Best rug pads for hardwood floors

When a rug is on a hardwood floor, it’s important to have the right rug pad underneath. The floor can be damaged by rug scratches and furniture indentations and the dense pad will prevent this from happening. The best rug pads for hardwood floors are ones that are solid felt or a combination of felt and natural rubber.

When walking on a carpet, there is pressure to go through the carpet and hit the ground. A quality carpet pad will act as a barrier between the carpet and the floor to prevent scratching from the back of the carpet to the floor. Therefore, the rug pad should be solid rather than one that has holes in it. The more solid and denser the pad, the better the protection of the wooden floor.

For rugs that don’t tend to slip, a 100% felt jute pad is great. This is dense enough to protect the floor from scratches and gouges. Make sure the felt rug pad is 40 ounces, referring to how much fiber there is per square yard of pad. The higher the ounce, the denser the carpet pad. If the mat tends to slip, a felt and natural rubber mat is ideal. The key here is to make sure it’s natural rubber rather than chemical sprays that look and feel like rubber but can actually do serious damage to the floor.

I’ve heard many people tell me that their pad stuck to the floor and it cost them a lot of money to refinish the floor. The type of pad that does this is an open-weave waffle-like pad. It may look and feel like rubber, but it is actually a plastic or nylon pad that has been chemically sprayed. This chemical is what transfers to the floor and leaves an imprint of the carpet pad on the floor. Real rubber does not damage the floor and a felt and natural rubber mat will prevent slipping and protect the floor.

It’s always best to buy a solid pad when it comes to any hardwood or wood flooring. Take care to ensure that if it is a 100% felt pad, the felt is recycled without any chemicals or adhesives. If non-slip felt and a rubber rug pad are what you need, make sure the rubber is actually a natural rubber and not a rubber-like substance that can damage the floor.