The table clicks when someone puts a glass down. A fold of cardboard goes under the short leg because a rock is treated as one leg that is too short. The floor drops under the other pair. The pack lifts one corner and the click moves to the next.
When a four-leg table that used to sit still starts to rock, and the joints in the apron are still tight, the rock is usually two points on a plane that is not flat, not a single leg that needs a wedge. A loose screw in the apron, a leaf that is not locked, and a floor that drops under two legs at once are different jobs. I packed the north-east leg in March. Dinner was quiet. April the south-west corner was doing the same click. The cardboard was still under the first leg.
- Three points, four legs
- When a pack is the wrong job
- What the cardboard did
- Rock it on the diagonal
- What a quiet meal does not prove
Three points, four legs
Four feet make a table sit on a plane. Three points always find a plane. The fourth is the one that clicks. People treat that fourth foot as the fault and pack it. If the floor is the thing that is out, packing one foot only moves the click to the opposite corner.
Why pack first? Because you can hold cardboard. You cannot hold the floor. A wedge under one leg feels like a finished job. Checking both diagonals does not.
Push down on one pair of opposite corners, then the other pair. One diagonal will rock. That is the plane. Pack is a guess until you have felt both diagonals. A spirit level on the top only tells you the top is tilted. It does not tell you which pair of feet is making the click. The hands on the corners do that faster.
When a pack is the wrong job
Not every rock is a floor. A screw that has backed out of the apron will let one leg swing. You pack that foot and the swing is still there. Look under the top along the rails. If a screw turns with two fingers, that is the rock. Packing the floor will not seat a screw.
A table with a leaf will rock if the leaf locks are not home. The top looks one piece. The locks are not. Close the locks before you cut cardboard. A pack under a leaf table that is unlocked will crush when the leaf is used and the click will come back.
Castors and felt pads change the height of one foot without you meaning to. A missing pad is a short leg. A packed foot plus three pads is a new plane. Match the pads first. Then see if the rock remains.
Should you never pack a foot? No. A table on a flat floor with one cut-down leg needs a pack. The test is the other three feet. If they all sit and only one is short, pack that one. If two diagonals both rock, the floor is the job, or the table has to move.
Glass tops hide nothing and forgive nothing. A pack that is thick enough to stop the click will show as a tilt in the reflection. Move the base first. A trestle or bench-base table has two feet, not four. Packing one end of a trestle is how you roll the whole top toward the other end. Check the trestle bolts before you cut a wedge.
What the cardboard did
The dining table sat on old boards. I folded a cereal box under the leg that clicked when I wrote. The glass stopped ticking. Guests sat on the other side in April. That corner clicked. The first pack was still in place. I had not made the table level. I had chosen which corner would take the blame.
I took the cardboard out. Both diagonals rocked a little. The floor dipped toward the window. Moving the table a hand toward the wall quieted one diagonal. A thinner pack under two feet on the dip quieted the other. One thick pack under one foot had been the louder job.
A sofa against a radiator is the same short move: you fix the thing you can reach and leave the plane that is actually wrong.
Rock it on the diagonal
Clear the glasses. Stand at one corner and press the top. Then press the opposite corner. Then the other pair. You are looking for which pair moves. That pair is the plane you have to pack or move.
If only one foot is off and the three others sit hard, pack that foot. Use something that will not crawl: a proper furniture shim, not a stack of mail. Mail compresses in a week and the click returns. That return is why the same table gets packed twice.
If both diagonals move, do not stack packs under all four feet. You are building a new short table. Move the table first. A flat rug or a different board often ends the rock without a wedge. If the table cannot move, pack the two feet that sit in the dip, same thickness, not one hero pack under one leg.
Should every rock wait for a new table? No. A split leg or a broken apron rail is not a shim job. Look at the joints. A crack that opens when you press is the table, not the floor.
Tiles with a lip will rock a table that was quiet on boards. The lip is a one-foot pack you did not choose. Shift the feet off the lip. Packing the opposite foot on a lip only adds a second error.
Round pedestal tables do not have four feet. A rock there is the base or the floor under the base, not a missing shim at the rim. Do not pack the rim. You will mark the floor and the top will still move. Check the bolt in the pedestal first.
People lean, and children kneel on the edge. That load is not a floor problem. If the table only clicks when someone sits on the long side, look at the apron screws on that side before you cut cardboard. I did the opposite in March. The cardboard took the blame for a screw I had not touched.
A gap you can see under one foot is not automatically the pack. Slide a sheet of paper under each foot, one at a time, with no one at the table. The foot that takes no paper is sitting. The foot that takes two sheets is the short one only if the other three take none. If two opposite feet take paper, you are looking at a dip, not a short leg.
What a quiet meal does not prove
A quiet meal does not prove the floor is flat. It proves that the four feet agreed for those chairs. A heavier guest on the packed corner will change the plane. A wet week that lifts a board will change it again.
Packs will not last the life of the house. Cardboard flattens. Felt walks. What you can stop is treating every click as a reason to shove more paper under the first foot you notice. Another pack is for a table that already sits on three feet and needs the fourth to meet them. A new table is for a split rail. Moving the table, or packing two feet in a dip, is for the night only one glass was ticking.
Winter boards lift and summer boards drop. A pack that was right in March can be a new short leg in August. That is not a reason to add a second pack on top of the first. Take the old pack out and run the diagonals again. Stacking packs is how a table ends up on a pile of mail and still clicks.
A rug that bunches under one foot is a pack you did not cut. Flatten it or move the foot off the fold. Packing the opposite foot on a bunched rug adds a second error, same as a tile lip.
The cardboard is in the bin. The table is quieter two hands closer to the wall. I left the cereal box in a drawer after I moved the table. It is still there. I have not needed it. That is one house and one floor. It does not prove every click is a dip toward a window. It does prove that the first pack was the louder job. Look at both diagonals before you fold another box.
Related reading: A Sofa Against the Radiator Wastes the Heat You Turned Up
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