I think it depends on the material of the runner. If it's some tweed or something semi-brittle, I would say yes because it's likely to move back and forth and thus scratch... My wife hot glued the shelf liner material (the other side of the 'tacky' side--that 'grabbed' our smooth ceramic tile) to the bottom of one of our rugs and it worked pretty well. It will probably last for a year or so depending on traffic/ how much abuse.

My son currently works as a 3rd party engineer for one of the felt rug padding and carpet padding manufacturers Rug Pad USA, Mohawk, Shaw.... and I've actually asked him this same exact issue. I'm a designer down in Savannah GA and our summers are as humid and muggy as they come. I asked him specifically what pads would work to avoid the "Sweating" issue. My clients and I complain about this all the time - the pads get glued to the floor. One of my clients had to replace a portion of their hardwood to fix this issue. He has an engineer background does this for a living, thus most of what he said went over my head....but here's what I gathered... - A 100% felt rug pad is actually recycled polypropylene fibers but it won't ever stain, nor sweat, but the rug has to be large enough not to move. But with smaller rugs, you need to stick with a rubber or latex product to prevent "sweating" and sticking. - Felt and rubber rug pads are made with either synthetic latex (lower cost) or Natural rubber (more expensive), he thought that both should be dry enough that they shouldn't sweat between your floors. So this is what I have been recommending to my clients. I also asked him about the different materials - since I told him one of my clients floors needed to be replaced. Heres what he said "your flooring surface finishes are whats important, not whats underneath them, and to be especially careful with vinyl, acrylic, and laquered finishes. Some PVC padding, not all, can leave an imprint on this type of flooring if they don't get the formula correct, or if they use cheap fillers rather in place of proper materials, or if they haven't been tested on before. Pads that tend stick to floors, melt, sweat, are always made with pvc and essentially all come from low grade suppliers in China." Some food for thought :) - Hope this helps

Thanks to both of you for the help. I've taken a look at the linked website for pads and will investigate further. And, I've been doing some research on pads for hand knotted carpets. Apparently using a pad of some sort will prolong the life of the carpet because the pad absorbs some of the shock/friction from people walking on the rug. Yet, I also know that where these rugs are made there really is no such thing as a rug pad. On Amazon I did find a pad that gets high reviews for use as a pad for hand made rugs that are placed on hardwood floors. Durahold Plus Felt and Rubber Pad for Hard Floors.

Ruggable