Felt Backing

Adding a backing material to your rugs is a good idea for several reasons. They can help absorb foot impact and keep the rug durable, muffle the noise of footfalls, make walking over your rug more comfortable, and even help keep your space warmer and cozier. 

Sisal Rugs Direct offers several types of rug backing, each with their own unique benefits and drawbacks. Felt backing is one of the most common backings we use on our common rugs. This is everything you need to know about this backing, including what it’s good for and how to decide if it’s right for you.

What is felt? 

Felt is a type of dense textile produced by tightly matting other fibers together. It can be comprised of natural fibers such as wool, synthetic fibers such as polypropylene, or a blend of both natural and synthetic fibers. Felt made from wool fibers is one of the oldest textiles known to man, and has been heavily used for its naturally flame-retardant properties since early civilization.

Felt continues to be used for a wide variety of applications today. For example, it’s frequently used as a form of insulation, a sound dampener, or as a way to add padding to other products, materials, or spaces. Felt is very fast, cheap, and easy to make relative to its durability and softness. All of these properties make it one of the most common rug backing materials. 

What are the benefits of felt backing?

Adding felt backing to your rug has several benefits, including: 

• Comfort: Adding a felt backing to your rug will make it feel softer underfoot.
• Longevity: Your felt backing will absorb impact, helping preserve your rug (and even the flooring beneath it) longer.
• Soundproofing: Felt is dense enough to absorb the sound of footfalls on your rug, which will help muffle the sound of people walking on it. 
• Insulation: Felt backings can act as a minor flooring insulation, helping keep your floor and rooms warmer. 
• Air flow: Felt allows air to pass through it easily, making it good for preserving healthy air flow.
• Ease of use: Felt is safe for any type of flooring or finishing. You don’t have to worry about it staining or otherwise damaging the floors you place it on. 
• Durability: Along with extending the life of your rug, felt itself is a highly durable material and will last a long time, even under heavy use.

What are the drawbacks of felt backing?

Though it’s highly versatile, felt backing isn’t necessarily perfect for every situation. It has a few natural drawbacks that might not make it the right fit for your rug or room, including:

• Slipperiness: Felt backings don’t provide grip on their own. If you’re putting down a rug on a slippery surface, we recommend using a rug pad in addition to your backing.
• Static: As a dense collection of fibers, felt tends to build up static electricity, especially if placed on other fiber surfaces such as carpet. 
• Carpet wear: Felt backing placed on carpet might wear down that carpet faster than usual, especially if you walk over the rug frequently, forcing the felt to scrape against the carpeting.
• Shedding: Felt backings can shed, especially if they slide around on the floor or scrape against carpet frequently.
• Hand washing: Felt is not machine washable, which can make washing your felt-backed rug a bit more complicated than it might be otherwise.
• Not water resistant: Felt will absorb water and is not mold or mildew resistant.
• Not pet resistant: It can be difficult to remove odors from felt, so if your pet is accident-prone, it may not be the right rug backing for you.

When should I choose felt backing?

Felt is a great choice for a wide variety of rugs and spaces, but it will work better on some than others. Consider using a felt rug if:

• You want to accentuate the softness of your rug
• You’re placing the rug on hard flooring such as concrete or linoleum and want to make walking on it more comfortable
• You want to muffle the sound of footsteps (ie: you’re placing a rug on the second floor)
• You want to preserve an intricate and delicate rug pattern or weave as long as possible
• You want to help make a room feel cozier without compromising its airflow 
• You want to insulate a room’s flooring to make it feel warmer

Meanwhile, you probably shouldn’t use felt backing if:

• You’re placing your rug in a dark, damp location where it could absorb moisture
• You’re placing your rug on delicate, high thread-count carpet
• You’re placing your rug on a slippery surface such as hardwood flooring
• You’re choosing an indoor-outdoor rug
• Your pets are prone to accidents on your rugs

How should I care for and clean felt backing?

Like most fibers, felt backing can collect dirt, dust, and other debris over time. Turn your felt-backed rug over once every few months to check if it’s dirty. If it appears to be, you could take your rug outside on a dry, sunny day and beat the front of it to knock any debris clinging to the inside of the felt loose. After you’ve completed this step, bring your rug back inside and gently vacuum the felt with the nozzle of your vacuum cleaner. Make sure to use a low suction setting, or you could pull the felt loose. 

Felt can be very difficult to wash and dry without damaging, so we recommend against attempting to wash it yourself. Professional rug cleaners can wash felt backing, but even they may struggle to remove strong odors from it, so if your pet has an accident on your rug, you may want to consider replacing your backing entirely.

How long does felt backing last?

Felt backing is quite durable. Properly cared for, it should last years, even under heavy foot traffic. 

How does felt compare to other backing?

This side-by-side comparison chart can help you decide which backing is right for you. Here’s how each of the backings we offer compare to felt: