Natural backed rugs are fine (jute, cotton, hemp, etc) or the woven backing of any rug. The rubber or latex "anti-slip" backings are tough to deal with. These "rubber" products are often produced with plasticizers (petroleum based products) that can STAIN the finish of your hardwood (nasty "nicotine" stain that may not come out even with refinishing).

The finish has a chemical reaction with many of these "rubber" products. The way around this is to work with a rug/mat that has a big sticker on it that says, "Safe for Use With Hardwoods - Non-staining Rug".

The way to find these type of mats = mid-range retailers. A hint: Ikea has SOME mats in this category (not all); Walmart and Target do not. You can also find them on-line.

Good luck. Stick with the ones that CLEARLY STATE - Safe for Use With Hardwood.

My only hesitation about cotton rugs is that most of them are lightweight and pretty slippery, in my experience. I would never use sisal or jute, btw; they can't be cleaned. Jute will disintegrate if washed.

>>recommend waiting 30 days if waterbased 90 days if oil base before putting anything on top of the floor>>

I do sometimes wonder if a lot of people who have issues with putting latex-backed rugs on HW flooring have allowed their on-site finish to cure long enough? We've refinished two homes with oil-based poly on resanded HW flooring. Both times, it ended up raining cats and dogs during the drying period! (seems to work better than a raindance, LOL).

My DH grumbled about having to delay moving in to let the floors completely cure. 6 weeks instead of 2 was a big delay; even then I didn't put anything down for another 2 months (which would get me just past the 90-day mark in NHF&S's post). But our last poly coating was 26 yrs ago and the flooring is still in great shape. We use a lot of rugs & pads, too.

I always use the "safe for HW flooring" cushioning under our rugs and recently (Dec 2015) moved one rug/foam cushioning which had been in place for 15 yrs, but no issues at all with the foam staining, sticking, or anything else. No problems with the previous home either in 17 yrs, although I did learn fast about the 'don't use rubber-back' warning.

I don't dispute those owners who have had issues - the photos they've posted show there is a definite problem. But it makes it very difficult to pin down why they've had problems and we never have, despite four decades of poly'ed HW flooring (oak and alder) and a wide variety of rugs/backing/rug pads.

I'd love to know what it is that **doesn't** work, so in my next home I'll be sure not to do anything wrong! If we ever need HW flooring again it will definitely be done by pros, so figuring this out is an issue I keep checking on.

Very interesting, as I also research this issue..what about wool, does anyone has positive/negative experiences? Something small, old, hand knotted..?

I though indoor/outdoor rug -then read they're highly flammable and got cold feet..

Then I thought floor cloth or vinyl rug-and read it might be an issue with the wood finish so also need to be overly careful?

Don't mean to hijack the thread-just also very interested in answers/recommendations.

Wool has a lot of positives: the lanolin makes it easy to clean, they're generally pretty heavy, even the smaller ones, so they slide less.

The disadvantage is that the only way they can be completely cleaned is hand-washing. Spot cleaning can only do so much. I know there are folks in the Kitchen forum who claim they have never had to clean their wool rugs, even when down for several years.

I have inexpensive, latex-backed, washable runners in my kitchen (over premium LVT). All I can say is, those folks must be a lot neater than me when cooking. Think about your kitchen flooring (any type). If you didn't wash it for five years, what would it look like the first time you ran a mop over it?

I'd think it would be pretty gross. And all that stuff is falling on a rug instead. Just because a pattern HIDES the dirt, oil, food specks, etc., doesn't mean they aren't there!

We have a lot of rugs, and the cost of hand-washing wool, even small ones, adds up over the years. A good wool rug will outlive you. That's a lot of cleaning, if you cook as much as we do.

Thank you so very much! Very useful and informative