Are you tired of constantly adjusting your rug because it slides around on your floor? Or maybe you wish your rug had more cushion. Or you’re worried that the rough backing of your rug could be scratching your hardwood floors. A rug pad is the fix!
Today I’ll walk you through everything you need to know to find the best rug pad for your space. From understanding why you need rug pads to exploring the different types available (including ones to avoid), knowing how to measure and size your rug pad, and more, I’ve got you covered. Let’s get to it… (post includes affiliate links; full disclosure statement available {here})
Do I Really Need a Rug Pad?
Yes you DO need a rug pad! Here’s what a rug pad can do for you:
1. Prevent Slipping: A rug pad can keep your rug from shifting, sliding, and bunching up. This was an issue with our dining room rug (bought {here}) before I got a rug pad to put under it:
I thought a rug pad might make it more difficult to move our rolling dining chairs back and forth from the table, but it actually made it easier since there’s no more bunching up of the rug:
2. Protect Your Rug: Rug pads can help extend the lifespan of your rug by creating a cushioned layer that absorbs shock and reduces wear and tear. Without a rug pad, your rug will experience wear from the rug and flooring rubbing against each other.
3. Reduce Noise: Rug pads help reduce noise by absorbing impact and vibrations, especially on the upper floor of your home.
4. Prevent Damage to Floor: Rug pads provide a barrier against potential moisture and spills, preventing damage to your floors. Also, dirt and debris that get under a rug can wear away at your flooring over time.
Having a rug pad under a jute rug is especially important because jute rugs shed a lot of debris that can wear the surface of your hardwoods:
5. Add Cushioning: Thicker rug pads provide extra support and cushioning underfoot. that makes walking on your rug feel more plush and cushioned.
What’s the Best Rug Pad for Hardwood Floors?
Hybrid rug pads with felt on one side and natural rubber on the other are an excellent choice for use on hardwood floors. The felt side of the rug pad is there for cushioning, giving your rug a softer, cushier feel when you walk on it. The natural rubber backing provides non-slip grip to keep your rug in place. Be sure to look for natural rubber, as it’s much safer for your floors than artificial rubber.
One felt/natural rubber hybrid rug pad that I have and recommend is {this Gorilla Grip rug pad} that I have under our dining room rug in the ⅛″ thick option:
Also check out {this dual surface pad from Rug Pad USA} that’s very similar and available in more thickness options.
Another option for a rug pad on hardwood floors is one that’s 100% felt. A felt-only pad is a good choice for spaces where you don’t need the gripping feature of rug pads because you have furniture that’s anchoring your rug or you have a heavy rug that stays in place on its own. {This felt rug pad} that my sister has under her dining room rug is a highly-rated choice:
TIP: Be careful about using ANY rug pad too soon after hardwood floor refinishing. Check with your refinisher for wait times based on the cure time of the specific products used to refinish your hardwoods. Typically, you should wait 30 days to place rugs and rug pads back down if you used an oil-based polyurethane and 1-2 weeks if you used a water-based polyurethane.
What’s the Best Rug Pad for Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVP) Flooring?
Be careful when choosing a rug pad for vinyl floors, as rubber and latex pads can react with the floor’s finish and cause permanent damage. You can use a 100% felt rug pad including {this rug pad} mentioned above. Or if you need a rug pad with some grip, {this Vinyl Lock rug pad} with a ribbed EVA backing is a great choice, as it’s specially formulated not to stain or discolor vinyl flooring.
What’s the Best Rug Pad for Tile Floors & Other Hard Surfaces?
Rugs tend to shift more on tile floors than hardwoods, so you’ll definitely want a rug pad that grips. Either of the felt/natural rubber hybrid rug pads mentioned earlier, including ({this Gorilla Grip rug pad} and {this dual surface pad from Rug Pad USA}) would work well for tile floors and other hard surfaces too.
If you only need a rug pad for grip (you don’t need cushioning), consider a thin natural rubber pad like {this one}.
What’s the Best Pad for a Rug On Top of Carpet?
If you’re putting a rug on top of carpet, you’ll want a non-slip pad to protect the carpet underneath and keep your rug from slipping. After scouring all of the rug pad options out there, I found that {this double sided gripper pad} is the most highly rated.
You first place the side that’s just mildly sticky down on the carpet (one reviewer compared it to the stickiness of a Post-It note, which is a great way to describe it!). After you’ve smoothed it down, you then remove the clear film from the other side that’s much more sticky,
and then lay your rug down on top of it:
It did a great job of keeping the rug on our carpet from shifting around. And I liked that the carpet side of the rug pad wasn’t so sticky that I had concerns about it transferring stickiness to the carpet.
What Rug Pads Should You NOT Buy?
A lot of rug pads, especially lower-cost options like cheap waffle pads, are made using PVC or similar synthetic materials. PVC rug pads can contain harmful adhesives or chemicals that stain or discolor floors. They may also emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can affect indoor air quality. And while they cost less, they also degrade more quickly than natural rubber, so will need to be replaced sooner. For these reasons, I don’t recommend buying PVC rug pads for indoor rugs.
The only time I would consider a PVC rug pad is for use under an outdoor rug (although I’ve never used a rug pad under ours!).
Their moisture resistance makes them a great choice for this one particular use.
What Rug Pad Thickness Should I Choose?
Choose a thinner rug pad (⅛″) in high-traffic areas, and when you have a door swinging over your rug that necessitates a lower rug + rug pad height, like your entryway:
Entryway Sources: Serena Smart Shades on entry doors | Capiz chandelier (22.5″) | Rug | Raffia console | White table lamp | 30″ x 40″ Framed art print | Decorative snail | Wave coral – HomeGoods | Decorative clam shell | Shallow wood bowl | Glass beads | Cube ottomans
A thinner rug pad is also a good choice in dining rooms, where thicker rug pads can make it difficult to move chairs back and forth from the table. You might also want a thinner rug pad if your rug itself is thin, since you don’t want your rug pad to dominate the look.
Choose a thicker rug (¼″ – ⅜″) when a plush feel with more cushioning is a priority. A thicker rug pad is also a good choice when you’re placing it under a thick, high-pile rug.
How to Measure for Your Rug Pad
Your rug pad should be slightly smaller than your rug to ensure that it’s not visible. A good rule of thumb is to subtract 2″ from the size of your rug to determine your rug pad size. This puts it 1″ in from each of the four edges. So, for example, if you have an 8′ x 10′ rug, you’d want a rug pad that’s 7’10” x 9’10”.
Tip: Even if you know what size rug you have, measure it to double-check that the actual measurement is the same as the listed size. A rug sold as an 8 x 10 or 5 x 7 often measures an inch or two smaller or larger.
How to Install Your Rug Pad
Once you get your rug pad, trim it to size with scissors. Using a straight edge and a marker or chalk, draw straight lines lengthwise and widthwise along the edges of the rug to define the portion of the rug pad that needs to be cut off. Make sure you have sharp scissors like {this pair} that makes cutting rug pads easy:
If you’re adding a rug pad under a rug that you already have, be sure to mark all four corners of the rug (I use delicate surface painter’s tape) before rolling it up:
Then when you place your rug pad down, you simply center it within the area defined by your taped corners.
And with that… my rug pad post is a wrap! I know this isn’t the most exciting topic I’ve ever posted 😜 about but I hope that you’ve found it to be helpful!
XO,
