Welcome to the Vital Parts guide to Chair Feet, your one stop source of information when it comes to measuring, installing and finding the ideal parts for your chairs or furniture. This guide has been put together to educate both first time and advanced buyers on the world of chair feet and ensuring a proper fit, first time.

Chair Feet, Ferrules & Inserts are all forms of feet used mainly for Chairs / Furniture, acting either as replacements or finishing items to promote grip and to prevent damage to the flooring that they are placed on. Mainly used inside Schools & Educational facilities, each product is suited to a long-term usage and easy fitting to your tube or chair leg.

Types of Chair Feet

Coming in two main styles these feet can be split in two based on their installation type, these being:

• Internal – Internal fitting feet includes products such as our Chair Inserts, fitting to the inside of your tubular leg by hand to improve grip and prevent scratching of a surface. These internal type feet tend to be available in a larger range of sizes than external fitting, as well as shapes such as Oval & Rectangular which aren’t available for external.

• External – External fitting feet includes products that are often referred to as ‘ferrules’, these work by pushing over the chair leg by hand to ‘cup’ it. By doing so, certain materials such as rubber can provide added levels of grip, anti marking properties and stability for heavier furniture/objects. External feet tend to be available in industry standard sizes, mainly 19-30mm sizes.

When to use Chair Feet

To protect a worn chair leg

As one of the most common reasons for replacing a Chair Foot, having a worn leg can cause many issues when used in a public setting as they can cause major damage to a wooden or hard flooring, scratching and denting with ease. Installing a ferrule or insert can be extremely useful in this instance, to provide refreshed levels of grip and anti marking properties simultaneously.

To prevent marking of a floor

More applicable to public related uses, preventing the scratching or damaging of floors can go a long way to reducing wasted spend on refurbishment or repair, enabling money to be spent elsewhere on more worthwhile projects. Certain options such as our rubber ferrules come with anti marking properties included specifically for uses such as these.

To increase grip

As an often-overlooked property of these products, our selection of feet provide excellent gripping properties increasing stability and preventing any potential injuries or health and safety related issues. Rubber Ferrules are recommended for anyone looking to increase grip on hard or slippery surfaces.

How to measure Chair Feet

When measuring up for the installation it is important to consider the type of foot you will be looking at, this is because measuring for internal is slightly different to external as there are different measurements that you will need to match up.
 

Outside Diameter
Finding the outside diameter or ‘OD’ of a tube can be done by measuring the distance between its two outer walls (as pictured), the distance between them being the measurement for outside diameter.
 

Internal Diameter
Similar to outside diameter, finding the internal diameter or ‘ID’ of your tube is done by measuring the distance between the two inner walls (as pictured), rather than the outer measurement
 

Wall Thickness
Once you have both the internal and external measurements of your tube you can work out the wall thickness required for a flush fit by using the following equation:

OD – ID ÷ 2 = Wall Thickness

Now you have your measurements including wall thickness, you can look to match it up with our sizing provided on site. For internal fitting feet you can match up your tube outside diameter with the outside diameter of the insert, however for external fitting feet such as ferrules, you will need to match up for internal diameter rather than outside.

How to install Chair Feet

Installation as you can see from the images below, is an easy process that can be completed quickly and efficiently by hand. With regards to inserts, these may require hitting with a hammer for a flush, secure fitting to your tube or box section.

Installing your ferrule

Fitting your insert

Surface Guide

Useful for many, below we have separated out the best product types for each surface / flooring type, based mainly on grip related properties. Please note that it can also be down to preference as to your choice of material depending on factors such as noise.

Please note that all of our Plastic / Rubber Chair Feet products are anti marking.
 

What’s available for Chair Feet

Our selection of feet is applicable for all types of Chairs, Furniture & Appliances, coming in a number of different sizes and styles depending on your needs and requirements. As one of the largest suppliers of these type of products into the UK we have a truly vast range available for all.

Inserts

Inserts are an extremely common choice for school type chairs with tubular legs, available in a massive amount of variations and sizes for almost every possible use.

• Round Inserts – Available in Angled, Domed, Wide/Thick Base & Coloured options
• Square Inserts – Available in Angled, Domed & Coloured options
• Rectangular Inserts – Available in Angled & Standard options
• Oval Inserts – Available in Angled & Standard options
  • View the selection

Ferrules

Ferrules are a popular choice as an external fitting option, pushing straight on to the end of your chair or furniture leg. Coming in many heavy duty reinforced and grippy styles for all kinds of furniture, objects, chairs and appliances these are a common choice.

• Plastic Ferrules – Available in Angled, Standard & Square options
• Rubber Ferrules – Available in Reinforced, Crutch & Pimple Base options
  • View the selection

Threaded

Threaded Feet are another common choice of foot, used mainly for heavier furniture / objects where additional height or levelling is required. Available in many variations suited to different weight ratings, from 100kg all the way up to 10,000kg.

• Threaded Fixed – Available in weight rated and standard
• Threaded Articulating – Available in weight rated and standard
• Threaded Tilting – Available in weight rated and standard
• Threaded Metal – Available in standard and machinery options
• Threaded Rubber – Available with fixed, tapered and octagonal bases
  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​View the selection

Glides

Glides are essentially feet made to promote loss of grip, enabling quick and easy movement across hard and soft surfaces. Often used inside consumer industries to increase comfort and reduce noise, these are another extremely popular choice.

• Nail On – Available in several bases such as Teflon & Felt
• Screw On – Available in PTFE/Teflon
• Push In – Available in Felt / PTFE
• Threaded – Available in Nylon / PE
  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​View the selection

Saddle

Saddle Feet are a lesser known form of chair foot, used specifically with tubular furniture to add grip and prevent the marking of flooring. As a simple to fit product, these simply clip around the tube to provide additional grip for both hard and soft flooring types.

• Tube Saddles – Available in 5 different styles
• Saddle Bases
  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​View the selection

Along with the different product ranges mentioned above, we also have many additional solutions available for less conventional uses. Some of these include:

• Screw Fixing Feet - For fixing to your object via screw
• Stick On Feet - Fixes into place with adhesive backing

** For more information about each product line, please click through to the relevant page
 

For our full variety of Chair / Furniture Feet products please see the range here.

For any custom enquiries, problems or questions related to these type of feet then please feel free to contact us or give us a call on 01233 713581.