Designed to grip your flooring and cease your rug from sliding round, the latex rubber that backs quite a lot of space rugs works very well—till it begins to disintegrate and degrade. This may be attributable to quite a lot of issues: the cleansing brokers you utilize, moisture and humidity, or easy put on and tear. And when that latex rubber begins to degrade, you’ll discover both a nice white powder beneath your rugs or little bits of rubber caught to your flooring, which generally is a ache to wash up. It’s annoying, but when the rug itself continues to be in nice form, it’s not price tossing it out as a result of repairing the latex backing actually isn’t that arduous. Right here’s the best way to do it for about $50 or much less.
The most cost effective technique to repair the rubber backing on a rug
If $20 is just too excessive a worth to maintain that rug, you would possibly get by simply overlaying up the rubber backing if the deterioration is generally within the center portion of the backing. When you’ve got some painter’s tape (or duct tape in the event you’re not involved about permanence) and a few leftover fabric and even butcher paper or kraft paper, you may minimize a bit to suit the underside of the rug, leaving a border of an inch or two across the edge uncovered. Tape the material or paper in place and flip the rug over; the brand new overlaying will cease the rubber from sticking to your flooring or leaving that powdery residue, and the sides of the rubber which are nonetheless in good situation ought to nonetheless present not less than some grip to carry the rug in place. Your rug will slide round much more, however this would possibly preserve it in service, not less than briefly.
How you can substitute the rubber backing on a rug
The extra everlasting answer is so as to add a contemporary layer of latex to the again of your rug. That is fairly straightforward—you’ll want 4 issues:
- A can of liquid latex rubber. There are merchandise particularly made for use as a rug backing, however any liquid latex rubber product will do the job, even Flexseal (although that’s in all probability not the most affordable possibility until you’ve gotten some left over from a earlier venture).
- A size of cheesecloth. This isn’t 100% required, however will make the completed venture much more engaging.
- Scissors, which you in all probability already personal.
- A paintbrush you received’t thoughts throwing away.
Take your deteriorating rug and brush the again till all free particles is gone. If there are sections of the unique backing clinging loosely to the rug, minimize them away till all you’ve gotten is comparatively steady backing. Then proceed together with your restore:
- Lay the rug out on high of a dropcloth with the again going through up. Open up your can of latex, combine it effectively, and begin portray it onto the again of the rug. Overlap your strokes and attempt to get as constant and clean a layer as you may onto the rug.
- Lower a size of cheesecloth to virtually the identical dimension because the rug, leaving a small margin (an eighth of an inch will do) across the edge so that you don’t have cheesecloth poking out from beneath. Lay it on high of the moist latex and press it down into it, then clean it out utilizing the paintbrush.
- Let it dry for not less than 24 hours (48 can be higher), then apply a second coat of latex on high. You may apply a 3rd coat if you need, however it’s not completely crucial. The cheesecloth can also be not completely crucial, however it’ll reinforce the backing and make your restore last more, so it’s price doing.
As soon as your new backing has dried and cured (about two days after the ultimate coat of latex) you may put it again as a replacement and it must be good as new.
