Home Gym Question - Rubber Floor Matt Thickness to Protect Flooring Underneath

[RoidmeDangerfield]

Hello, all.

It's been a while since I posted here. My family and I are in the process of moving to another home nearly a 1,000 miles away. This is rough, dang. I hope I never have to do this again. At any rate, we're going to be in a new home that's big enough where will will be able to create our own gym. With COVID still lingering I've given up on commercial gyms. I haven't been able to work out since March. Ugh!

I'm wondering if anyone has tile flooring in their house that they covered with rubber mats like you see in gyms on the floors. They can come pretty thick (3/4" or even more, if necessary) so I'm wondering if this would be sufficient.

We don't have the tile down just yet. And to be honest, I'm actually wondering if it would be a bad idea to install it in the room that will serve as our gym. Some of the equipment we're looking to buy needs to be bolted/secured to the floor like a leg press and some cable type machines. We're going to go all out and create a pretty serious gym.

Does anyone have experience with protecting their floors with thick rubber mats or is it not possible? I don't lift super heavy. I can dumbbell bench press 130lb dumbbells and usually try to be "gentle" when releasing them onto the ground. Ahem...okay, I do drop them but I don't throw them like quite a few guys do. I can only deadlift about 460 but when using bumper plates it's not as bad of an impact as it can be when using uncovered metal 45lb plates.

Any input, guys?

 

[Perrin Aybara]

You could just buy a deadlift platform or DIY one. Pretty cheap either way.

I have some 3/4" horse trailer mats from rural king I used outside during the gym shutdown. On concrete, don't know about indoors with it.

 

[RoidmeDangerfield]

Thanks, I thought of a deadlift platform where I'll do deadlifts. But the room is 18x25. I'm going to want the entire floor to be protected from dumbbells and weight plates.

 

[flenser]

I've used these 1" pads for years, but just recently started dead lifting on them. I'm using uncoated steel plates and didn't have any issues with lifting 405 on the pads over concrete. But I didn't like how is sounded when the plates hit the floor and ended up putting a 3/4" sheet of plywood between the pads and the concrete. With bumper plates or even coated plates I wouldn't have bothered with the plywood. 18X25 is a big space, though. More than $1000 to cover with these.

 

[RoidmeDangerfield]

Wow! More than 10K? They look really nice but I'm going to have to figure something out something else. Maybe I'll roll a layer of insulation like a thin sheet of foam on top of the tiles. Then lay down 3/4" plywood and then a thinner more affordable rubber mat.

I may just not tile the room at all. I'm not sure how I'm going bolt some of our equipment down to the concrete for safety reasons without making holes in the tile resulting in damage anyway.

 

[Uglyrichie]

Tractor supply. Horse mats ( if you have one nearby) fairly cheap.

 

[Uglyrichie]

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/4-ft-x-6-ft-x-3-4-in-thick-rubber-stall-mat

 

[Btcowboy]

I built a DIY platform, 2x-1/2 plywood with 3/4 horse stall mat. I dont have tile underneath mind you, laminate and concrete.
If you have the option and plan to bolt equip to floor why spend the money on tile? Keep it concrete if possible, laydown foam underlay , then plywood then 3/4 stall mat?

 

[Mac11wildcat]

The horsemat suggestion is key here. Like 1/2 the price of “gym mats.”

Your best bet is probably mat under a DIY wood platform.

 

[Oldschool]

The horsemat suggestion is key here. Like 1/2 the price of “gym mats.”

Your best bet is probably mat under a DIY wood platform.

Hell yea. Get your mats and draw needles at the same store. Pinning harpoons if you are hard up. Lol

 

[insaiyan93]

I would just not tile that room. If its going to be a gym longterm seems pointless.

 

[RoidmeDangerfield]

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/4-ft-x-6-ft-x-3-4-in-thick-rubber-stall-mat

Thanks for this! I love this store. I just did a search for one near me. Luckily there's one closer to where our new home in an entirely different state (only twenty minutes away). The Tractor Supply in my former home was nearly an hour away.

 

[flenser]

Wow! More than 10K? They look really nice but I'm going to have to figure something out something else. Maybe I'll roll a layer of insulation like a thin sheet of foam on top of the tiles. Then lay down 3/4" plywood and then a thinner more affordable rubber mat.

I may just not tile the room at all. I'm not sure how I'm going bolt some of our equipment down to the concrete for safety reasons without making holes in the tile resulting in damage anyway.

Not $10K, $1K.

25 3' X 3' tiles (225 sqft) $549.99

You would need 2 of those.

 

[RoidmeDangerfield]

Oops, that was bad on my part. Thanks for pointing that out. One thousand isn't all that bad at all.

 

[Uglyrichie]

Thanks for this! I love this store. I just did a search for one near me. Luckily there's one closer to where our new home in an entirely different state (only twenty minutes away). The Tractor Supply in my former home was nearly an hour away.

I bought a couple for a platform I made for my rack. They are definitely better than the cheesy foam puzzle pieces.

 

[flenser]

Oops, that was bad on my part. Thanks for pointing that out. One thousand isn't all that bad at all.

I came close to buying the horse mats from the Chesapeake store, mostly because they are 10 minutes from my house. Went with the MMA mats because the manufacturer assured me 10y/o mats would fit the new mats, and I already had half of what I needed.

 

[Worf]

I bought a couple for a platform I made for my rack. They are definitely better than the cheesy foam puzzle pieces.

Even the rubber interlocking flooring is trash. Horse stall mats is where it’s at.

 

[D8122]

Just a helpful hint, these horsemats are commonly on sale on black friday. Could save you a couple hundred if your doing a whole room