We've had hardwood in two different homes for the last 40 years. We collect hand-made rugs but also have some machine-made, so we cover the gamut - wool to silk to olefin to polypropylene. I've had at least half a dozen of them under the DR table at various times, so here's the skinny from our considerable experience: - A good rug pad will help a good-quality rug last longer. Conversely, though, because it makes it more plush underfoot, it makes it more difficult to scoot those chairs in and out! Personally, I love my rugs so I use pads under all of them, whether machine-made or hand-made. As I have a bad back and sciatica, I gave up appearance (nice traditional chairs that match the big DR table) for a set of used Herman Miller desk chairs with wheels. Not beautiful, but they scoot nicely over any rug, LOL. I've had guests tell me they're in love with how comfy the chairs are - which they should be, as these originally cost $800/ea and are fully adjustable in every way. You've probably got nice traditional chairs, so just be aware it isn't going to be easy for your guests to get in and out unless you put those large-sized 'glider' buttons on the chair feet. - Bed Bath & Beyond not only has those lovely 20% off coupons (you can ignore the expiration date, they never expire), the foam pad they sell is extremely cushy and good quality. We've been using some of them for over a decade and they've never broken apart or crumbled, nor stuck to the oak hardwood flooring. - If you want a thinner pad, I suggest you go to a flooring & carpet store. They usually sell a high-quality, very dense, thinner pad that they'll cut to size. Now, for rug size and type: - You want a rug sized to the width of your table with a chair pulled out for someone to try to sit down on it. There is nothing worse than a rug too small so when the person sits down, they discover when trying to move their chair forward and closer to the table, they've got the rug caught in the back legs of the chair! - My preference for DR rugs is wool. It doesn't matter whether it's handmade or a good machine-made (I've used both). The lanolin in a wool rug is one of the best stain-repellancy coatings around. The few things that will defeat it are coffee and sugar, curry, blueberries, or red wine (all of which will stain just about anything), so get those cleaned up pronto. A damp sponge will take up everything else; you can save the Resolve cleaner for the heavy-duty stainers. Vacuum the rug regularly and have it professionally cleaned every couple of years - I admittedly am terrible at getting around to this last and average every 10 yrs. But it really does make a difference in the vibrancy of the colors and plushness of the rug fibers. - Polypropylene, often sold as outdoor rugs, can be either plush or woven. The woven kind look similar to jute, and that tight flat weave makes it easier for chairs to slide over it. The upside is they clean with a garden hose, the downside is: 1) a big rug is heavy, and not easy to lug around or lay out to dry, and 2) oil stains can be more difficult to remove on some of them. They would be my distant second choice behind wool. - the real trick to stain-resistance is pattern. Any interior designer can tell you that, especially for those commercial spaces. Solid light colors are death for trying to keep stain-free, which is why you'll never see them used in any public spaces or even reception areas. Oriental rugs are great, you could drop an entire pan of paella on them and hardly see a thing wrong! This one was a great choice when I was giving sit-down formal dinner parties twice a month back in the '70's and '80's. Now it's in our LR still looking just as beautiful. It's just a machine-made Couristan but obviously will outlast us:

Kim - You mentioned things I was worried about! lol You can put rugs (cheaper kinds) in the washer? I never even thought about not being able to shampoo a rug on top of the hw. Duh. :) Our driveway is stones so that wouldn't work either. I guess I really need to check into if there's a place near us that does professional carpet cleaning and see how much it is. Tina - That's cute your dog wipes her feet. Growing up we always wiped our dear Butch's feet. He was smart, we should've thought to train him with that! If we got hw I was thinking oak, mid range color, and less shine would be best. I bought a wool/silk rug for under the DR table back in October and didn't realize you shouldn't use a beater bar on it . . . For two months I ran my dyson over it often! I don't believe there's an adjustment for the suction. I now use the attachment and I find it to be somewhat of a pain. Doesn't help that the rug is mainly black, the cats like to sleep on it and the room gets a bunch of light. Our LR gets a bunch of light. That being said I don't think I'll ever buy a tufted rug again. It's not too bad since it's only one but I believe future ones will be cheaper synthetic or I'll go the hand knotted way and be done with it. But I think I'd feel better when something happened to them if I didn't spend gobs of money as accidents happen, iykwim. Heck, I've never had hw. Maybe I'll like it without rugs. Wouldn't that be easy. :) So as long as there's a good protective finish on there my cat's occasional hairball being there all day while we're at work should be ok? Honestly as far as cat hair, I'm not bothered by our vinyl floors. Well except by the side door where we're always in and out. The tiny stones get on my nerves. Oakley you're right as far as it sticking to the furniture. I'm forever running the sweaper on it. I thought it was pretty good until this morning when I was reading in the bright morning sunlight! Eek. I wouldn't trade our cats for the world but I've about had it with all the fur at the moment. I'm leaning toward hw I just needed to hear some thoughts. I'm nervous to spend the money and possibly not like them. I'm sure there's an adjustment period like anything else. Thanks for all the feedback everyone! I really appreciate it.

Nothing. There is no need. But if you insist, you can use massive area rugs. But here's the reasoning why you do not need anything underneath: The first thing is the feet aren't feet. They are metal beams. This is GOOD! The problem with metal feet (the size of a dog's paw) is the POUNDS PER SQUARE INCH. A small foot has HUGE pounds per square inch. You have very LOW pounds per square inch. Here's an example of what I mean: Eg. 1. A bar stool has 4 legs. Each foot = 1 square inch. That means the chair is resting on 4 square inches. The chair is 40 lbs (40 lbs divided by 4sq.in = 10 lbs/sqin) That means that each foot is taking on 10 lbs per square inch. Now a 360 lb person sits on that stool. The combined weight is 400 lbs. Do the math again. Each little foot is taking on 100 lbs/sq inch. Wow! That is MASSIVE (so's the person btw). Damage is likely to occur very quickly. Eg. 2. You have a sofa sitting on metal beams. Each beam is 4ft long and 4inches wide. Each beam is 192sq inches (12inches per foot x 4 ft = 48 inches: 48inches x 4inches = 192 square inches). You have 4 of them. That's a total of 768 sq.inches of surface which the sofa is sitting on. The sofa has a total weight of 200 lbs. The pounds per square inch are VERY low (200/768 = 0.26lbs/sq inch). Now you add 4 people onto that sofa (each person weighing 200 lbs). You have a combined weight of 1000lbs (200 + 200 + 200 + 200 + 200). Now let's do the math again: 1000/768 = 1.30 lbs per square inch. Do you see where the difference is? The stool, just sitting by itself is doing MORE DAMAGE than your sofa with 4 people sitting on it. The pounds per square inch are SOOOOOOO low that the floor isn't going to notice it. The way to think about it is this. A needle (sewing needle, hospital needle, etc) are very small and very sharp. It takes just a SMALL amount of effort to puncture the skin. That puncture = damage. Now compare that to the rounded end of a baseball bat. It is VERY HARD to puncture the skin with a round surface like a baseball bat. If you pressed the baseball bat into your palm, it just sits there. There is no damage done (no piercing of the skin). You would have to shoot the bat out of an artillery cannon to get enough force for it to go through skin (and everything else in it's way). As gruesome as this imagery is, it is the easiest way to explain pounds per square inch and the effects it has on a wood floor. Needless to say, your sofa is fine. Just make sure there aren't any rough barbs on those beams and your wood floor will be just fine.

Oil removes sticky. U can use mineral oil or old English furniture oil. Just to test if oil will work on your floor issue use some oil u have like cooking oil in a spot rub in and the rag will show more dirt until sticky residue is removed. If its still sticky then u probably just need to do bruce floor renew. It almost sounds like it was mopped with a alcohol based cleaner which messed up the poly and made it tacky. Good luck