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Wobbly Standing Desks On Carpet Floors?
Tyson Sewell | Last updated Aug 4, 2022 | Published on Jun 22, 2022
Carpeted floors, in some cases, can lead to a wobbly standing desk. But what is it that makes standing desks wobble, and what can we do to keep our standing desk stable?
Investing in a well designed standing desk with sturdy desk legs is always the first step. But sometimes even with the best standing desk, users can experience a small amount of wobble. Understanding why desks wobble in the first place can help to mitigate this problem, and there are plenty of simple and easy ways to enhance your desks stability.
If you’re struggling with a wobbly desk, or perhaps are installing a new standing desk on a carpet floor and want to offset any possible issues, read on and we’ll explain why standing desks wobble, and how to stop them.
Top Reasons Desks Wobble & Aren’t Stable
Loose Frame
If you desk has bars or a traditional cross support design, you might have overlooked the importance of these parts. Cross support is used to add rigidity, and are a feature of many desks to compensate for any lack of stability in the legs. If your desk has a cross frame, you may be able to increase stability by increasing the tension – tightening those loose bolts might make all the difference.
Of course, the best way to offset this problem is to buy a desk with a frame sturdy enough to carry the weight without any wobble. Although a normal desk may be able to use a cross frame to compensate for a lack of strength in the legs, standing desks do not share this luxury. So choosing the most solid frame at the point of purchase is crucial.
Too Tall or Top Heavy
If your desk is over weight capacity, you may find it wobbles when at full height. If your desk is simply not strong enough, then your only options will be too keep it low, or remove some weight.
This is why choosing a desk which has a strong, well designed frame is so important.
Poor Design
Another major contributor to desk wobble is plain bad design. Many desks claim to have the stability to handle heavy weight, but in practice they might not be as steady as you need.
If the frame is not well conceived and executed, your desk will wobble no matter what you do. Standing desk frames need to be rock solid, and supported by powerful motors. And all of this has to be brought together so the desk remains stable both in static position and when transitioning.
That’s why we’ve put spared no time or effort when sourcing our materials and designing our range, and are proud to offer some of the most stable, wobble free standing desks available.
Uneven Floor
Your floor might look like a flat surface, but it only takes the slightest incline, or one loose floorboard, to knock your desk off centre. Carpeted floor can tend to hide any dips or uneven patches, and presents the dual hazard of your desk sinking into it (if your carpet is particularly plush).
It’s well worth having a look and getting out the spirit level when you choose a place for your desk – and avoid placing your desk on very thick carpet.
How Do I Stop My Standing Desk From Wobbling?
Here’s how you can stop your standing desk from wobbling:
Use A Rug
Alternatively, a good quality rug can do a job. Anything that helps spread the load across the floor will give you at least minor gains when trying to stabilise your desk.
Choose A Desk With Large Feet
If your desk is designed with stability in mind, it will feature large, wide feet which spread the load and provide a more stable anchor to the ground. Unsurprisingly, this adds up to superior stability, which is why you’ll notice this is a feature of high quality standing desks.
Standing desks, because of the fact they are by design non-static, cannot rely on a cross support to bolster stability. When choosing a standing desk, look for Sturdy, well engineered desk legs, powerful motors, and wide, stable feet are required to keep desks wobble free.
Use Inbuilt Stabilisers
Some desks feature screw mounted stabilisers on the bottom of the feet which allow you to manually alter the height of the far point of each desk leg. If you have an uneven or tilted floor, this can be a life (and desk) saver.
By winding down one or more of the extra feet, you can even out your desk and mitigate any problems with your existing surface, giving you perfect stability and flexibility.
Choose A Flat Piece Of Floor
This might seem obvious, but if you check around your home office (or living room) you may find some parts of your floor are more stable than others. Choosing wisely when placing your desk could save you a lot of inconvenience in future, so it’s well worth getting out the spirit level and finding the right spot.
Don’t Stand Your Standing Desk On Thick Carpet
If you can avoid it, don’t stand your desk on thick carpet. The thicker the pile, the more wobble you’re likely to face – it’s that simple. The loose fibers on top of your carpet are an inherently unstable surface for your desk, as they have a tendency to shift and will be uneven when compressed.
How Do You Stabilize A Standing Desk For Carpet?
Stabilising a standing desk for carpet is definitely possible. Here are a few tricks if you’re still struggling with desk wobble:
Use A Mat
As we suggested above, mats can help ensure each desk lag is sitting flush to the mat, and help distribute the desks weight across the floor. All of this adds up to a more stable standing desk!
Desk Riser
Although a desk riser might seem an odd choice to maximise stability, risers have the effect of spreading weight across the desk. This, in turn, helps the desk spread the weight across the feet, which results in greater stability.
Use Wedges To Even The Surface
If your floor is seriously uneven or on a slope, you might need to get stuck in and come up with a manual fix. Luckily, we’ve probably all seen a table propped up on beer mats or similar before, and in most cases, whatever uneveness you’re experiencing with your floor will be slight enough . That means that a well placed piece of card, wooden blocks, or in more extreme cases a wedge system, can reliably support one leg to add height and even out the desk overall.
Choose The Most Stable Desk On The Market
Most standing desks, especially cheaper ones, can wobble at full height. Really, the only way round this is to choose a desk in the first place that has a sturdy, powerful frame, set on wide feet, and powered by smooth, powerful motors. We’ve selected some of Australia’s best standing desks to help you work through the endless choices on the market today.
Even if your floor’s not even, the better frame you put on it, of course the greater the chances of keeping your desk stable.
Do You Need An Anti Fatigue Mat For Standing Desk On Carpet?
You need an anti fatigue mat for standing desks on carpet, but it’s less to do with desk stability and more to do with your own personal stability. Finding a sure footing on a carpeted floor is as difficult for you as your desk, and using an anti fatigue mat will stop you wobbling.
Although this might not seem important, if you’re spending long periods standing at your desk, you could end up with sore knees and a sore neck standing on carpet. This is because your body will be compensating for the fact your surface is uneven. A little bit of this is good, and a mat encourages the right amount – but too much can lead to stress and twisting injuries.
An anti fatigue mat will give you a stable foundation to stand on, and comes with a host of additional benefits besides. Anti increase blood flow, improve circulation, and users report an uptick in mental and physical energy over the day when using one. And bevelled edges help you roll your office chair on and off for when you need to take the weight off.
Hopefully by now you can see that you can stabilise a standing desk on carpet floors, with a little knowledge and perhaps some improvisation. But to give your self the best possible chance of stability, you need a standing desk which is designed with this in mind.
There are desks frames that are obsessively designed to give you the ultimate in stability, so if you’re struggling with a wobbly desk on your carpet floor, it could be well worth giving this range of standing desks a look!
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