Here's an Update

Do you use rugs on your hardwood flooring?
If so, chances are you use rug pads underneath them.

I shared here about these two new rugs for the great room and the rug pads I use.

I also shared that the rubber pad had etched a pattern into the sealer on my hardwood floors.  This is how the etched pattern looks.

You can really see it after spraying cleaner on the floor.

In January 2014 we had hardwoods installed in the great room and I was concerned about using rug pads on the new flooring so it was perfect timing when Will, with Rug Pad USA, contacted me to try their product.  I explained my previous problem with etching in the sealer and he assured me they have never received any feedback like this from their customers.  Will explained their pads are made of a plant based oil rather than the petrochemical oil used in most rubber rug pads, so I agreed to give their ECO-CUSHION a try.

Time for an update.

Unfortunately, after a few months this rug pad pattern was etched pattern in the sealer of our newly installed hardwoods.  I don't know why it happens on our floors?  The hardwood flooring we have is Brazilian Cherry, but the pattern is not etched into the wood.  The pattern is etched into the sealer and we have both oil and water based sealers on our hardwoods.  This happened with the previous rubber pads and now with the new Rug Pad USA natural oil rubber rug pad.

I contacted Will to let him know the etching was appearing again.  With the kitchen remodel we were already planning on having all the hardwoods in our home freshened up with a new coat of oil based sealer and we were not going to use another rubber rug pad,  He suggested their ECO-FIBER ~ 100% recycled felt pad, it is all felt with no rubber in it, so we are giving it a try.

We decided to tackle this late at night and it was cold outside so this is how we cut the felt pad:

(Sorry for these pictures, late night lighting is the worst!)

We measured our rugs and decided to cut the thick felt pad 1 1/2" smaller than the rug size so the rug edges would fall to rest on the floor.  We used a sharpie to mark the felt pad...

To keep the wood floor safe we used the rug as the foundation,

placed a thin section of plywood on top of the rug,

and using a box cutter blade cut the felt pad on top of the plywood.

The felt is much thicker than the rubber pad so it was tough to cut, but the extra padding feels really nice underfoot.  Since there is no rubber on this rug pad the small rugs at the doors want to slip a bit at times.  The larger rugs don't slip as much because there is some furniture on them.  Possibly if furniture placement was able to fall on all four corners of the rug there would be no slipping, which isn't possible in our setup.

I hope, hope, hope, that we are safe from any etching with this all felt rug pad.

The folks at Rug Pad USA have been quick to offer this replacement option.

You can view the original post HERE.

*The rug pad was provided by Rug Pad USA, thoughts and opinions are mine based on my experience.  I've only had this felt pad for a short time and will give an update if there are any changes.