Attaching Caster Wheels to Furniture

Caster wheels make it easy to operate heavy furniture. You can easily rearrange and turn them to clean behind furniture and the areas covered by the furniture. They come handy for uneven floors where your furniture is not stable. Wheels that come with a locking mechanism are the best for such cases as they allow your furniture to move only when you want. With the right tools and equipment, a couple of quick steps will help you move your home furniture around by installing the right caster wheels.

Items Needed

Make sure you have a measuring tape, drill bits, a strong adhesive, screwdriver, about six screw-on casters, screws, about six casters with their respective receiving cylinders and scrap wood of varied thickness sizes.

Choose the Right Casters and Sockets for Your Installation

The choice of your casters will depend on whether your furniture rolls on hardwood or carpeted floors. Hardwood floors require softer caster wheels with polyurethane or rubber to avoid scarring and scratching. Hard casters with bigger diameters will do well on carpeted floors. There are various types of sockets you can choose from like ones inserted into a hole, ones attached by screwing on a flat surface and ones designed for wood chair legs. Make sure you have a caster that adheres well with the socket of your choice.  

Prepare Corners on your Furniture

Corners are the best positions to attach casters wheels on your furniture for the purpose of achieving the best balance possible. You will need to build up the corners by adding pieces of scrap wood to each corner and screwing them tightly. Sturdy glues like construction adhesives may also be used to attach the pieces of wood since this eliminates any worries of dealing with specific screw length. Accounting for the pile of your carpet is necessary so that rolling of your furniture isn't halted by the bottom edge being caught.

Attach Casters on the Scrap Woods

Use the manufacturer's instructions provided on the kit to drill post holes and secure your receiving cylinders into the casters. Place each post caster in the cylinder until it perfectly locks. With screw-on casters, drill holes for caster flanges on the scrap woods. Use a screw driver to tightly attach the caster flanges on the scrap woods. Gently turn your furniture right side up while ensuring not to lean all its weight on new casters when turning it. Swerve the furniture back and forth to test for a smooth roll.

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