Castors provide smooth mobility for anything that needs to move - furniture, chairs, trolleys, hospital beds and heavy equipment. On a factory floor the wheel material decides how long a castor lasts. In a house or an office it decides something you notice sooner: whether the wood floor under your desk chair still looks new in a year.
This guide covers the floor types that come up most often - hardwood, laminate, carpet, tile, vinyl and concrete - and which office chair wheels, bed castors and furniture castors suit each one. QED has made and supplied castors since 1987, and we supply single castors as readily as full pallets, so a set of five for a desk chair is as welcome as a contract order.
Match the castor wheel to the floor, not the other way round. A hard wheel on a finished floor marks it; a soft wheel on a rough surface wears out quickly. The one-line version for each of the main floor types:
Soft office chair wheels: rubber, thermoplastic rubber or polyurethane. Grey or non marking treads if the floor is light in colour.
A harder wheel such as nylon, which rolls more easily on soft surfaces.
Soft, non marking wheels again. Avoid steel and cast iron entirely.
A harder wheel that cuts through debris rather than picking it up, and a larger wheel that clears it.
Most office chairs are supplied with hard plastic twin wheels. Nylon and polypropylene are hard, roll easily and carry weight well, but they transmit noise and can mark softer floors. Hardwood, parquet and laminate are softer than they look. Every time the chair rolls, the whole weight of the person sitting in it is pressed through five small contact points, and any grit picked up by the wheel is dragged across the finish. That is where the scratches, the dull tracks and the noise come from.
The fix is a softer wheel, not a more careful user. Soft treads protect hard floors, and hard wheels roll more easily on soft or uneven surfaces - that single rule settles most of the decision. A chair mat protects wood floors by covering them rather than by changing the wheel, and it remains the answer for a chair that cannot take replacement wheels. Where the chair can, a soft wheel solves the problem at the source and the mat becomes optional.
A soft polyurethane or rubber wheel protects wooden and laminate floors, where a hard one will likely mark them. Between those materials the choice comes down to how the chair is used.
Rubber is one of the oldest materials used in a castor wheel. A rubber wheel gives good shock absorption and noise reduction, and is floor protective on finished floors. It is the choice to reduce noise in a home office or anywhere the chair is in daily use next to other people. Colour matters as much as material: grey rubber is non marking, while black rubber can mark light floors. On a pale oak or a light laminate, specify grey.
Thermoplastic rubber (TPR) is the institutional standard: quiet operation, non marking and gentle on polished floors. It is used in schools, catering and healthcare where noise and floor damage matter more than outright load bearing, and it suits a desk chair for the same reasons.
Polyurethane combines high load capacity with floor protection, and it rolls more easily than rubber under weight. It is quieter than nylon and kind to floors, so it is the more durable choice for a heavier user or a chair that is moved a great deal across the day, and it resists wear better than rubber.
The same materials run through our rubber castors and castor wheels, where the material notes go into more detail.
Carpet is the one floor where the advice reverses. Hard wheels roll more easily on soft surfaces, so the standard nylon twin wheel that marks a wooden floor is often the right wheel on carpet, and soft office chair wheels can feel as if they are dragging. A larger wheel diameter rolls more easily and clears obstructions better, which is the reason to size up on a deeper pile.
Rugs follow the same rule as carpet. If a chair moves between a rug and a hard floor, choose for the floor you want to protect: a soft wheel on carpet is slower, but a hard wheel on wood is damage.
Smooth hard floors - vinyl, tile, sealed concrete and polished surfaces - need soft, non marking wheels. Rubber, TPR and polyurethane all work, and all give smooth movement without marking. Avoid steel and cast iron entirely: both are noisy and will damage finished floors, so they belong in foundries rather than offices.
Bare workshop concrete is different. Floors that collect swarf, grit and packaging waste want a harder wheel, which cuts through debris rather than picking it up, and a larger wheel, which clears obstructions more easily. A hard nylon wheel on a plate or bolt hole castor gives the smooth rolling you want there; you will find those in our nylon castors.
Castors on a chair are almost always stem fitting, and the stem diameter matters more than the wheel. Office chairs use a standard 11mm stem; dining and occasional chairs vary, so measure before ordering. To replace a set:
Usually a round expanding stem or a solid stem. A solid stem is a one-piece shaft specified by diameter and length; an expanding adaptor grips inside a hollow tube instead. Some furniture castors use a threaded stem - M8 x 15 or M10 x 15, where M8 or M10 is the bolt size and 15mm the length of the thread - which screws into a tapped socket.
Pull one castor out of the base - most simply pull free - and measure where it enters the socket. 11mm is the common size on office chairs.
Castors are named by wheel diameter, not overall height. A larger wheel raises the chair slightly and rolls more easily.
Mixed wheels roll unevenly and the older ones keep marking the floor.
No tools are needed to install push-in stem castors beyond what it takes to pull the old ones out, and a threaded stem screws in by hand. Our twin wheel castors on M8 x 15 and M10 x 15 threaded stems suit furniture with a tapped socket. If you are unsure what you have, send us a photograph and a measurement and we will identify what you need.
Five. A five-star base with five castors is the standard for office chairs and is what the Display Screen Equipment regulations expect when they call for a stable work chair that allows easy movement. Five castors keep the chair stable when the person in it leans or reaches. If a chair has lost a castor, replace it rather than running on four, and replace it with a matching wheel so the chair sits level.
Bed castors are usually plate or stem fitting, and carry more weight than you might assume. Size for the bed, the mattress and the occupants together, and check the total castor height so the bed sits level. On a wooden floor, choose a soft wheel for the same reason as a chair. A bed that creeps across the floor is a brake question rather than a wheel question: a braked castor adds a locking mechanism that prevents unwanted movement, and for a bed a combined swivel and wheel brake holds the wheel and the swivel head together so the castor can neither turn nor roll.
Furniture castors for cabinets, display units, storage boxes and light trolleys are usually plate fitting - a flat plate that bolts to the base and spreads the load - or a single bolt hole where the furniture legs are tubular. Our budget plate fitting castors and budget bolt hole castors cover both, with grey rubber tyres designed to be non marking and quiet on wood floors. Light duty castors in this grade are made for furniture, small trolleys and display equipment. For display stands that need stability under a shifting load, a twin wheel castor splits the load across two wheels and is the usual choice.
For furniture that is moved only occasionally there are alternatives to castors: glides, felt pads and moving skates. A glide is a flat pad that lets furniture slide rather than roll; it suits light furniture on smooth floors and costs less. Castors are the right choice for anything heavy or moved often.
Divide the total loaded weight by three, not four. On an uneven floor only three castors reliably carry the load at any moment, so dividing by three builds in a margin. For a chair, that is the chair plus the heaviest person who will sit in it; for a bed, the bed, the mattress and the occupants together. Brakes should be rated for the same load as the wheel, and a stated capacity assumes rolling, not standing: furniture left loaded in one place for months can flat-spot a softer wheel.
Both spellings describe the same product. Castor is the British spelling, caster the American, and "office chair wheels" is simply what most people call them. UK suppliers, including QED, use castor - but if you have been searching for chair casters for hardwood floors, you are in the right place.
Hard castors can. Laminate is a printed layer over a fibreboard core, and a hard nylon or polypropylene wheel will mark and dull it over time, especially with grit under the wheel. Soft rubber, TPR or polyurethane casters protect it.
Yes, with the right wheel. The standard hard twin wheel supplied on most office chairs is the problem, not the rolling. Swap it for soft, non marking office chair wheels and the floor is protected.
Vinyl counts as a smooth indoor floor, so soft non marking wheels: rubber, TPR or polyurethane. Grey rather than black on a light vinyl.
It depends on the concrete. Sealed or polished concrete is a finished floor and wants a soft wheel. Bare workshop concrete with debris wants a hard nylon wheel, which cuts through grit rather than picking it up.
Alongside our industrial range we stock castors and wheels suitable for office chairs, furniture and domestic equipment. Check the fitting type - usually a round expanding stem, a solid stem or a threaded stem - and the diameter before ordering, and get in touch if you are not sure what you have.
Work through the questions in order: the weight carried, the floor type, the fitting on the chair or furniture, and the height available. Weight and floor type between them settle the wheel material; the fitting settles what is compatible with the chair. If you are unsure, talk to us. Send a photograph and a measurement and we will identify what you need, and orders placed by 2pm go out for next day delivery. The wider guide to types of castors covers swivel, fixed and braked castors, plate and bolt hole fittings, and every wheel material in more depth.