the chair… which you don’t want it to, right?
So, here is a closeup of what it looks like on the leg.
And then a photo of my dining area (pre-installation), that doubles as additional conversation space in the living area.
My hope is that this tutorial will help make your apartment, dorm, or even a single-family residence more enjoyable for you and your family.
So, have YOU added chair leg pads to your dining room set? What has YOUR experience been? Leave me a comment below and share your story, tips, and tricks! Your comments always make my day!
This is great thank you. You have helped me. God bless
So glad to be of help, Josee! Thanks for letting me know! Hugs and hearts!
Ive been doing research. Ran into your article. Thanks! Wonder if “Teflon” is the best material solution, rather than Felt, which wears down so fast, and just doesn’t last, falls off, etc.. I really hate it. Or is there any other material out there that will work the best?
Could you tell me in your experience, if the gorilla furniture leg gliders could solve my two main issues?
1) horrible loud, dragging, screetching, grinding sounds when I slide my chairs to adjust my seating position, or push it to clean, or move it across the floor on our shinny smooth porcelian tile floors, or luxery vinyl, or ceramic smooth tiles?
2) I want the chairs to “quietly glide/slide” when they are moved, not drag and make horrible noise.
Sounds like the same issue is happening in both issues, or maybe I’m reading it wrong. This is definitely the reason I bought the Gorilla gliders. They do not drag, and they do not make any noise. However, if your floor has textures, the caps will need to be replaced when they wear out. You can get that caps by themselves. 🙂
This is the best yet as I have used those stick on felt thinggies for many times that I hate to admit. They are constantly coming off after a few sits in the chair and table legs are worse. So I am so glad you shared this with us and I will be ordering Gorilla Gliders, just wished you could get a kickback on them.
Oh, I’m so glad this post helped, Fernie… and actually, I DO earn a commission off of each purchase (my Disclosure at the top of the post states this). The commission is at no extra cost to my readers, but it helps me to continue sharing solutions, tips, and tricks! 😉
I am the girl who goes through felt pads like crazy. But that’s after our wood floors are all kinds of scratched up. I’ve even thought of putting socks on the bottoms of the legs but all of our socks are no-show and won’t work (insert rolling eyes) plus they look ridiculous so I guess that’s a good thing. Hmmm, what about infant socks? Still ugly and totally not blogger worthy, huh? Looking forward to seeing how yours hold up! You just may have turned me into a gorilla girl!
Girl, I’m telling you. You need these in your life! Let’s be Gorilla girls together, huh?!
I can’t stand the sound of chairs moving around! Our island chairs are the worst! This post is super helpful, thank you! Happy I found your blog.
Oh, I’m so glad you found the post helpful, Kelsey! Thanks so much for sharing!
Julie, I greatly appreciate your tutorial. I have found the silicone caps work well on our chairs but the felted bottoms do collect debris from the floor. Perhaps the Gorilla glides would prevent that.
Thanks, Cheryl. I’m not sure if it would totally keep the debris off the glides, but I bet they are A LOT easier to clean! 😉
Julie, you worked out the perfect solution to the chair problem. Your instructions are clear and you explained everything that anyone would need to know.
Glad you had the ability and the smarts to make it happen!
Thanks, Laura. 🙂 It’s often hit and miss. Not thinking through anything this time! LOL! 😉
Nice! But absolutely no butter knives!!! Save the silverware – use tools! 😉
LOL! You are too funny! It came off so easy you could remove it with your teeth! JUST KIDDING! But your strong nails would work great, for sure! 😉
What a great idea and so helpful to apartment dwellers and homeowners alike! Ha, I can relate to the neighbors “welcoming” you to the neighborhood. Ours knocked on the door to welcome us…and ask if we could pitch in to replace the shared fence. I love the gliders you chose…pretty and practical.
People are so silly! Thanks for the love!
Pinning and probably ordering! My husband just rejected a chair bc the felt pad came off and the leg was sticking to the floor…. those legs are angled towards the floor, which is why the pads skooch off after awhile… thank you!
Hope these work for you (and your hubby), Liberty. Let me know what you do!
Those look great! I’ve been looking for something like that because I’ve been using the self adhesive felt pads, and they keep coming unstuck. Your story reminds me of when we were moving out of our previous house. (We’d been there for close to 30 years.) Our neighbor from across the street came over, and I thought he was coming to say goodbye and/or wish us well. Instead, he came to complain that the moving truck had gone up onto his yard. 🙁 Other neighbors were much more kind, thankfully!
An icky neighbor is really no fun, right? I hope these glides work well for you! And don’t forget, there are replacement ‘pads’ for when the ones on the chair wear out!
I used the silicone sliders and they all came off sooner or later. Don’t buy them!!!