Pin-tested, Nikki Approved - Caulking for Non-Slip Rugs

This time, I decided to try using caulk to make a rug slip-proof!  The link to the original source is here. The directions looked easy...  I have some rugs...  I'm too cheap to make $50 for a rug pad to make sure the rug is non-slip... With the purchase of a tube of caulk and a caulk gun, I was ready to go!

The directions simply said to "apply lines of acrylic-latex caulk every 6 inches or so" - we made sure we got the right kind of caulk as some commenters noted problems with other kinds of caulk.  We used the caulk gun to put down the lines of caulk.  We tried to keep them about six inches apart and then did two perpendicular lines in the other direction just to make sure the edges were as "slip-proof" as possible (those aren't picture though, sorry)!

My observations: 1) Cut your hole in the caulk tube very small or you will end up with a mess!  2) Your caulk lines probably won't look perfectly straight or even pretty, but it doesn't matter because you can't see them.  3) Make sure you have the end of the tube pressed into the back of the rug a bit or the caulk will peel right off.

My final grade?  I would give this a B.  It is a lot cheaper than a rug pad - I found rug pads for 5'x8' rugs for about $50; the caulk and gun only cost about $5 and will work for several rugs (we didn't even put a dent in the tube).  It also didn't take long to do (just several hours to be sure it was dry); Aaron and I had it caulked in about 5 minutes or less.  On the negative side, it's not as effective as a rug pad.  Moreover, you need room to lie the rug upside-down and let it dry for several hours.  In the end, it's worth the amoutn of money you'll save but if you were putting down a rug that was going to be walked on a lot and wasn't going to be held down by anything else (our rug will be under the dining room table), you might want to splurge for the rug pad.