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  With as expensive as carpet is these days
(even cheap carpet is expensive), protecting it from the ravages of a computer chair
is essential for preservation. Caster wreak havoc with carpet, and even if you replace
the castors with fixed feet (w/ or w/o Teflon bottoms), deep depressions are formed.
One solution is too buy one of the plastic carpet protectors, but they're big and
ugly. Nice ones are available, but they're usually very expensive.
I have seen picture of very nice rectangular wooden surfaces people have built
to allow the chair to roll, but my space is cramped. All I need is a compact surface
to contain the chair feet without requiring the chair to roll. Since the seat swivels,
getting in and out of it is simple enough. My solution is shown in the photos. It
did not take long to construct, and is as diminutive as possible, being just large
enough to cover the foot span.
  The base of the computer chair carpet protector
is cut from 1/2" furniture grade plywood (aka
white plywood), which has more layers of wood and has
smooth outer layers. The pentagonal shape is was sized to extend about 1/2" beyond
the edges of the feet. 8 mm engineered wood flooring was then glued to the
plywood. When dry, the edges were trimmed flush with the plywood base and were sanded.
A belt sander did the rough smoothing, then a vibrating sander smoothed everything
out real nicely. I have not yet applied any for of finish to the edges or the bottom,
and, honestly, probably never will.
he feet, which I bought to replace the original casters, have depressions in
the center of the bottom surface, so in order to facilitate easy removal of the
chair, I drove flat head screws up from the bottom (heads countersunk) and ground
off the points. The computer chair carpet protector is lightweight enough to easily
move around, but has good enough friction with the carpet to not shift around as
I get in and out the the chair.
This project won't win any awards for ingenuity or craftsmanship, but it got
the job done using components already on-hand. I did not draw plans.
Posted July 1, 2023
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