On 12/19/2015 12:49 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:
"Bob F" wrote in message
...

I use a piece of hardboard over my carpet. The plastic "protectors" just
didn't last. Also, make sure the chair has soft (rubber) wheels, not hard
plastic, for when you roll off the mat.

IME, you want to mix hard with soft: i.e., a hard/stiff protector over
a soft carpet; a soft protector over a hard surface.

I had been using the plastic protectors on the carpet and like you said,
they just do not last long. The carpet will be comming out after the first
of the year if the stock market does not drop out the bottom. and some
laminate type of hard wood will be going back in.

I've had a plastic protector over carpet for ~10 years, now. What I've
noticed is the chair tends to "make it's own place" in the protector;
leaving little divets for each of the casters. This is frustrating
when you want to move the chair -- esp if you only want to move it a
VERY short distance (it wants to roll back into those divets).

In the long run, it has proven to lead to cracks in particular spots
as the stress is always constrained to those locations.

If it was not in an area that has to look nice, I would do like I did in the
basement that has a room with some indoor/outdoor carpet installed, just put
down about a 4x4 foot piece of plywood that I had laying around.

As the OP is looking for something to put *over* a "hard" surface,
something "soft" can work -- i.e., a piece of indoor/outdoor carpet.
Anything "hard" runs the risk of shifting, over time. Dirt and
other crud that works its way under that will grind away the
top surface of the flooring.

If he wants to go "upscale", he can laminate some of the flooring
to a substrate, put some rubber under it and lay *that* on the
floor. Not worth the effort, IMO, but, to each his own.