We live in a 109 year old house with original wide-pine floors in New Hampshire. The floors are FREEZING for much of the year, so rugs are pretty much mandatory because we don't really like wearing "house shoes". We do also like to get down on the floor and play with the dog so we like our area rugs thick and cushy, and as judiegal says, it does help soften the acoustics in a room. Couldn't care less if I tried about scratches from dog nails, shoes, whatever - IMO wood scratches and that's that, if you can't deal with that get tile, plastic or carpet. When we were selling our previous house, we took the area rugs out to show off the relatively-new (2 year old) ashwood floors and the echo was pretty annoying, especially since we took down the drapes on the realtor's "orders" as well. There were slightly darker areas where the rugs had been but they disappeared with a couple of weeks of being exposed to light. This problem is much worse with some wood species than with others - it's a particular problem with many of the exotics. I do prefer rugs that leave a fairly large margin of wood around the perimeter so I get the best of both worlds. For instance, this is the living room of our previous house - a 12x12ish room with a 7'6" diameter round rug: Our dining-area-converted-to-sitting-room is about 12x16 and it has a 10x12 rug in it because the 10x12 was somehow way cheaper than the same pattern in the 8x10 (clearance - less than $100). It's much too big for the room and although it's a nice rug and gets the job done the colorway isn't quite "it" so it's temporary until we redo the kitchen (mostly open to this room).

Perfect timing. I’m wondering the same with our floors.Rug or no? Could you take a photo of your room and the areas of concern? How often do you use the room? I am not be a typical buyer but when we were potential buyers and I saw area rugs I wondered about the condition of the floor beneath it. A lovely floor is a selling point, in my opinion. We just removed our dated area rug and have a lovely and unblemished wood floor which spans the length and width of the room. . Is yours stained wood? Ours has a poly coating and - based on the rest of the floor - doesn’t pick up or show scratches from shoes,etc. We have allergies to consider while I assume you’re considering what will appeal most to buyers. We do go back and forth about whether a rug helps ground a room, being a focal point. Looking forward to photos of your room.

Thank you so much. I have LVP underneath. It needs an area rug in general because if I didn’t have one my floors would be ruined!!! I have little felt pads on the underneath of all my chairs and when you pull them out it leaves and awful scratch and that’s without someone even sitting on it. I couldn’t imagine how my floor would look if someone slid out their chair from the table without some sort of rug!

It depends on what kind of backing it has. If you haven’t heard of the knuckle test, try this. Pull the rug back to expose the reverse, with a bit of pressure, rub your knuckle across the underside. If it feels as if it’s going to tear your skin then it needs a pad. Otherwise it should be safe. I always but wool rugs that are hand tufted. Every one I’ve bought has the same type of reverse (consist across different manufacturers). I do not use padding with them currently. However, a more important question would be do you remove your shoes at the door? As with regular carpeting, sand and debris can make its way through the weave and if left unchecked I would be surprised if it didn’t cause scratches. I pull mine back and sweep underneath regularly. You’d be surprised how quickly stuff ends up there. Anyway, please see my pics attached.