How to Keep a Carpet Runner From Moving on Carpet

A beautiful carpet runner can serve as the perfect finishing touch for any space, but a sliding rug runner can also add stress or hassle. To prevent your runner from stopping up the flow of your room, read on for our tips and tricks.

If you have both carpet and tile or wood flooring in your home, it helps to have runner solutions for both areas. We recommend:

Rug Gripper

Rug grippers, like carpet pads, are placed beneath the rug and create a hold with the floor underneath using a rubber layer underneath. This may be a good solution for carpeted stairs if you don't want to apply any sort of adhesive or silicone caulking. The rubber grabs onto carpeted, wood, and laminate flooring while a plastic overlay clings to the runner itself.

Double-Sided Carpet Tape

Double-sided tape is also a good adhesive solution for a smaller area rug or carpet runner and works well if you plan on transferring your carpet runner at all. We recommend applying your double-sided carpet tape in a grid pattern on your hardwood floor and rug edges so as to offer the most secure hold. The carpet tape itself runs two or three inches wide and can be found in most hardware stores.

Rug Pad with Protective Backing

If you're not too keen on using tape, non slip rug pads might be the answer for you. A high-quality carpet pad will be made of natural materials as opposed to plastics. Rug pads made with natural materials will be both effective at keeping your runner rugs from slipping and carpet pads protect your high-traffic areas from damage or discoloration that plastics may otherwise cause. The perfect rug pads have natural rubber floor grips and a felt top to grab the rug itself.

Hook-and-Loop Anchor

On carpeted floors, we find that hook-and-loop anchors are also very effective. If carpet pads alone aren’t enough to keep your runners from sliding, you can resort to this method. You’ll first need to determine the issue: is the runner slipping off its carpet pad? Or is the carpet pad moving on carpet?

Once you’ve identified the problem, you’ll attach the anchors. The loop is attached to the carpet (if the pad is slipping) or the pad (if the runner is slipping) and the hook is attached to the edge of the runner or carpet pad accordingly. After slipping the hook through its loop, your runner should remain secure on the floor indefinitely.

Rugs with Non-Slip Backing

You may also want to consider the rug itself. Thick, higher-quality rugs will also be heavier, and naturally you may not have to deal with so much slippage on hardwood floors. Additionally, you might want to look for a rug with a high-quality non-slip rubber backing already attached; this is the simplest solution.