US20080099639A1

US20080099639A1 - Replaceable hook and loop fastener protection pad system

Info

Publication number: US20080099639A1
Application number: US11/978,504
Authority: US
Inventors: Stephen Webster
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2006-10-31
Filing date: 2007-10-29
Publication date: 2008-05-01

Abstract

A hook and loop detachable and re-attachable pad apparatus that is applied to furniture to protect flooring surfaces and make sliding furniture easier, has a hook material on a plate that attaches to the furniture to which a separate loop pad, made of loop material, attaches. The loop pad is detachable and re-attachable and may have loop material on both sides. Alternatively, a loop plate applied with loop material may attach to the furniture and have a separate, hook and loop combination pad that attaches to it. The combination pad has one side that is hook material and one side that is loop material so that additional hook and loop combination pads may be stacked on top of the prior pad to provide a thicker cushion to account for pad compression due to heavier pieces of furniture or to slightly raise pieces of furniture to better suit a user.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/855,567, filed Oct. 31, 2006, which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a hook and loop pad system for protecting surfaces against which the pad system is applied.

BACKGROUND

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art. Protecting a floor from markings caused by contacting furniture has traditionally been accomplished with felt or plastic pads. While generally satisfactory for their purpose, each has been associated with its share of problems. One problem associated with felt pads is their application to a piece of furniture with either glue or a sticky backing. With glue, such application may be permanent, and with a sticky backing, such felt pad may easily peel from the furniture as the furniture is repeatedly slid across a floor.
Another problem associated with plastic pads, such as nylon or similar solid plastic material is its application to furniture with a screw, nail or other metal fastener that must be driven into the furniture, thus damaging the furniture. This problem is compounded when changing the pad is desired. In such instance, the fastener must again be driven into the same portion of the furniture, thus further degrading the integrity of the furniture and perhaps creating splinters and stripping wood finish thereby creating an unsightly area on the furniture. Another limitation of current, hard plastic floor protectors is their propensity to strip finish from hard floors or otherwise mark the hard floor surface with which they contact.
What is needed then is a device that does not suffer from the above limitations. This, in turn, will create a device that is applicable to furniture such that it can be removed and replaced in a matter of seconds, that can be easily washed, and that will provide a soft, non-marking easily slidable surface against most hard surface floors.

SUMMARY

A detachable floor protection system attaches to legs or surfaces of furniture, which would otherwise contact flooring surfaces. The detachable system employs detachable hook and loop material to provide a system that is convenient to use, will not mark or scuff flooring surfaces, and can be removed to be washed and then reapplied.
In one example, a plate attaches to a piece of furniture, such as the bottom of a chair leg, with a fastener such as a screw, nail or adhesive. The plate has hook material on the side opposite the furniture so that a second “pad” piece composed of loop material can be applied to the hook side of the plate. Because the pad has loop material on both sides, both sides may be used. Additionally, the pad can be removed and washed by hand or a washing machine. Because the loop material is made from a soft material, such as nylon, the loop material will actually polish the floor surfaces that it is slid across.
In another example, a plate attaches to a piece of furniture, such as the bottom of a chair leg, with a fastener such as a screw, nail or adhesive. The plate has loop material on the side opposite the furniture so that a second “pad” piece, composed of loop material on one side and hook material on its other side, can be applied to the loop material of the plate. Specifically, the hook material of the pad attaches to the loop material of the plate so that the loop side of the pad will contact the flooring surface below the furniture. An added advantage of the second example is that multiple hook and loop pads can be stacked one after another to accommodate heavy pieces of furniture, such as a heavy bookcase that may other wise compress thin pads. As in the first example, the pad with its hook and loop sides can be removed and washed.
Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the description provided herein. It should be understood that the description and specific examples are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

DRAWINGS

The drawings described herein are for illustration purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way.

FIG. 1 is an exploded view of a first embodiment of a removable hook and loop pad system;

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of a second embodiment of a removable hook and loop pad system;

FIG. 3 is an exploded view of a third embodiment of a removable hook and loop pad system;

FIG. 4 is an exploded view of a fourth embodiment of a removable hook and loop pad system;

FIG. 5 is an exploded view of a fifth embodiment of a removable hook and loop pad system;

FIG. 6 is an exploded view of a sixth embodiment of a removable hook and loop pad system;

FIG. 7 is a side view depicting the pad system and shear forces involved when a chair leg slides across a floor;

FIG. 8 is an exploded view of a seventh embodiment of a removable hook and loop pad system;

FIG. 9 is an exploded side view of the seventh embodiment of a removable hook and loop pad system; and

FIG. 10 is an exploded view of additional embodiments of a removable hook and loop pad system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the present disclosure, application, or uses. It should be understood that throughout the drawings, corresponding reference numerals indicate like or corresponding parts and features.
FIG. 1 is an exploded view of a first embodiment of a removable floor-protection or floor-protecting system 10 such as a removable hook and loop pad system. Although the apparatus to be described may be referred to as a floor-protection system, the system also may facilitate easier sliding of furniture, including tables, chairs, bookcases, etc. upon floors, than if the system were not resident on such furniture. Generally, the floor-protecting system 10 may be an assemblage of a double sided loop pad 12, a plate 14, which may be a countersunk plate with hook material, and a fastener 16. The fastener 16 is used to attach the plate 14 to a piece of furniture, such as a leg or bottom surface. The plate 14 may also be known as a countersunk hook plate or simply as a hook plate. Continuing, the plate 14 may be installed against the end of a table or chair leg 18 in a flush arrangement while a fastener 16, such as a screw or nail or similar sharp attachment post is driven through the hole 20 to securely hold or attach the countersunk plate 14 to the end 19 of the leg 18 or bottom of furniture. End 19 may be regarded as a furniture surface. Alternatively, a furniture surface could be a surface larger than a leg end, such as the bottom of a bookcase. As depicted in FIG. 1, the plate 14 may have a countersunk plate portion 22 that mates to a countersunk screw portion 24 on the fastener 16. The fastener head drive pattern 26 may be driven with a typical drive style such as a Philips, straight, square or hex drive instrument. Additional fastener head drive patterns may be utilized.
Continuing with reference to FIG. 1, an explanation of how the double-sided loop pad 12 works in conjunction with the plate 14 will be explained. The plate 14 has “hook” material on a side 28 while pad 12 has “loop” material on a side 30 and side 32. The “hook” and “loop” material may be the same as or similar to that combination of materials known as the trademark VELCRO®. The hook and loop fastening method may also be known as a “burr” or “touch” fastener system. The hook material and loop material, which may also be referred to as hooks and loops, respectively, may be permanently adhered to or glued to their respective surface. For instance, the hooks 15 of a hook material may be glued to a surface 28 of the plate 14. Likewise, the loops 13 of a loop material may be glued to the surface 30 of pad 12. Alternatively, the loop material itself may be the pad 12. Still yet, two pieces of loop material may be sewn together to form the pad 12. Furthermore, two pieces of loop material may be sewn together with a filler material inside to provide thickness to the pad 12. The same may be done with hook material.
The hook and loop fastening system may consist of two layers: a hook side that is composed of miniature plastic hooks, and a loop side that is composed of miniature plastic loops that are generally smaller than the hooks. When the hooks and loops are pressed together, the hooks catch in the loops and hold each other together and form a bond. The strength of a hook and loop fastening system depends upon, for example, how well the hooks are embedded into the loops, and further, the structural integrity of the loops and hooks.
Continuing with FIG. 1, side 30 of the loop pad 12 is manually pressed against side 28 of the hook plate 14. The loop pad 12 becomes joined to the hook plate 14 when a hook 15 hooks onto or into the loop 13 of side 30 as depicted in FIG. 1. Although only a single hook 15 and a single loop 13 are depicted on a side of a piece of material, it should be understood that the entire side of the material, such as pad 12 or plate 14, is covered with the representative hooks 15 and loops 13. For instance, pad 12 has both sides fully covered with loops 13 while plate 14 has only one side fully covered with hooks 15. Although this creates a strong hook and loop fastener bond across the entire surface area of the material, such a hook and loop bond may be broken by pulling the loop pad 12 from the hook plate 14 starting with an edge of the loop pad 12. One advantage of the floor protection system 10 of FIG. 1 is that the pad 12 may be easily removed for cleaning, replacement if it is showing signs of wear, or for changing the pad 12 to a different color for decorative purposes. With such a system, no fasteners or adhesives need to be used to change the pad 12. The loops 13 of the loop pad 12 provide a soft, non-scratching surface for contact with a variety of floor surfaces, such as ceramic tile, plastic tile, plastic sheet or wood flooring. Although the loop pad 12 may be used on virtually any floor, including some carpets, the loop pad 12 is best suited to hard floor surfaces, such as those recited above.
FIG. 2 depicts an exploded view of a second embodiment of the teachings of the present invention. In such embodiment, the plate 34 may be equipped with a nail 36 with a point 38 such that the plate 34 may be referred to as a nail plate 34. In such an arrangement, the nail 36 may be driven into the end 19 of the leg 18 when sufficient force is applied to the nail plate surface 40. The nail 36 may be integrally molded into or set into the material of the nail plate 34. For instance the nail plate 34 may be a plastic and the nail 36 may be a metal. With the molding together or integration of the nail 36 and plate 34, the plate 34 and nail 36 may be handled as one piece. Similar to the first embodiment depicted in FIG. 1, the loop pad 12 is applied to the hook plate 14 by simply pressing the loop pad 12 onto the hook plate 14. The loop pad 12 may be removed and re-applied.
Continuing with the embodiment of FIG. 2, like that of FIG. 1, the plate 12 may have loops 13 over both flat sides or surfaces 30, 32 that are capable of bonding or joining to hooks 15 on the side or surface 40 of the plate 34. The advantages of the embodiment of FIG. 2 are the same or similar to those enumerated for FIG. 1, with the addition that the nail plate 34 may be easily hammered to cause the nail 36 to be driven into a leg 18, for example, of a wooden chair or table. The pad 12 remains easily removable because of the hook and loop system.
FIG. 3 is an exploded view of a third embodiment of a floor protecting system 10, such as a removable hook and loop pad system. The component parts of FIG. 3 are similar to those of FIG. 2; however, FIG. 3 depicts a hook pad 42 that is equipped with a self-adhesive side 44 and a side 46 that is equipped with the hook portion, hooks 15 of the hook and loop fastening system. Because the adhesive side 44 is a self-sticking backing side 44, the hook pad 42 can easily be pressed onto or applied to leg end 19 of leg 18. In such a scenario, the adhesive side 44 will stick to the end 19. With an adhesive bond in place, the loop pad 12 can be applied to the hook pad 42. More specifically, the double sided loop pad 12 with its loop material on side 30 and side 32, may be applied directly to side 46 of the hook pad 42. The advantages of the embodiment of FIG. 3 are the same or similar to those of FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIG. 4 is an exploded view of a fourth embodiment of a floor protecting system 10, such as a removable hook and loop pad system. More specifically, a cap 48 is able to be pressed over the chair leg 18 in an interference fit such that the inside end surface 52 of the cap 48 abuts against the leg end 19 of leg 18. Additionally, the sidewall 47 of the cap 48 will fit over a portion of the sidewall 49 of the leg 18 to the extent of the sidewall 47 of the cap 48. Once installed, the cap 48 will remain securely attached to the end of the leg 18. Furthermore, the loop pad 12, with its loops 13 of a loop material on side 30 and side 32, can then be pressed onto cap end 50, which is equipped with hooks 15 of a hook material. Again, because the entire surfaces 30, 32 of double-sided loop pad 12 has loops 13, easy and secure fixing to the hooks 15 over the entire surface 50 of cap 48 is possible. As arranged in FIG. 4, the loops 13 on side 30 will bond to the hooks 15 on end 50. The cap 48 may be made of a slightly pliable material, such as plastic, that may stretch or slightly deform when placed over the leg 18. In addition to the advantages mentioned above, the embodiment of FIG. 4 presents an easily removed, non-destructive method of utilizing the floor protecting system, that is, because the cap 48 slides over the end of leg 18, no drilling, screwing or nailing into the leg 18 is required. The embodiment of FIG. 4 is easily applicable to metal furniture legs.
FIG. 5 is an exploded view of a fifth embodiment of a floor protection system 10, such as a removable hook and loop pad system. The system of FIG. 5 is similar to FIG. 4 regarding the double sided loop pad 12; however, the loop pad 12 mounts to a base swivel 56. More specifically, the base swivel 56 has a mounting surface 60, which is equipped with hooks 15 of a hook material to securely mount to the loops 13 of a loop material on side 30 of the loop plate 12. The loops 13 on side 32 provide the soft surface to glide easily over flooring surfaces. The pad 12 may be reversed or flipped to reveal side 30 against a floor due to the use and wearing of side 32, for example. Continuing, the base swivel 56 mounts to a base plate 54 such that the base swivel portion 56 is able to not only pivot on the base plate 54, such as is possible with a loose point connection, but also rotate 360 degrees in accordance with arrow 55, on the base plate 54. The base plate 54 may be equipped with a mounting device, such as a nail 58, that can be driven into the leg end 19 of a leg 18, for example. As an alternative, and adhesive may be used instead of a nail. An advantage of the swivel device 53 of FIG. 5 is that it may be used on a floor with uneven surfaces, a floor that is not level (i.e. sloped), or a level floor. Regardless of the application, the chair or table equipped with the swivel device would securely rest on the floor and not “rock” as weight is shifted and applied to different legs of the chair or table. Additionally, a chair equipped with the base swivel 53 may be leaned or tilted onto two of its four legs yet completely maintain surface 32 on the floor.
FIG. 6 is an exploded view of a sixth embodiment of a floor protection system 10, such as a removable hook and loop pad system. In the embodiment, the leg 18 is equipped with a loop disk 62, which is equipped with a loop surface 64 covered with loops 13. The loop disk 62 may be attached with a fastener 66 such as a screw or nail as in prior embodiments. Continuing, while the leg 18 with a loop disk 62 and loop surface 64 may be used as a floor protector as depicted, the embodiment of FIG. 6 possesses the advantage of optionally having its overall bottom pad thickness increased by adding additional disks 68, 74, 80 to the loop disk 62. More specifically, the disk 68 may have a hook side 70 filled with hooks 15, and a loop side 72 filled with loops 13 such that the hook side 70 mounts directly against the loop side 64. Likewise, disk 74 may have a hook side 76 and a loop side 78 and disk 80 may have a hook side 82 and a loop side 84. With such a construction, the hook side 76 of disk 74 may be pressed against the loop side 72 of disk 68. Finally, the hook side 82 of disk 80 may be pressed against the loop side 78 of disk 74. When a leg 18 has such a construction of disks 62, 68, 74, 80 with loop sides 64, 72, 78, 84, the floor contacting such sides will always be protected by the easily replaced, soft surface of the loop material. Stacking of pads or disks 68, 74, 80 provides the advantage of raising a table or chair as desired to meet the height desired by a user.
An advantage of the stackable hook and loop disk arrangement of FIG. 6, is that as a piece of furniture, be it a table, entertainment stand, bookcase, etc. becomes heavier as objects are located on it, stackable disks may be added to the base disk 62. This may be especially important in protecting floor surfaces when a flat bottomed piece of furniture such as a heavily loaded bookcase is slid across a floor, even for a short distance such as to access an electrical plug behind such piece of furniture. If say, only thin pieces of felt were used under such a heavy bookcase, the bookcase may “bottom-out” and completely compress such felt and still contact the floor surface when it is pushed across the floor. This may scratch and damage a floor surface. The disks 68, 74 and 80 may be easily added and removed as the need requires due to the hook and loop floor protecting system 10 of FIG. 6.
FIG. 7 depicts the leg 18 equipped as depicted in FIG. 2, for example, although all other embodiments are capable of being depicted in such a situation, and contacting a floor surface 86. More specifically, a shear arrangement is depicted such that as the leg 18 is moving in the direction depicted by force arrow 88, the leg 18, plate 34 and pad 12 create a force, an “action,” to which the floor surface 86 exerts an opposite “reaction” force, in accordance with force arrow 90, on the pad 12. Despite the opposing forces 88, 90 involved, the attachment bond of the hook and loop fastening between the loop pad 12 and the plate 34, as described above in all embodiments, is strong enough to resist separation. Separation will not occur even when adults of varying weights individually sit on a chair and slide the chair to and fro across a floor, such as at a table in the course of normal chair use. This is another advantage of the hook and loop fastening system; more specifically, flat surfaces bonded by hook and loop fastening are generally strong bonds because the entire surface area of the bond works together to resist separation from each other.
Turning now to FIG. 8, another embodiment will be presented. Like the embodiment depicted in FIG. 1, a fastener 16 with a countersink portion 24 may be used to secure a plate 14 to an end 19 of a leg 18 of a piece of furniture; however, use of other fasteners, such as nails, are feasible. With the plate 14 depicted, the loops 13 of a loop material or hooks 15 of a hook material may be present upon the entire flat surface 28 of the plate that faces away from the leg 18, although in FIGS. 8 and 9, only one loop 13 and one hook 15 is depicted for representative purposes. Such loops 13 or hooks 15 may then bond or attach to hooks 15 or loops 13, respectively, upon a surface 92 of the plate or coaster 94, which may be made from a combination of nylon and steel, for example. More specifically, the area 98 alone of the coaster 94 may be equipped with loops 13 or hooks 15 of such a material to bond with their corresponding hooks 15 or loops 13 of such a material on surface 28.
The coaster 94 may be manufactured from steel and covered with nylon. For instance, the surface 93 of the coaster 94 may be nylon to provide a smooth, slidable surface upon a floor. The advantage of such an arrangement is that the steel will add strength and rigidity to the coaster 94 while the nylon covering or surface 93 will offer a material that is capable of sliding on a variety of surfaces, such as wood, plastic or vinyl sheet flooring and carpeting. With the surface 98 and 28 attaching using hook and loop material, in either combination, securing of the coaster to the plate 14 is ensured. Because the coaster 94 may be slightly larger than the plate 14, no hook or loop material will be visible and an aesthetically pleasing appearance is ensured.
While the embodiment of FIG. 8 presents another option for users, the embodiment retains the basic advantage of a removable plate or coaster 94 with the ease of hook and loop fastening. With such a feature, the coaster 94 may easily be replaced with another pad having a loop surface to glide on a floor, as described in conjunction with other embodiments above. FIG. 9 presents a side view of the embodiment of the floor protection system 10 of FIG. 8.
Turning now to FIG. 10, further examples of the present teachings will be presented. FIG. 10 depicts a floor protection system 10 that utilizes a leg 18 of a piece of furniture, such as a chair or table. The end surface 19 of the leg 18 mounts to a pad 100 that has a surface 102 equipped with an adhesive. The other side of the pad 100 has a surface 104 equipped with loops 13. The loops 13 occupying the complete surface 104 may then be joined to a pad 106 that employs hooks 15 on a hook material over a surface 110 that faces the surface 104 of pad 100. By stacking the pad 100 and pad 106 together, a thicker overall assembly may be provided in instances requiring a thicker pad between the leg and surface 108, which employs loops 13 to provide a soft, non-scratch surface to contact a floor surface. As mentioned previously, thicker pads may be required on furniture legs that must support increasingly heavier loads. A system such as that depicted in FIG. 10, which permits the addition of a pad 106 to an existing pad 100 facilitates such a need.
Continuing with FIG. 10, as an alternative to adding the pad 106 to the pad 100, pad 112 may be added to pad 100. The pad 112 is a nylon pad with hooks 15 of a hook material on a surface 114. Alternatively, the hooks 15 of a hook material may be confined to the area 115, which is bounded by dashed lines. By confining the area to which the hooks 15 of a hook material are applied, it is ensured that the hooks 15 of the hook material will not be seen by someone looking at the floor protection system 10, that is, the hooks 15 of the hook material will be hidden from view. The hooks 15 on the surface 114 may join and form a bond to the loops 13 of surface 104. In so doing, a nylon surface 116 of pad 112 is able to contact a flooring surface.
Still yet another alternative to using the pad 112 (or pad 106), a disk or coaster 118, made of a plastic material, for example, may be attached to the loops 13 of surface 104 of pad 100 or even the loops 13 of surface 108 of pad 106, to provide for a thicker overall pad, that is, coaster 118 plus pad 106 plus pad 100, as compared to coaster 118 plus pad 100 alone. Attachment of the coaster 118 is made possible by hooks 15 of a hook material on surface 120 that may contact either surface 104 or 108, each employing loops 13, depending upon the overall thickness of the floor protection system 10 desired. Alternatively, the hooks 15 of the hook material may be confined to the area 119 bounded by dashed lines. By restricting the area to which hooks 15 of a hook material are applied, a person may be unable to actually see the hooks 15 of a hook material when the floor protection system 10 is employed. The hooks 15 of a hook material of area 119 will essentially be hidden from view. By attaching a plastic coaster 118 as part of the floor protection system 10, the pressure or force per unit area due to an occupant sitting on a chair, will be less, thus requiring a lower force or effort to push the chair across a flooring surface than if the coaster 118 were not part of the floor protection system 10.
Throughout FIGS. 1-10, for ease of viewing, the hooks 15 and loops 13 are depicted larger than they may be in actuality. While the hooks 15 and loops 13 do interact (the hooks 15 “hook” within the loops 13), they together compress when weight is applied such that the floor protection system 10 creates a neat and compact appearance.
There are numerous advantages of removable loop-equipped pads, such as pad 12 of FIG. 1 for example, being bonded or fastened to hook-equipped plates, such as plate 14 of FIG. 1 or plate 34 of FIG. 2. First, because the pad 12 is separable from and re-attachable to the plate 14, the pad 12 may be washed and afterward be quickly and easily re-applied to the plate 14. Different interchangeable colors are also possible. The hook and loop fastening system as depicted in FIGS. 1-10 and described above strongly resists separation upon subjection to normal shear forces when used on furniture that rests on a smooth flooring surface such as hardwood, tile or plastic sheet flooring. Continually subjecting the hook and loop fastening systems described above to compression, such as when the system is used on the bottom of a piece of furniture, increases the bond between such hook and loop surfaces. This occurs because the hooks 15 of the hook material are thrust deeper into the loops 13 of the loop material. Typical loop surfaces may be made from a soft nylon or similar synthetic or natural material that will not scratch flooring with which the loop surfaces come into contact. The hook and loop systems described above are easily and quickly changeable. Finally, as depicted in FIG. 6, hook and loop pads are stackable to accommodate different weights of furniture, such as bookcases that become heavier as books are added, people on chairs, etc. The removable pads are easily removed to readjust to changing furniture weights, if desired.
Additionally, the removable and stackable pads may easily accommodate furniture with unequal length legs. In such an instance, due to manufacturing inconsistencies, sloping or uneven floors, or other occurrences, the various legs of a table, chair, bottom of a bookcase, etc. may not rest in a level fashion upon a floor surface. By using the easily attachable, detachable and stackable pads, such unlevel sitting pieces of furniture may be made to sit level, and unequal length legs may be “made equal” to provide a piece of furniture that does not rock or shake when used. This solution to wobbling furniture and unequal length legs provides a quick, easy and attractive solution to such unstable pieces of furniture. An added advantage is that the soft, non-scratching loop pads used to make a piece of furniture not wobble will stay in place as the furniture is even just slightly moved or moved from room to room. The pads, such as pad 12 for example, may be made in a variety of thicknesses and stacked to solve a variety of unlevel furniture situations yet provide a way to easily slide furniture without scratching flooring surfaces.
The description of the invention is merely exemplary in nature and, thus, variations that do not depart from the gist of the invention are intended to be within the scope of the invention. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

1. An apparatus for furniture that protects a floor, the apparatus comprising:

a first plate that abuts the furniture;

a hook material attached to the first plate; and

a first pad equipped with a loop material on two generally flat surfaces, wherein the loop material of one surface of the first pad attaches to the hooks of the first plate, and wherein the first pad is detachable by pulling, and re-attachable by pushing, on the first pad.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first plate defines a hole, the apparatus further comprising:

a separate fastener that passes through the hole and attaches the first plate to the furniture, wherein the first pad covers the fastener and the first plate.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the hole in the first plate is recessed and the separate fastener is shaped to accommodate the recessed hole.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first plate further comprises:

an integral nail fastener, wherein the integral fastener attaches the first plate to the furniture, and wherein the first pad covers the first plate.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a second pad equipped with a loop material on a first surface and a hook material on a second surface, the hook material of the second pad attaching with the loop material of the first pad, wherein the second pad is detachable by pulling, and re-attachable by pushing, on the second pad.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first plate further comprises a cylindrical side wall to form a cap around a portion of the furniture.

7. An apparatus for furniture that protects a floor, the apparatus comprising:

a base plate having a first and a second flat surface;

a base swivel portion pivotably mounted to the second surface of the base plate and having a flat surface to which a hook material is applied; and

a pad having two generally flat opposing surfaces with a loop material on both generally flat surfaces, wherein the loop material from one of the generally flat surfaces attaches to the hook material of the base swivel portion.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the first surface of the base plate has a protruding integral fastener to mount the apparatus to the furniture.

9. An apparatus for furniture that protects a floor, the apparatus comprising:

a first plate having a first surface that abuts and attaches to the furniture and a second surface that has loop material attached to it; and

a coaster, wherein the coaster has at least a first surface that is nylon and a second surface that has a hook material that attaches to the loop material of the second surface of the first plate.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the coaster is larger in diameter than the first plate,

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein and the diameter of the hook material on the coaster is the same size or smaller than the diameter of the loop material on the second surface of the first plate.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising:

a fastener, wherein the fastener attaches the first plate to the furniture and the coaster covers the fastener when the coaster is attached to the first plate.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the first plate defines a countersunk hole that passes through the center of the surfaces, through which the fastener passes.

14. A floor-contacting apparatus for a furniture surface, the apparatus comprising:

a first pad having a first generally flat surface that includes an adhesive layer and a second generally flat surface covered with a loop material, the adhesive layer adheres to the furniture surface.

15. The floor-contacting apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

a second pad having a first generally flat surface with a hook material and a second generally flat surface with a loop material, the first surface with the hook material attachable to the second surface of the first pad with the loop material.

16. The floor-contacting apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

an entirely nylon disk having a first flat surface with a hook material applied and a second flat surface of exposed nylon, the hook material attachable to the loop material of the second surface of the first pad.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

a plastic coaster larger in diameter than the first pad, the plastic coaster having a first generally flat surface with a hook material and a second generally flat surface that is exposed plastic, the hook material attachable to the loop material of the second surface of the first pad.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the hook material of the plastic coaster has a diameter that is smaller than the coaster diameter.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the hook material of the plastic coaster has a diameter that is the same size as the diameter of the first pad.