By Rebecca Wolken | Updated Sep 23, 2021 3:39 PM

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Whether you’re rearranging furniture to create a better flow within your home or moving, lifting large couches, wardrobes, and chests is hard work. Without help from movers, these tasks can not only make you sore the next day, but they also can be dangerous. Moreover, if simply dragged across the floor, furniture legs can scratch beautiful hardwood or tile floors or rip delicate carpets.

To avoid the risk of injury and protect your floors, the best furniture sliders allow furniture to slide across hard floors and carpets. Often, they are reusable and can be stored for later use or left under furniture legs. This guide will explore important features to keep in mind while shopping for furniture sliders and review selections of some of the best furniture sliders on the market to protect floors.

Furniture sliders are available in many shapes, sizes, and materials. Some other key features include the type of floor the sliders will be used on, the material, the slider’s size and shape, and whether the sliders can be reused. Read on to learn more.

Two types of furniture sliders are designed specifically for moving or rearranging furniture: hardwood sliders and carpet sliders.

Slider material is determined by the flooring on which it will be used. Plastic sliders—or metal sliders that are similar to drawer slides—are ideal for moving furniture across a carpet or rug. The smooth surface glides even under the weight of a heavy sofa or wardrobe. Soft material like foam or dense felt is used to construct hardwood sliders to cushion furniture legs and protect hard flooring.

Choose the slider material that’s correct for the type of flooring you’ll be moving furniture across. Plastic sliders on a hardwood floor, for instance, can cause scratches. And using felt sliders on carpet will make it harder—if not impossible—to move the piece of furniture.

Next, consider the size and shape of the furniture sliders. Before shopping, measure the legs of the furniture to be moved. It’s typically much easier to move furniture if the sliders are a bit larger than the legs because the item’s weight is distributed more evenly.

The slider’s shape is also important. While a table may have narrow square legs, a couch might have wide oval legs. Users may need long rectangular sliders for the couch and small circular sliders for the table.

Furniture sliders and floor protectors are different. The most significant difference between these two products is in their ability to be reused. While furniture sliders can be used multiple times, floor protectors adhere to the bottoms of furniture legs with a strong adhesive and aren’t designed for removal.

It’s exciting to rearrange a space or move to a new home, but shifting furniture around isn’t enjoyable and can even be dangerous. Keeping the above-mentioned features in mind, these are some of the best furniture sliders available today in a variety of categories to protect floors.

Avoid a sore back and protect carpet with these 3½-inch circular furniture sliders by CO-Z. This package includes eight durable plastic sliders, but they’re also available in a pack of 16 sliders. Each slider can hold up to 110 pounds, so with one slider under each leg of a heavy piece, you can move up to 440 pounds across hard surfaces or a carpeted floor. The EVA foam top layer of each slider grips the furniture leg and prevents it from coming off during use.

The bottom layer is made with plastic, ensuring the sliders glide across a carpet. Users can place them permanently under furniture to make cleaning and rearranging a breeze. Since the top layer is made of soft foam instead of adhesive, they can be reused.

Protect both your back and your hardwood floors with X-PROTECTOR’s heavy-duty furniture sliders. Round in shape with a 3½-inch diameter, they evenly distribute the weight and are ideal for almost any size furniture leg.

Available in a pack of 16, the sliders are constructed with felt and rubber foam to protect hardwood floors and make it easy to glide furniture over the flooring. Even with no adhesive, these sliders have a strong grip and can be reused.

This affordable variety pack of furniture sliders from Super Sliders includes three unique slider shapes, six different slider sizes, and floor protectors. For carpets, this 52-piece set includes four 5-inch circular sliders, four 5-inch square sliders, four 3½-inch circular sliders, and four 2½-by-9-inch rectangular sliders. For hardwood floors, the package contains four 3½-inch circular sliders and 32 1-inch round floor protectors. The sliders also can be used to move furniture over tile and linoleum.

The package also includes 32 adhesive floor protectors.

Whether it’s a sofa, heavy kitchen table, or a large storage cabinet, some furniture is too heavy to glide effortlessly across carpet. Without the help of professional movers, it can be cumbersome and even dangerous to move these heavy items. These eight sliders by X-PROTECTOR are designed specifically for use with heavy furniture. Made with durable plastic on the bottom and gripping rubber foam on the top, they securely grip furniture legs.

At 4¾ inches in diameter and ⅝-inch thick, these round sliders fit under almost any large item. The smooth plastic is ideal for moving items on carpet, and with no adhesive, these sliders can be reused.

For massive furniture, sometimes the legs are thick all the way to the floor. Traditional sliders are too small to fit under these legs and move items across carpet. These carpet-specific furniture sliders from Super Sliders can solve this issue; they are 9½ inches long and 5¾ inches wide to create a rounded rectangle shape.

Featuring a bottom of heavy-duty plastic, they can withstand the weight of oversize and heavy furniture pieces, making them more manageable. The thick foam on the top grips furniture legs without the need for adhesive, so buyers can use them again.

They’re available in a pack of four or eight and come in black, brown, gray, and linen.

Most homes contain a variety of floor types, from tile to hardwood to carpet. This 16-piece furniture moving kit by FLERISE includes eight sliders for carpet and eight sliders for hard floors, including wood, ceramic tile, and linoleum. The kit also provides a convenient storage tube to store the sliders and reduce the chance of misplacing them.

The round carpet sliders feature a durable plastic bottom and are 3.74 inches in diameter to evenly distribute weight. The top layer is a gripping foam that doesn’t need adhesive, so these sliders can be reused.

Hardwood flooring is stunning, and it’s painful to hear furniture scrape across it when moving, cleaning, or rearranging. With this hardwood-specific pack of four sliders by Super Sliders, move furniture across hardwood flooring without the fear of destroying the beautiful wood. At 3½ inches in diameter, they’re made with felt that glides over hardwood with ease.

Leave the sliders in place for easy cleaning, or remove them to use again. They’re available in four colors.

Based on shape, size, material, floor type, and reusability, the CO-Z Furniture Sliders for Carpet is our top pick for best furniture sliders. For hardwood flooring, we chose Super Sliders Reusable Furniture Sliders as our top pick.

Furniture sliders help with moving heavy furniture across carpeting or hard flooring. Attempting to lift a couch or a dresser on your own could result in injury or damage to the floor. Using furniture sliders avoids scratching the floor or tearing carpeting. Furniture sliders come in various materials, shapes, and sizes. To determine the best, we focused on hardwood and carpet sliders, as well as material, size, shape, reusability, and weight limit. Our picks for the best furniture sliders are strong enough to withstand the weight of standard household furniture and are made from materials that will glide over hardwood or carpeted floors.

To make the most out of moving or rearranging furniture, you probably want to save energy everywhere you can, including purchasing furniture sliders to help glide large or heavy items around the home while protecting yourself and your floors. However, you may have questions before making that purchase. These are some of the most frequently asked questions about furniture sliders and their corresponding answers.

This amount of weight they can hold depends on the specific furniture sliders, so check the product specifications. However, a typical slider holds around 110 pounds.

Many furniture sliders are reusable because they don’t include adhesive. If you want to reuse furniture sliders, don’t accidentally purchase floor protectors, which have adhesive and can’t be removed and reused.

Most furniture sliders don’t come with any type of glue or adhesive, so they can be reused.

Sliders with durable plastic bottoms glide quite easily over carpet. These Super Sliders furniture sliders or CO-Z furniture sliders work well with carpets.

Both furniture sliders and furniture protection pads are intended to protect furniture legs from damaging flooring. Furniture sliders are specifically made for gliding items across floors during moving, rearranging, or cleaning; they don’t have glue or adhesive and can be reused. Furniture protection pads, also called “floor protectors,” use adhesive to attach to furniture legs and can’t be reused.

You may not have to clean furniture sliders; however, to reduce the risk of scratching floor scratches or sticking to the floor, wipe down plastic sliders or pick debris off felt sliders prior to use.

Bob Vila has been America’s Handyman since 1979. As the host of beloved and groundbreaking TV series, including This Old House and Bob Vila’s Home Again, he popularized and became synonymous with “do it yourself” home improvement.

Over the course of his decades-long career, Bob Vila has helped millions of people build, renovate, repair, and live better each day—a tradition that continues today in the expert yet accessible home advice at the heart of BobVila.com. Today, the Bob Vila editorial team distills need-to-know information into project tutorials, maintenance guides, tool 101s, and more. These home and garden experts then thoroughly research, vet, and recommend products that support homeowners, renters, DIYers, and professionals in their to-do lists.

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