The best rug pads to prevent bunching and tripping

Bunching can be great for flowers, but not for rugs. Many relatively thin, light-weight rugs such as flatweaves tend to bunch up and cause a tripping hazard, particularly in high traffic areas like hallways, doorways, kitchens and bathrooms. Fortunately, the right rug pads will prevent bunching and tripping without adding bulk or height that can, itself, trigger tripping when rugs lifted too high above floors.

To prevent rugs from bunching and buckling, they need a hug. They need to be held close to your floors in the most natural way possible.

When natural rubber is used on its own or when combined with felt for solid floor coverage and subtle cushion, it hugs both your rug and your floor, keeping rugs lying flat and feeling secure.

Non-Slip Rug Pads that Keep a Low-Profile

To prevent rug bunching, look for the low-profile rug pads with strong gripping power. Keeping a low profile is a must in all high-traffic areas, where raised rugs may cause tripping hazards. Rugs in doorways and hallways also need to stay as flush with floors as possible to allow for door clearance. Grip is essential. The best gripping, longest lasting, safest, and most eco-friendly non-slip pads are made using natural rubber. Unlike glues, plastics, or other synthetic adhesives, natural rubber firmly grips to floors and rugs but never sticks to, strips, or stains the surface of floors or rugs. It’s also naturally long-lasting, as is heat-pressed felt, which, combined with natural rubber, offers a blend of grip and cushion.

Learn: How to Get Bumps Out of Area Rugs (Without Ruining Floors)

Among the best low-profile rug pad choices for preventing rug bunching and tripping, RugPro is a remarkably thin yet durable solid design rubber and felt rug pad. It’s needle-punched using very small holes to allow rugs and floors to breathe by improving airflow. Its solid design offers the greatest possible protection for floors and facilitates vacuuming, helping to improve the life of rugs as it keeps them lying flat in place.

Nature’s Grip is another great, low-profile choice for preventing bunching in rugs and runners that need to lie completely flush with floors. This eco-friendly alternative weds hand-woven organic jute fibers with natural rubber to maximize your rug’s stability, extend its life, and protect your flooring in a most eco-friendly way.

If you’d like a bit of subtle cushion to prevent bunching without adding bulk or height, consider Super Lock Natural. This classic waffle-style pad, made with over 1 pound of natural rubber per square yard, is still thin enough to keep rugs flush with floors but its waffle design also offers a bit of cushion that won’t compress over time. Because it’s made with natural rubber, it will never outgas, stick to, stain, or strip floors the way that plastic pads made with synthetic adhesives can.

Non-Slip Rug Pads that Add Cushion

For a bit more cushion, there’s Contour Lock. This 1/8 inch-thick heat-pressed felt and rubber pad offers a strong grip and moderate levels of cushioning without bulking. A great overall value for reliable grip and subtle cushioning, Contour Lock is also a particularly durable pad to use in high-traffic areas, where bunching poses the greatest tripping risk.

To keep rugs from bunching up where a slight lift does not pose a tripping risk, consider Superior Lock. Combining the best of both grip and cushion, these pads are made with more felt and a gentle heat-pressing technique for great non-slip traction with thicker, more cushioned support. Contour Lock pads combine a thick layer of felt with a thinner non-slip, natural rubber pad. The needle-punched felt surface naturally hugs the bottom of rugs while offering extra softness and comfort in two thicknesses (1/4 inch and 7/16 inch) and the rubber side grips floors securely to keep rugs from slipping as well as bunching, bucking, or wrinkling in any way.

Shop All Rug Pads >