All About: Rubber Garage Flooring used in Home Gyms Work Shops and Recreation Areas
10/27/09
Rubber-Cal Inc.
Rubber flooring can be used in garage floor, flooring, and surfacing applications. Common uses include converting the garage space into a playroom, home gym, recreations area, workout room, studio, work-shop and general equipment protection. Recycled rubber products are often used and make relatively inexpensive flooring options available to consumers. There are several different applications where rubber surfacing can be used as an alternative to conventional flooring.
Although not very common, parking vehicles on top of recycled rubber garage flooring is one way that it can be used. However, there are certain drawbacks to using recycled rubber flooring for this type of application. The first has to do with the adverse effects that petroleum products may have on the rubber. Recycled rubber products consist of individual granules that are bonded to one another and these products would be vulnerable if those bonds were to be compromised by harmful substances such as petroleum. Recycled rubber products have a low resistance to greases and oils, so any oil leaking from the car could damage the rubber garage floor. Second, the temperature range for recycled rubber products poses another problem. Recycled rubber products are not designed to withstand extreme temperatures, and in the case where the temperature might rise significantly, damage to the rubber may occur. A case where this may occur would be when a car that has driven for an extended period of time drives on top of the rubber. If the temperature of the tires were to be hot enough, it might cause the recycled rubber to melt and adhere itself to the tires!
When looking to resurface a garage floor with rubber flooring, one of the most important things to keep in mind is the intended application. What is the garage floor being used for? Some applications call for anti-fatigue properties whereas others call for quick and easy maintenance. Knowing what function you intend the flooring to fulfill will result in choosing a material that will best satisfy your requirements. For example, when looking to convert a garage into an art studio, the garage flooring that would work best would be one that provides anti-fatigue qualities and is relatively easy to clean. Rubber garage flooring would be great for this type of application because of rubber’s natural anti-fatigue and insulation properties. A rubber garage floor would be comfortable to stand on because it would be much softer and warmer as opposed to concrete flooring. When looking to convert a garage into a large doghouse, rubber garage flooring would also be an excellent choice due to its anti-fatigue properties. This type of flooring would provide a warm (or cool) surface for animals to lay on and would be gentle enough for them to play on. For applications along these lines, rolled rubber products would be most suitable (i.e. Elephant Bark Rubber Flooring). These rolled products are very easy to install and can cover large areas in just a few pieces. Also, the ease of installation and maintenance makes these products very popular. When used as garage flooring, our rolled products can be hosed off which makes cleanup extremely easy!
For applications that require thicker layers of rubber that are not usually available in rolled form, our Eco-Sport and Eco-Play Safety Tiles are a better option. Such applications may include weight rooms, rehearsal studios, or playrooms. For weight rooms and rehearsal studios, thicker tiles may be needed for added floor protection or noise reduction. For playgrounds where children’s safety is a concern, a thicker rubber surface would be needed to give added protection against falls. Such thicknesses would not be available in rolled form and would have to come in the form of tiles. The benefit of going with rubber tiles is that they are available in larger thicknesses and in the case of playroom flooring, would be able to provide much more protection and comfort against falls. Although production makes rubber tiles more costly than rolled products (each tile is individually molded), the benefits of a thicker tile and added floor protection definitely outweigh any price differences. For weight rooms that experience heavy wear and tear, rubber garage floor tiles would be a better investment over rolled products because of the added floor and equipment protection they would provide.
When considering what type of garage flooring to go with for a garage workshop, two things to consider are the layout of the area you wish to cover and the amount of equipment and floor protection required. If the workshop area is fairly large, rolled rubber flooring would be a great option because it would allow coverage over a larger area with only a few rolls. In contrast, if one wanted to cover the same area with single mats, a much larger quantity would be required. Single area mats (i.e. Shark Tooth) would be much more beneficial in applications where the layout of the workshop only calls for floor and equipment protection in certain areas. Examples of this might be single workstations or appliances that require a rubber mat underneath to provide floor and equipment protection. Some workshops may only need floor protection in a certain area and it is here that single area mats would be the ideal choice. A weekend handyman would probably only require a limited coverage area as opposed to a workshop, and would most likely prefer a single area mat.
Hopefully this brief overview has provided some insight on the great benefits of rubber garage flooring. Not only does it provide great equipment and floor protection, rubber garage flooring is the ideal choice for applications where safety and comfort are a concern! Be sure to read our other blogs for more great ideas and applications regarding rubber flooring!
10/27/09
