Okay, I looked through several pages and didn't see anything about my question. I know about rug pads in general, but I'm hoping someone has a suggestion for a waterproof layer that can go between a large area rug and the hardwood floors.

We recently tossed a rug that got destroyed by a stubborn cat who suddenly began refusing to use her litter tray (vet ruled out potential medical causes). In the end we realized that she decided she wanted a different kind of litter, not the litter she had been using for the past 18 years. But it took two months to get to the point where we figured it out.

During those two months, I was pulling out the steamcleaner just about every day to shampoo and deep-clean the dining room rug as well as the one in the laundry room where her litter is kept. However, in the end we threw out the dining room rug because there was no salvaging it. Once removed, we found a stain on the hardwood from an incident that I failed to catch and shampoo. Fortunately, we applied some hydrogen peroxide and baking soda to the old stain, which not only reduced the stain but removed the smell.

This weekend we bought a new rug to go in the dining room, but I'm very leary about not having some kind of waterproof barrier between the rug and the hardwoods. I don't want this to happen again!

Is there such a waterproof barrier that one can put between area rugs and wood floors? I was thinking about just taping together a bunch of super-sized lawn bags and putting them under the rug (which is anchored by our dining set, so I'm not worried about the rug slipping). But I wonder if that'll do something to the wood floors over time.