Rug pad/barrier

We're having the floors finished in our new house with tung oil. The upstairs is pretty well cured but the downstairs is still tacky (final coat was done just a few days ago, it's been very rainy).
We have a whole bunch of all cotton rugs from India. In my experience these kinds of rugs have dyes that have a tendency to run. We'll wait to put them down until the tung oil has been dry to the touch for awhile, but I know it's possible to have oil seepage for some time. The rugs are large (eg 9X11) and pretty thick so I'm not too worried about them slipping. but I do want to put some kind of barrier underneath them to keep the dyes from potentially transferring to the oak floors. In the past I've used natural latex rug pads, but I don't think those are recommended for oiled floors since they could stick to them. My next thought was some kind of inexpensive muslin or other textile (I'd have to buy a bolt and sew together, I assume). Has anyone confronted a similar issue? Would like to keep things as natural as possible, avoid plastic, and not spend a small fortune if it's possible.

As a side note, if you get tung oil on your hands (my husband just did today) the nutty smell can be pretty aggressive. We found vegetable oil and salt followed by lye soap did the trick for getting that off quickly and completely.

I have not idea though it seem that inexpensive muslin would still wick the oil and that the dye could still transfer.

I just tried to buy some material and I am not sure there is any inexpensive material.  I ended up using an old bedspread.

Why not go to a thrift store and get some old sweaters to turn into felt?  I know this might be a big job.

The only other natural fibers I saw being used is jute or natural rubber for about $50.00.

I hope you will share what you ended up doing.

When I read your question, I was thinking along the same line as Ann - thrift store flannel blankets or cotton sheets. The flannel would be thicker. You would need a *lot* of used clothing, and have to do a *lot* of sewing to go that route, but cotton hoodies (Sweat shirts in American???) might be available in large sizes and are usually a heavy weight.

The thicker you go, the further the oil will have to wick. So I would at least got for several layers if using something thin like a cotton sheet or muslin.

Where I am, there's a local organic coffee company that sells their used sacks dirt cheap. Not sure what your local upcycling options are.

Those are both interesting ideas. I'm really new to sewing (used to do upholstery as a hobby, but mostly did chairs and not a ton of sewing as that) but I think I could do some basic things. With the toddler though I think I'd have to be honest about what I could commit to time wise. Flannel or thick sheets seem like it might be enough to deal with any oil wicking (we'd wait until they really were pretty well cured, just don't want to run the risk of blue-dying my oak floors). That's interesting about the coffee roaster bags. I used to live near a few roasters in Mass, maybe I'll see if some old friends there could inquire.

Comforters seem like they'd make a really cozy solution, too. Some of the used options on poshmark are pretty affordable, at least compared to natural rug pads.

Following up on this - I didn't know mineral oil is used in the vast majority of jute fabrics (it's needed to make the jute pliable). There are some companies doing vegetable oil now, mostly for food storage. But most of the fabrics out there aren't, unless otherwise stated. Just wanted to add this in case this was news to anyone else. Sisal is the same way. Kind of a bummer for a natural rug material (We have a large jute rug I will probably pitch, not a big mineral oil fan).

Good amount of flannel sheets and things like that on poshmark, so I'll probably go down that road. Thanks for the idea.

Jessica Martin wrote: Good amount of flannel sheets and things like that on poshmark, so I'll probably go down that road. Thanks for the idea.

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