Braided rugs can be found in both hand woven and machine woven types. These pieces are quite popular and are often used as area rugs in the home. If you want to get some for your home, it helps to know that the machine woven ones can cost less than the hand woven ones.

Machine woven braided rugs are usually made in either one of two ways. The first is known as the flat braid method. Pieces produced using this method is like the name suggest flat. Collectors of these braided beauties will tell you that the ones produced using the flat method look more like their traditional hand woven counterpart. The other method is known as the tubular or round method. Like the name suggests, these are rounder. That’s because they are made using a tubular material inside. Between these two machine woven ones, the tubular pieces are cheaper to purchase.

Tubular braided rugs can be purchased either in brick and mortar stores or online. They can be bought at a cheaper price as the process to manufacture them is lot cheaper. How are they manufactured and why are they cheaper? Well, what happens is that these pieces are made using yarn which is wrapped around a tube. The tubing material is often times unwanted waste material that is of low quality. If the yarn breaks, you can immediately see the tubing inside. It can be quiet unattractive if that happens.

These braided rugs are also not as comfortable to walk on as the flat braid ones. As they are somewhat rounded, keeping them clean can also be quite a challenge. This doesn’t mean to say that you shouldn’t buy them at all. It all depends on your purpose and your needs.

If you want something that is cheap and can be replaced after some time, then by all means get the tubular braided rugs. However if you want something that will last a bit longer, then these rugs are not for you.