Replacement Parts for Your Folding Chairs – Caps, Plugs, and Clips

Do you have old folding chairs in decent condition except for the leg tips? If you don’t want the chairs to scratch your floors, you need replacement tips.

Here are a few tips on what replacement parts or enhancements you might need on your folding chairs. Let’s start with a leg cap.

1. Folding Chair Rubber Leg Caps to Protect the Floor

Foot caps, end caps, or chair tips are made of rubber. Placed at the legs of your folding chair, they prevent your floor from getting scratched or damaged. 

If they break and fall off or become damaged, you need to replace them if you want your floor to remain intact.

You can use the chairs on your floors without worrying about scraping with the new tips. 

If the tips are thick enough, they will last quite a while. They are an excellent investment to protect hardwood floors.

We only wish to find the tips in more colors to match different chairs.

How to Determine the Size of the Leg Cap

Rubber leg caps come in three common sizes: 3/4-inch, 7/8-inch, and 1-inch.

Be sure to measure the outside diameter of your chair legs from where the tip goes on. You can also measure the inside diameter of the old tip. 

Some typical dimensions for folding chair frame tubes are (always measure yours):

• with a lightweight plastic seat and back, the frame is typically a 3/4-inch tubular steel frame 
• with a padded or metal seat/back, the frame is typically a 7/8-inch tubular steel frame 

These Furnigear tips come in all three common sizes (3/4-inch, 7/8-inch, 1-inch) and also size over 1-inch.

How to Put on a Rubber Leg Caps

Here are some tips on how to put on a rubber chair leg cap:

1) Twist – As for putting the leg caps on, we found it easier to rotate them on rather than force them on. 

2) Soap – If you follow the guidelines provided by the tip manufacturer, you should have a good fit. If they’re too tight, a little liquid soap around the inside of the cap and around the leg might do the trick.

3) Small hole – If the tube is airtight, putting a small hole using a pin at the bottom of the rubber cap might help.

4) Hot water – You can put the cap in hot water to make it easier to push on the leg.

5) Mallet – You can use a mallet and smack the cap carefully in.

6) Tape – If the cap is too big, you wrap electrical tape around the leg to make a better fit.

And some tips on how to remove them:

If the rubber caps have a good fit, they won’t come off unless you intentionally remove them. When removing, try to rotate them. You can use hot water to make them easier to remove. Or you can hit them off with a mallet and monkey wrench.

If you have a wooden folding chair, there is no need to invest in foot caps because they do not need them.

2. Stability Plugs To Prevent Wobbling

Stability plugs are also known as stabilizers and V-tips. They can be plugged in on top of the tubing of the folding chair’s seat when it is in an open position. 

Stability plugs and caps support the chair by allowing the frame to rest while a person sits on the folding chair. Stability plugs keep the folding chair’s back legs steady to avoid wobble.

The stability plugs and caps can fit a 7/8-inch frame, whereas you do not need them for plastic and wood folding chairs. You only need them for folding chairs with a padded seat and padded back and metal folding chairs. 

You will come across many different types of stability plugs and stability caps. They are created to be compatible with most types of folding chairs. Here is an example of a stabilizer cap from Gluposti, Inc.

3. Connect the Folding Chairs With Ganging Clips

Ganging clips are used to create rows of interconnected chairs. They help to maintain a constant seating arrangement.

You snap the chairs together with two ganging clips for the best stability. The other clip is at the bottom of the folding chair at its legs, other is at the tubing between the seat and back.

This allows you to create a straight row of folding chairs, thus enabling you to move them quickly. 

They increase the safety of the person sitting on the folding chair. If you have several people attending your event, you do not want the chairs to be all over the place when they get up to leave. 

Even though this is not an accessory replacement part, it is still an essential component of the folding chair. 

Here are Plastic ganging clips from Elegent Upholstery.

4. Replacement Seat for Resin Folding Chair

The seat on your resin folding chairs can be replaced if the upholstery is torn, worn, or discolored, but the frame is still in good condition. This will save you money and give your chairs new life. 

You can update the look of your chairs and even change the color to match the occasion.

Here is an example from Flash Furniture – a replacement seat for a white resin folding chair.

The Bottom Line

Regularly used folding chairs eventually require replacement parts. You can invest in rubber leg caps, stabilizers, ganging clips, and replacement seats for your folding chair.

If you’re interested in doing even more DIY, check out these folding chair plans to build your own wooden folding chair.

Check out this article here at Open Backyard to learn more about the best folding chairs.