How to Stop Your Desk Chair from Rolling

If you’re like me and have uneven floors, having a desk chair with wheels in your home office you set up can be an adventure. I find myself constantly readjusting myself on my chair! My chair rolls because my floors are uneven and there isn’t enough friction between the chair wheels and the floor.

Because I have done a lot of research on how to fix this, I wanted to share my research with you on how to fix your desk chair from rolling while you are sitting at your desk.

Ditch the wheels on your rolling desk chair

Almost every desk chair with wheels has the ability for you to remove the wheels. You can flip the chair on its side or back and pop off the wheels.

They can sometimes be stuck on, so finding a few different angles to pull from is sometimes needed. You might also have luck applying a thin layer of WD-40 (or some neutral cooking oil) if it really won’t budge.

These fixed stationary casters will be exactly what you are looking for. You’ll lose the ability to slide around, but you’ll stay put in your chair!

Use a carpet under your rolling desk chair

If you still want to keep your wheels on your chair, but want to reduce the friction, you can use an area rug under your chair. If you have one in a different part of your house, test it for your home office set up!

If you don’t have an extra area rug, something like this would work perfectly. It’s a 4’x4’ circular area rug that will give you enough flexibility to slide around and adjust your position.

In some cases, the rug might also slide around, which is very unfortunate. I’ve fixed this with some of my own rugs using carpet tape. You can apply a few strips evenly spaced out and your rug should stay put.

I recently added a carpet in my office, but because of the size of the carpet and the size of the rug, my chair kept getting stuck on the edge of the carpet.

Fixing this was really easy. I added these rollerblade wheels to my desk chair and used carpet tape to keep the edge of the rug down flush against the floor. It was very effective.

I also tested these roller ball style wheels. I liked the rollerblade ones better, and they seemed to fit the chair slightly better in my case.

Get a desk mat for your rolling chair

Remember: the reason the rolling desk chair is sliding around is because the floor is super slick and there isn’t much friction to prevent the wheels from sliding around. If you choose to add a carpet, you might have trouble moving your chair around.

In this case, you will want to add some of the low-friction surfaces back into your setup.

There are thick grippy plastic area desk mats that solve this problem. The bottom of the mat grips to a surface, like a carpet, and has a textured surface that can help prevent your wheels from moving from under you too often.

Use an under-desk footrest

I started using this under-desk footrest in my home office setup recently. Because my desk chair rolls easily, the leverage of keeping my feet up stops some of the unwanted rolling.

I like this ergonomic setup option because the wheels on my chair are useful when I want to convert my desk from sitting to standing.

Plus, the footrest under my desk is great for a working setup, in general. It’s nice and soft and lets you relax. It gives your feet an additional place to go. It can help your feet land at an ideal position to help improve your overall desk ergonomics and posture.

Plus, it’s not a huge investment, so it’s an affordable and budget-friendly idea to improve your comfort of working at home pretty quickly.

Check if your rolling desk chair has locking casters

Lastly, you might already have this problem solved if your chair has locking casters. These are little switches under your wheels. Have you ever pushed a shopping cart and one of the wheels locked? That’s because the shopping cart had locking casters engaged.

If you don’t have locking casters, you can swap out the wheels on your current chair with these caster wheels.

Upgrade your desk chair

In my testing, I’ve found that lightweight chairs tend to roll more than heavier chairs. If you’re using a small chair, it’s more prone to rolling. A heavier and more substantial chair is less likely to roll on floors that have a slight slant.

I’ve been using this chair from Flexispot and I haven’t noticed any rolling, like my last lighter chair did.

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Hopefully, this article has helped you prevent your office chair from sliding! I know it can be really frustrating and unproductive.

I like having wheels on my chair (even though they roll a lot) because I’ll often transition my desk from sitting to standing. When I want to stand, I’ll easily slide my chair away, instead of having to pick it up and move it somewhere else.

The options above were the best options that I could think of to keep my chair from rolling on my uneven floor, and I hope you find the solution that works best for you in your permanent home office setup at home.

Last updated on April 9th, 2023