Why You Should Use a Rug Pad

Our old house has beautiful floors. You wouldn’t be able to buy these floors now, and so I value them tremendously. They are irreplaceable to me, like many features of our 115-year old Colonial.

So you can imagine how upset I was when I went to sweep one day and found the rug in our guest bedroom stuck to the floor.

Yes, stuck. I had no idea why a rug would stick to the floor, especially one that has a backing on it, but apparently right then and there I learned my lesson of why I will never, ever, ever go without a rug pad again.

Here is a quick lesson in how to remove the back of a rug from 115-year old wood floors.

1. First, peel up the rug as gently as you can. Next, use a plastic putty knife to scrape the residue that disintegrated off the back of your rug and onto your floor, off the floor. Carefully as not to scratch the wood, get as much of it off as you can.  I did this several times over the entire area before I was satisfied.
2. After I could get a good amount of the backing off the wood floor, I mixed vinegar and water and used a sponge to dampen the floor with the mixture. I used the sponge to clean off the remaining residue from the floor. This I also did several times over the course of a week.

Warning, the vinegar, water mixture removed the shine from my floor. I don’t know if the finish actually came off, or is just dull from the cleaning. I tried to steam the floor and it’s still not as shiny as the rest of them. I’ll have to work on that. Here is how the floor ended up after, which I’m happy about, but I still have to restore the finish somehow.

After this rug-backing removal adventure, I decided I’d never put down a rug without a rug pad. I had the chance to review one from Rug Pads USA and I’m really enjoying it.

We got a new rug in our living room and did a little rug switching around, so we got to try out the Eco-Cushion Non-Slip Rug Pad in our bedroom. We put it under a flatweave rug and the results have been comfy! I can tell the difference the rug pad makes since we had a different one under the same rug in our living room and it did not feel as cushioned.

The new one is very cushy, even my husband noticed it. And since it’s environmentally friendly, made from renewable materials, I’m really loving it.

Now you may thing all rug pads are the same, but I found a huge difference in this one and the type you buy off the shelf at the store. I think it’s a secret little way to make your home feel a little more luxe, put a cushion rug pad down.

Rug Pads USA sells a large variety of rug pads. You can get different types based on the type of floor or rug you have. They come in a large number of sizes too and you can even have them cut slightly smaller than your rug size, like the picture above. This helps so that the rug pad doesn’t creep out from under the rug. And they have pads that don’t slip. Find their entire selection HERE.

Oh, and my last tip for why you should use a rug pad, so your rugs don’t get stuck to your floor 🙂

 

Disclosure: I was provided a rug pad from Rug Pads USA for review. All opinions are my own.