If you’ve ever had the chance to own a hardwood floor, you know how slick that area rug can get if you don’t use a rug pad.
My sister’s dog used to bury her nose in one of the rugs and then try and rub her face on it using her entire body (presumably to scratch her nose?). She ended up pushing the rug all around the room.
The 16" area rug.
She is a big dog, I guess. But still…
If you don’t have one (a rug pad, not a dog), it’s definitely time to consider finding the best rug pad for hardwood floors.
Maybe that dog wouldn’t work so hard if the rug just stayed put and let her scratch herself on it.
But what makes the best rug pad?
Well, you’ll have to visit Debbie to see, but I’ll give you a little bit of the quick and dirty.
It should be no large surprise, but you need something that grabs at the floor really well.
A rug pad should be affordable and of good quality. Yup. Good quality’s good.
It also goes without saying that you don’t want them to release toxic gases.
Wait, what?
Oh! Sorry, I said you’ll have to visit to find out the real skinny. Forget I mentioned toxic chemicals. That can hurt you. And your dog. Kids are probably not immune, either. No really, forget I said it.
I’m serious, though.
Anyway, moving on, be sure you’re considering the size of the space, the colors that may poke through if your rug is gappy or shaggy on the fringe.
Have you ever been carrying a piano and had the rug slip out from underneath you, resulting in the piano falling right on top of you and killing you?
Well, ok, probably not.
But it could happen!
There are other good reasons too.
I’m just gonna skip on them because you really need the full details from the source. I’m just grazing in the same pasture, here.
Better question!
Do you know how much it costs to refinish your floor because your rug pad sucks and wore a big spot in the finish, some of which still has little bits of that cheap piece of crap stuck to it where it literally transformed into an adhesive?
Or, I guess, if it got scratched? Or just needed redoing?
Well, the polyurethane is not actually all that expensive unless your kitchen is REALLY big.
But the time involved? Well, for polyurethane, it’s like a few hours and a 24 hour wait time for the floor to dry.
But if you want to do it right, you SAND it first.
That can take longer. And it makes your shoulders hurt.
Unless you use a power sander.
But then it makes your BACK hurt.
Unless you wear a back brace.
But then it… might make your legs tired. Or scare your cat.
Regardless, there are a lot of unfavorable reasons you don’t want to refinish your floor more often than you have to.
So really, what I guess I’m trying to say is that you need the right area rug pad for your needs. It won’t be cheap, but you’ll save in the long run.
Plus, your cat won’t need Prozac. And your dog won’t drive herself right off the stairs just trying to scratch her nose.
Please. I implore you. Think of the animals.
