Carpet pad

At this historic house museum, we have a dual floor covering in the
entryway to the house. There is a reproduction oil cloth that stays
tacked to the wooden floor at all times. It is canvas, painted with
oil-based paints, with a polyurethane finish. It was made 4 years
ago and so is well cured. During the winter, we have a reproduction
wool ingrain carpet that gets tacked down on top of the oil cloth.
Without a pad, it slips when people walk on it.

The carpet came with a felted synthetic fiber carpet pad that is
rubberized on one side according to the material safety data sheet
that I found in our files. (It doesn't feel rubberized to me, but
there is a sheet of something bonded to it on one side--it feels
sort of like Reemay or a Handiwipe.) This pad has not been used
because someone here is convinced that it will bond to the
polyurethane if used. A nylon pad has been suggested as a
replacement. I'm writing to this group to get the opinions of
professional conservators about this. Is the pad likely to stick to
the oil cloth or not? We have a limited budget and I don't want to
invest in another pad if it is unnecessary.

Further details that may help in considering this question are: We
would put the carpet and pad down in mid to late Sept. and leave it
down through April. The house is closed to the public for the months
of December-February since there is no central heating. The entryway
can get very cold in the winter since there are three exterior doors
that lead into it. When open, the house does not get a lot of
traffic--only about 2000 visitors per year. There is not much
furniture in the entry and it is not heavy.

Thanks for your consideration of this question. I will greatly
appreciate any input received.

Jo Burgess
Director, Wylie House Museum
317 E. Second Street
Bloomington IN 47401
812-855-6224


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 17:31
                Distributed: Monday, September 29, 2003
                       Message Id: cdl-17-31-012
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