Anyone who knows me really well knows how much I LOVE rugs in my home decor. I have 13 rugs in my house. No that's not a typo, I really meant 13. I enjoy the color and separation it brings into a room. It's artwork on the floor. A new rug can give an area a complete makeover under $100. I often find my rugs in the classifieds. In my experience I have found that when wealthy people move they sell their expensive rugs dirt cheap so they don't have to deal with them....like cents on the dollar cheap. I'm very particular though, and only buy high quality rugs from pet free, smoke free homes. Once home, I clean them with my upright Bissell carpet cleaner and they're good as new. One of my favorite rugs was $2000 new and I paid $90. Not too bad. So back to my problem. I have carpet in my house (am saving and dreaming for hardwood floors one day). Rugs move on carpet as you walk on them, so carpet +rug= low back pain (from constantly bending over to straighten, un-wrinkle and un-bunch the scrunched up rug). Did you know that rugs can be hazardous to your health? They can! Furniture stores should have a disclaimer about rugs when you buy them. I can't tell you how many times I've tripped and stumbled over scrunched up sections of rugs on my carpet. I broke a toe tripping over a the rug in my bedroom. Silas has been laid out flat on his stomach several times from tripping over various rugs around the house. Logan lost a plate of food tripping over the rug in the formal dining room, and Jason stumbled to his knees tripping over the rug in the living room. I've tried everything to stop this from happening: heavy duty upholstery pins, many different brands and styles of non-slip rug pads, and even long nails (What can I say, I was at my wits end. I nailed that baby right through the rug and carpet into the plywood subfloor, but it didn't hold longer than 2 days). I was so fed up with this problem, I was on the verge of 96ing all my rugs. Then I was having a conversation with a neighbors husband who happens to be a contractor, and he casually said to me, "Why you just try laying down plywood under the rug, that should work right? It's the same concept as having a hardwood floor." Brilliant! He changed my world. A couple days later Jason and I took a trip to Home Depot to see what we could find, and we came up with something even better than ply-wood. Drum roll please...... hardi backer subflooring. It's half the thickness of plywood at only 1/4", it's more resilient than plywood because it's a cement board, and it's water proof as well. So if the kids spill anything on the floor, it won't swell like wood does. It also has a rough non-slip type surface on both sides which grip really well to the carpet and the back pad of the rug. It's $3 more per sheet than ply-wood, but well worth it in my opinion.
Here is the hardi backer. It comes in a 4'x8' sheet. You can cut it to size easily without a saw. Just score it with a razor blade as you would dry-wall. You will need to score it fairly deep several times one each side, then bend it until it snaps where you've scored it.
Here is the hardi backer under the rug. 
Here is my formal dining room rug two weeks after we installed the hardi backer. Not one wrinkle, crinkle or fold. Hallelujah! Now I've put hardi backer under all my rugs in main living areas. My back sent me a letter to thank me. It's officially on vacation!
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