Questions we get asked

On tile with grout lines, or on anything with a bit of texture, no. On polished stone, sealed hardwood or vinyl, it can — there is no latex backing to stop it.

That is a deliberate trade-off, not an oversight. Backing is what makes most bath mats unwashable after a year: it cracks, sheds grey crumbs and cannot take repeated 30°C cycles. If your floor is slippery, a thin rug underlay solves it for a few dollars and you keep a mat that washes properly.

Very, because it is all cotton and there is a lot of it. The knotted weaves hold more water than the flat ones, which is the same thing as saying they take longer to dry.

The dot mat, by a clear margin — single knots with air between them. Then open diamond, then diamond, then deep diamond. The shaggy is the slowest of the mats and the flat-woven rugs are slowest of all simply because they are much bigger.

Yes. The flat-woven rugs are made for it — they lie flat under a door and are reversible. The knotted mats work beside a bed, though a chair leg will crush a knotted weave over time in a way it will not crush a flat one.

Machine, 30°C, gentle cycle, like colours. No fabric softener — it leaves a coating on cotton that destroys absorbency, which is the one thing you bought the mat for.

Line dry, or tumble on low. High heat shrinks cotton and will tighten the knots.

A little on the first wash — expect one to two per cent, which on a 30-inch mat is under half an inch. It stops after that. Washing hot or tumbling hot will take more.

Reclaimed cotton has shorter fibres than virgin cotton, so the first cycle releases some loose fluff. It settles after two or three washes. Wash the first one on its own if you would rather it did not end up on something dark.

Saturated colours can release a little dye at first. Wash the seville orange separately for the first two cycles and then treat it like anything else.

The flat-woven rugs are about 4.5 lb dry and considerably heavier wet. A standard 7 kg domestic drum handles one on its own; it will not handle one alongside a load of towels. Check before you start rather than halfway through.

Because the yarn is reclaimed. The fibre is sorted by colour, not dyed to a reference, so each batch lands in a slightly different place. Screens differ too. Expect close, not exact.

If you order them together, almost certainly — they will come from the same batch. Ordering a matching second mat six months later is the case where you may notice a difference.

Other colours of reclaimed cotton that were in the same lot. The undyed natural shows them most because nothing has been added to cover them. It is the most honest piece we make about what the material actually is.

$7.95 anywhere in the United States and $18.95 everywhere else, per order however many pieces are in it. Mats fold flat and ship in the same carton.

Orders leave within two business days. US delivery is typically 5 to 8 business days after that; international is 10 to 20, depending on customs.

30 days from delivery, for any reason, provided the mat is unused and unwashed. Once it has been through a cycle it cannot be resold. Return postage is yours unless the mat is faulty or we sent the wrong thing.

A hole, a seam coming away, an edge binding that has failed, or a mat that arrives the wrong size. Not faults: slubs, colour movement across the surface, flecks of other colours, and first-wash fluff — all of which are what hand-woven reclaimed cotton looks like.