In the past, glides with flat bottom nylon sliders have
preformed satisfactorily on hard floor surfaces that contain
asbestos. However, all schools and other institutions have
been required to remove any materials that contain asbestos
due to serious health concerns.

In the school industry, carpeting and asbestos floor tiles have been
ruled unsafe and must be removed and replaced with safe alternative
flooring material. Vinyl flooring has been approved as a safe and has
recently been installed in many schools, and continues to be installed in
thousands of school buildings as a replacement to carpeting and asbestos
floor tiles.

Also all new school building constructions are required to use approved floor
coverings. And, while vinyl floors are the number one choice in schools, a serious
problem has begun to emerge as a result of the use of the existing furniture glides
on vinyl floor surfaces. More particularly, the bottom of the furniture glides is causing
serious damage to vinyl floor ties as result of dirt, dust and grit accumulating on the bottom surface of the furniture glides installation tool.

Eventually, the grit becomes embedded in the slider material (e.g. nylon). Turning the once smooth slider surface into a blacken sandpaper abrasive surface. Once this happens, sliding movement of the furniture across the floor results in scratching and marring of the newly installed vinyl floor tiles. This has led to increased labor costs to schools in connection with maintenance of the floors and, particularly, stripping the floors and re-waxing the floors in order to remove unsightly marks and scratches. And, because the problem associated with the floor glides remain unresolved the newly re-waxed floors become marred and scratch once again and in very short period of time.