Why Domestic-Grade Office Chairs are not designed for the workplace.
Put two office chairs side by side and they’ll look almost identical. Same shape, same arms, same base, same adjustment levers. One costs £80. The other costs £250.
So why pay more?
This insight explains the issues of buying domestic grade office chairs for commercial use. You might save a lot of money short-term, but long term it could cost you a lot more.
- What’s the difference between domestic and commercial office chairs?
- If a cheap chair looks the same, what’s the problem?
- Is Your Office Chair Tested for Workplace Use?
- Can a business be liable if an office chair fails?
- Is buying cheap office furniture actually cheaper?
- What about buying office furniture straight off the shelf?
- Does this matter when refurbishing an office or education space?
- Should I just buy the most expensive office chair?
- What should I ask before buying an office chair?
What’s the difference between domestic and commercial office chairs?
The biggest difference is usually how it has been designed to be used.
A domestic office chair may only be used for a few hours a week. A commercial office chair could be occupied for eight hours every working day. In shift environments, some chairs are in use almost continuously.
This means repeated:
- sitting and standing
- adjusting
- leaning and turning
- moving across the floor
- used by different people
Many commercial task chairs are designed specifically for 8-hour use, while specialist 24-hour chairs are available for shift-based workplaces, that’s a very different demand from the occasional home use.
If a cheap chair looks the same, what’s the problem?
Two chairs can look virtually identical in a photograph but be very different underneath. The difference may be in the frame, steel thickness, welds, fixings, gas lift, base, mechanism and reinforcement.
Cheaper furniture must save money somewhere, and those savings are not always visible.
There’s been cases where a low-cost imported commercial office chair looked very similar to a commercial alternative but had a much lighter frame construction underneath, the chair failed and what looked like a saving, became the basis of a far more expensive problem.
Is Your Office Chair Tested for Workplace Use?
Not every chair sold as an office chair is necessarily designed for the demands of a commercial workplace. In the UK, office task chairs should ideally meet BS EN 1335, the recognised standard covering dimensions, safety, strength and durability. This helps demonstrate that the chair has been designed and tested for regular workplace use, rather than occasional use at home. When buying office furniture, especially cheaper chairs online, it is worth checking whether the product actually states compliance with BS EN 1335. A chair may look suitable for an office, but what matters is how it has been constructed and tested.
Can a business be liable if an office chair fails?
Employers have responsibilities around providing suitable and safe equipment for employees.
- If a workplace chair breaks and someone is injured, questions may be asked.
- Was the chair intended for commercial use?
- Was it suitable for prolonged use?
- Was it appropriate for the person using it?
- Was it maintained correctly?
- Was it being used in the environment it was designed for?
That does not mean every inexpensive chair is unsafe, but it does mean that choosing workplace furniture purely on price can carry risks that are easily overlooked.
Is buying cheap office furniture actually cheaper?
There’s been plenty of businesses that have chosen cheaper domestic-style furniture over a commercial office furniture package and a few years later, much of it needed replacing.
There were no accidents or claims, just the cost of buying the furniture twice, plus the disruption of removing the old furniture, reorganising staff and installing everything again.
That is why the lowest purchase price does not always mean the lowest overall cost.
There is also the cost of disposal to consider. If cheaper office furniture needs replacing more frequently, the business may face additional costs for removing, recycling or disposing of the old furniture, as well as the environmental impact of sending more furniture into the waste stream and replacing it sooner than necessary.
What about buying office furniture straight off the shelf?
There’s nothing wrong with buying office furniture directly from a retailer or online. The risk comes from assuming that anything described as an ‘office chair’ is automatically designed for the demands of a busy workplace.
Online, it’s easy to compare, price, colour, appearance and delivery time.
But it’s much harder to compare the construction, commercial warranty, usage rating, durability, ergonomics and expected lifespan.
Does this matter when refurbishing an office or education space?
If you are planning an office refurbishment, workplace fit-out, school refurbishment or education furniture project, the furniture should be considered as part of the overall space.
The right chairs depend on:
- who will use them
- how long they will be used each day
- whether they are shared
- the type of work being carried out
- the environment they will be used in
The same applies in education.
Classroom chairs, staffroom furniture, library seating and breakout furniture can experience much heavier use than similar furniture in a home, which is why commercial and education-grade furniture is designed differently.
Should I just buy the most expensive office chair?
The aim is not to buy the most expensive chair, it’s to buy the right chair for the job.
You may need an ergonomic office chair, an 8-hour task chair, a 24-hour chair, meeting seating, reception seating or heavy-duty seating.
A furniture specialist can look at the space, how people work, how long the furniture will be used and what level of durability is needed.
That can also include larger projects such as space planning, CAD layouts, furniture specification, delivery and installation.
What should I ask before buying an office chair?
- Is it designed for commercial use?
- How many hours a day is it designed for?
- What warranty applies in a workplace environment?
- Has it been tested to recognised standards?
- Are replacement parts available?
- Is it suitable for the person and environment it is being bought for?
And perhaps the most important question: What was this chair actually designed to do?
Because two office chairs can look almost identical, one may have been designed for occasional use at home, the other may have been designed to support someone for eight hours a day, five days a week, for years.
That difference is not always obvious from a photograph, but it can become very obvious later.
For expert advice on choosing commercial office chairs, get in touch with the Polycopy team – 01506 610077