The need for temporary flooring arises for a variety of reasons. You may need subflooring protection to guard your expensive flooring structures—like hardwood, stone, or tile—from damage. Or you may just need a safety-enhancing product for locations that are especially dangerous due to excessive moisture and ice. Whatever your need, we recommend that you never settle for poorly made, cheap floor mats. Doing this will likely cost you a lot more in the long run. Rarely will subpar, cheap floor mats fully withstand the sharp edge or the sheer blunt force of a heavy, falling object. Simply put, cheap floor mats may seem like a good idea, but they’re likely ill-suited for all-weather conditions and for the basic stresses of heavy foot-traffic.

A rubber mat, on the other hand, is tough and well-suited to handle these abrasive conditions.Resilient and strong rubber floor matting is an affordable, functional material that is specifically designed to be multi-purpose—it offers many protections for subfloors, as well as for people and for other objects. Available as rubber mat rolls that can reach lengths of up to 50 feet, rubber mats can thoroughly cover long and narrow hallways, corridors, and walkways. Rubber matting is especially useful in outdoor locations that experience excessive moisture or snow. Rubber is also highly malleable. So, for smaller, more uniquely sized locations, you could order your floor matting in a custom size, since custom-cut mats are a mainstay product for any floor mat manufacturer. Below, we’ve listed our top three reasons for why rubber matting is the optimal protective material—all while still being affordable.  

Rubber Mats Increase Slip, Trip, and Fall Safety

Slip, trip, and fall hazards are everywhere. Rain and snow leave behind slippery stretches of space that can cause even the most veteran pedestrians to slip and tumble. Bathroom tiles, wet from a recent mopping, suddenly turn your business’s restroom into a floor-is-lava game. And it’s not just water. In places where foot traffic is shoulder-to-shoulder, accidental pushing and staggering is common—practically expected. Even then, people trip and stumble without any external hazards. Our feet are fallible, too! Whatever the cause may be, slipping, tripping, and falling can be prevented or dampened with the use of rubber matting. For rubber, material properties come easy. Rubber is naturally water-resistant, and it has a high coefficient of friction. This means that, when you’re walking on rubber, slippery or turbulent conditions are less likely to cause you to fall. Rubber floor matting helps you stay on your feet. Unlike hardwood, tile, or stone—whose surfaces are unforgivingly hard—rubber is highly malleable. So on the off-chance that you do fall, rubber has your back. Injuries are painful and potentially expensive—both for the victim and for the building owner. Rubber matting is an efficient and effective way of protecting you and your guests from falls.

Rubber Mats Protect Falling Objects

In 1687, Sir Isaac Newton discovered something remarkable: Things fall. Since then, we’ve come a long way. For example, we know that when things fall, they sometimes break. And we also know that the softer the ground, the less likely the falling object will break. Like how it’s much more forgiving to fall on rubber than it is to take a faceful of concrete, delicate objects are much less likely to break on rubber than on hard subflooring. The secret? Rubber naturally absorbs shock.

Installing rubber floor mats on your hard subflooring is reliable way of protecting your fine china, college mugs, and precious limbs from irreparable injury should they fall. Butter fingers are also a very real phenomenon, and they account for much of the world’s broken porcelain (as well as missed touchdowns). Rubber flooring doesn’t absolutely guarantee this sort of protection—but it certainly enhances it. Custom-cut mats can be ordered to fit the exact dimensions that your oddly shaped kitchen requires; custom-cut matting is easy to find on any rubber matting manufacturer’s catalogue. And rubber runner mats are great for covering hallways and corridors. Whatever kind of building it is that you want to upgrade, a rubber floor mat is an easy first choice.

Rubber Mats Protect Subflooring

Another common reason that rubber floor matting is employed within the interior of a building is for the protection of expensive subfloor structures. Hardwood, tile, and stone are all beautiful (and expensive!) floors that deserve to be protected and well-cared-for. But mediocre, cheap floor mats just won’t get the job done. Imagine that you’re moving heavy and bulky items across your expensive floors. A poorly-made mat probably won’t withstand the sharp edge that, by chance, kinks your floor. Now you’re left with a deep, unsightly scratch across the very floor you were trying to protect! Had you invested earlier in a higher-quality matting at the start, this head- and heartache could’ve been avoided.

Rubber mat rolls are perfect for heavy-duty applications and will even cover long areas, granting continuous protection. And because rubber is so malleable, it’s very easy to install or remove on your own. This makes rubber rolls and mats great for temporary applications. And if you’re looking for more permanent protection, you could order custom-cut mats and use one of the many available adhesives to bond the rubber to your subflooring. This application works well for places like your laundry room or like your fully loaded home gym. Not to mention, cleaning rubber floor mats is a simple process requiring no more than average household cleaning supplies.

Are Floor Mats Worth It?

So, are floor mats worth it? It depends. Low-quality, cheap floor mats may seem like a good idea in the moment. But in the long run, they’ll only prove to be a headache, potentially costing you much more in repairs and replacement costs. Cheap floor mats could even do some irreparable harm, failing to protect your irreplaceable delicates from an untimely end. It’s clear that cheap matting just won’t do. When it comes to the protection of people, objects, and subflooring, rubber floor matting is at the top of the game. Furthermore, rubber matting is often produced using reclaimed rubber. Because the raw material costs are reduced in producing their rubber mats, manufacturers can afford to price them reasonably—without sacrificing any quality. That’s why non-rubber, cheap floor mats pale in comparison. At price-point and quality, rubber leads the way.