Rug rucking up

[Harry Bloomfield]

Fitted carpet, on top of which she has a large woven rug. The long sides of the rug ruck up. It was flat when the room was left unoccupied last night, this morning it has rucked itself up again. Its as if the two long sides are woven as if longer than the middle section, but it is not. The same has happened with the past two rugs placed there. We have tried turning the rug 90 degrees and it makes no difference, it still rucks up.

She is thinking double sided tape to keep it stretched out flat. I'm thinking that will not last long. I'm thinking a curtain ring sewn onto each corner, with either a hook sewn onto the fitted carpet, or a screw fixed into the floor. Any better ideas please?

[Peter Johnson]

I've just used double-sided tape to keep a rug in place. Seems to be working but it's only been down for a couple of days.

[Andrew Mawson]

We used to sew the rubber ring from a Kilner Jar on the underside of each corner - the rubber to floorboard friction tended to keep things in place.

Andew

[Malcolm Race]

Self adhesive hook & loop tape using the hook side stuck ontothe rug?

Malcolm

[Capitol]

Put it on top of a Costco plastic office chair mat. Works perfectly.

[Harry Bloomfield]

I didn't think self adhesive would stay stuck for long, with the tension needed. What I did and seemed to work well so far, was....

I stitched a 4mm centre hole steel washer at the four corners of the rug, then drilled 4x holes through carpet for yellow plugs. Add four

1.5 No6 brass RH screws, with the sides of their heads ground so as to make them oval headed so they would pass through the washers. I drilled about 10mm out from the washer in the corner, so some tension would be needed to hook washer onto the screw heads.

I had thought I might be able to stitch hooks to the fitted carpet, to work with the washers, but I just couldn't manage to stitch with the carpet flat even with a curved needle.

[Jeff Layman]

We had this problem many years ago and gave up trying to solve it. It seems to be due to the way the fitted carpet pile lies. Basically, the rug moves in the direction of least resistance of the pile when trodden on, but won't move back the other way when the pressure is released.

In the end I tried putting a few stitches of extremely tough thread (used to sow leather) through the corners of the rug and through the carpet to hold it in place. After a couple of weeks the carpet had been badly damaged as the thread tore through it, as the rug continued to move and its backing and the thread were stronger than that of the carpet and its backing!

[Harry Bloomfield]

Jeff Layman submitted this idea :

We pulled it flat and straight last thing last night, closing the door on it. I was up first up, looked in and there it was curled up along one side.

[Brian Gaff]

That also will be a trip hazard. There used to be some backing for this, but cannot recall. The real main issues are that yes, the backing is stretchy and too short in its relaxed state, and the pile on the main carpet relaxes and allows the backing to shrink. IN the end you end up fitting a completely new piece of backing and trying to not stretch it.

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

But this is on top of a carpet. The only true answer is not to put rugs on carpet in the end.

Brian

[Harry Bloomfield]

Brian Gaff pretended :

It was, hence the need to find a solution.

[harry]

I have just nailed mine down.

[Huge]

I'd wager something to do with humidity changes.

[Jeff Layman]

I'll be interested to see if that works. I wouldn't be surprised to see the rug ripped as it moves against the nails when you walk across it.

[harry]

Did it years ago, no problems since. You only need nail the "trailing " edge. This allows the rug to be flipped over so SWMBO can vacuum under it.

[Andrew]

Some people have solid floors, hence the need for a fitted

80/20 carpet with underlay.

[harry]

Screws and plugs in that case

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

[Harry Bloomfield]

harry pretended :

.. and washers sewn to the underside corners, to hook over the heads. Yes, so far it has worked 100%. I half expected if I got it too taught, then the corners might curl, but it hasn't happened.

[The Natural Philosopher]

you should have learned it, instead, then.