Tuesday, May 4, 2010

A little extra padding

Since I own about a million rugs, I have also bought a lot of rug pads.  A rug pad is so important when laying rugs over hardwood floors!  Without them, the backing of your rug can really rub the finish off your floors.  Not to mention pad-less rugs can create a slippery situation.  It's also important to buy a tight-weave rubber (or woven) pad, not the rubber ones with the large grid pattern. The large-weave ones can leave a checkboard in your floor over time, which actually happened to my mom.  She was not amused when she removed the rug pad and saw a nice pattern on her wood floor!  There are a lot of pads that work well.  Here is a sampling of the many different rug pads in our house:
And this is an example of a pad I wouldn't trust over hardwoods (sadly, from my beloved Overstock):
The 'recycled' rug pads like this one from Pottery Barn are great, but 8x10's go for around $100 at PB! 
I get all my rug pads at TJ Maxx, I always buy the rubber ones because they are softer and springier than the recycled mat-style ones.  Oh, and an 8x10 pad is $20 at TJ.  Yes, ma'am!   

Funny story:  Before I was a savvy homeowner, I actually tried to duct-tape a bathroom rug to the linoleum to stop it from sliding.  It didn't have the rubber backing, and we would skate across the floor whenever we had to pee.  Shaun thought I was the biggest nerd for trying to rig it with tape, and I had to go buy a rubber pad the next day.  Oh, the silly things I've done in the past!

8 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tip...do they work over carpet too?

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  2. Well, the rubber ones I've shown here are best for hard surfaces. I believe for over carpet, you want a solid pad without holes as cushion is less important, and holes can allow colors from the rug to stain the carpet. You can buy solid latex, polyester, or recycled pads that work awesome over carpet!

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  3. Ahhh, so that is what a rug pad is. I was going to ask, but forgot about it. We have them in our house, but in our kitchen to stop our saucepans and plates from sliding in their draws! Works a treat!!!

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  4. I had no idea they could leave a pattern on hardwood floors! I need to check the runners in my hallway.

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  5. Good to know! I think our rug pads are the rubber tight-weave ones, so I think we are okay there. Before we got the rug pads, our dog would always zoom crazily around the house and the rugs would slip-and-slide every which way all the time. So, similar to you, I got some double-sided tape and taped the rugs to the floor! Haha, they only lasted a couple of days before his momentum de-stuck them. :)

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  6. Ha! Funny about the tape! You live and learn!

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  7. I really need some rug pads. I don't have a single one.

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  8. Oh I never knew that TJ Maxx carried them....that is a super tip!

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Thanks so much for reading....your comments mean a lot to me!
Sara