Polypropylene Rugs: Inexpensive Indoor or Outdoor Rugs


Polypropylene rugs are a low cost, high quality option for both indoor and outdoor decoration. While your first thoughts of polypropylene may be that cheap, ugly yellow rope you have used to tie down tarps from time to time, it is actually a versatile material that lends itself well to use in rugs and carpets. Polypropylene rugs are inexpensive and absolutely impervious to water which makes them a perfect choice for use as outdoor rugs. Polypropylene indoor outdoor rugs are also a sound choice for indoor areas subject to wet or damp conditions such as bathrooms, kitchens, basements, garages and even greenhouses. The polypropylene rug you buy need not have a hard, rope-like and rough surface, however. Very finely spun polypropylene is also used for indoor rugs and carpets and the result is low cost polypropylene area rug that is quite soft to the touch and ideal for your living room or dining room floor. Though they will never enjoy the status of Persian rugs, their high quality and low cost makes polypropylene rugs useful throughout your home.

Any outdoor rug is bound to suffer a great deal of abuse from the elements. Chief among the challenges faced by outdoor rugs are water, dirt and the sun. Polypropylene rugs are unaffected by water and relatively easy to clean. This makes them better suited to outdoor use than rugs made of most other materials. The greatest enemy of your polypropylene outdoor rugs is one that few people readily recognize, the sun. Exposure to direct sunlight will weaken and degrade the structure of your polypropylene rugs more quickly than any other single factor. Even foot-traffic is relatively insignificant as a source of wear and tear when compared with sun. Not only does direct and prolonged exposure to the sun fade the colors of your rug, but it also degrades the polypropylene material itself. You see, polypropylene is vulnerable to degradation from both heat and UV radiation, both of which are abundant in sunlight. While polypropylene can be treated UV resistant coating, this too is liable to break down over time when subjected to foot-traffic and the seasonal variations of temperature to which an outdoor rug is exposed. When exposed to sunlight, polypropylene becomes brittle over time and develops cracks. The most severe of these cracks will are visible but many fine cracks known as crazes will also develop unseen and gradually worsen and grow deeper over time. These weak points will further degraded by foot traffic making your polypropylene rug gradually rougher, weaker and more subject to further deterioration over time. While the sun will gradually degrade exposed polypropylene over time, the low cost of these rugs makes this concern minimal. The cost of buying a new rug ever couple of years is easily bearable.

While cheaper polypropylene mats may be used outdoors or at any entranceway regardless of sun exposure, more decorative indoor outdoor rugs should generally be used only in covered areas. You may also want to use polypropylene indoor outdoor rugs at your entryways to add traction and help to minimize the transfer of debris from outside to inside. For example, polypropylene indoor outdoor rugs are well suited for use on a screen porch, covered patio, covered porch or even deck. Another place you might want to use polypropylene rugs is in a greenhouse. Although a greenhouse is an enclosed space, the high level of humidity in the air would cause most floor rugs to mold and rot. This is not so with polypropylene rugs. An outdoor rug made of polypropylene can easily withstand years of use in a greenhouse without suffering from deterioration as long as they are placed in areas where they are well shaded by plants. In these semi-indoor, semi-outdoor areas polypropylene rugs will last far longer than those made of most other materials and provide welcome and lasting decoration. What comparatively few people recognize is that this same water resistance also makes indoor polypropylene rugs resistant to water based stains. While oils can still stain your polypropylene carpet, most stains can be washed out with relative ease. This makes the finer woven and more ornate styles of polypropylene rugs a smart choice for use indoors as well, especially if you have children or pets that might damage a more expensive floor covering.

In many ways many indoor polypropylene rugs resemble silk rugs to the casual observer. In fact many low-priced oriental rugs are made of polypropylene in imitation of much more expensive silk and wool rugs. If you see an oriental rug advertised for under $100 dollars you can be fairly certain that it is a polypropylene rug. This isn’t to say that these rugs, because they are inexpensive, are by any means cheap. Many oriental style polypropylene rugs are quite nice and very well constructed. I purchased a 4×6 polypropylene oriental rug with an absolutely beautiful crimson, gold, crème and pale green color scheme for $60. This rug not only has a clear and highly detailed design, the fibers of the rug are densely packed and it has the added aesthetic appeal of changing colors with the light, a feature normally found only in expensive silk rugs. (For those of you not familiar with silk rugs, the colors of a silk rug will often appear to be one shade of a color when viewed from one direction while they will appear to be either a much lighter or darker shade of that same color when viewed from the opposite direction. The effect that can be achieved by viewing the rug from one side and then walking to view the rug from the other side is really quite remarkable.)

If you do choose to use polypropylene carpets in your home, you should be sure to use the appropriate carpet padding underneath. This will help to both soften your footfalls and extend the life of your carpet. The odds are good that few if any of your guests will be able to tell the difference between the $100 Persian style polypropylene carpet on your living room floor and the genuine article. It is only upon close inspection that the difference is noticeable to any but the trained eye and the difference in cost can be thousands of dollars. This is especially important when your child spills that glass of orange soda right in the middle of the living room floor.

Whether you are looking for a rug for your patio, greenhouse, living room floor or all three, there are polypropylene rugs readily available at a low cost to suit your purpose. There is really no better value class or more versatile class of rug on the market today. Remember, inexpensive doesn’t have to mean cheap. Choose carefully and your polypropylene rugs will serve you well for years to come.

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