Why do rugs creep and ruck on carpet or wood flooring?

Over the years a question that has been asked on many an occasion is, "why does my rug creep, and how can I stop it from creeping"? To answer the question we first need to establish what type of floor your rug is on, carpet or hard flooring such as hard wood flooring, stone or ceramics.
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Rugs creeping on Carpet
Rugs laid on top of fitted carpets are the most common of rug creeping problems and is caused by the carpet under the rug or more specifically the pile on the carpet that the rug is seated upon. The reason for this that all carpets have a pile direction, that is to say the pile does not stand up straight, it leans in one direction. When a carpet layer installs a new carpet he will whenever possible lay the pile towards the main doorway, because when to looking into the pile the colours appear richer, similarly when laying a carpet on stairs he will lay the carpet so that the pile flows down the stairs, this is to increase the wear ability and appearance of the carpet.

When vacuuming a you may also notice that it is easier to push in one direction or the colour looks more consistent when vacuumed in one direction, this is simply because the carpet pile has a set direction.When you come to lay a rug, runner or doormat on top of a carpet, be it large or small, heavy or light there is an extremely high possibility that once in situation it will move. Once a rug is subject to even the lightest of traffic it will start to creep in the direction of the carpet pile beneath.When stepping on a rug your weight is transferred through the rug and the carpet it is seated on plus any underlay (padding), causing an indentation that slightly distorts the rug. Once you release the weight the rug, carpet and underlay and return to their original shape, but because the rug is not fixed it will reposition itself following the natural flow of the pile on the carpet beneath. Depending upon the location and situation of furniture prolonged activity upon the rug will cause it to creep or ruck.Rugs Creeping or skidding on hard

Hard Flooring
On hard flooring surfaces rugs likely to skid rather than creep. This is simply because the floor is slippy and the rug will move with direction of the foot traffic upon it. Heavier rugs and mats are less likely to skid.How to stop your rugs and mats creeping.There are many products on the market, from rug underlays to sprays that can be applied to the backing of the rug. Some manufactures will produce anti slip rugs with a rubberised or latex backing, please note that these rugs are anti-slip, not anti-creep, they may still move on a carpet.Rug underlays will prevent the rug moving and also give a little more cushioning on hard floors, but they can work our expensive. Rug sprays such as Cybergold Rug Control Spray will cover up to 8 square metres, working out at fraction of the cost of underlays. Both anti creep underlay and anti creep sprays work like a Velcro holding the rug in place on both carpets and hard flooring. Whatever product that you decide upon to stop your rugs and mats creeping, make sure that you buy enough to cover the entire under surface of the rug.