There is a myriad of uses for rubber tiles, from horse stall flooring to a surface for an outdoor children’s play area. Rubber flooring is durable, holds up against degradation from the weather, and has amazing shock absorbing principles, and these are just the tip of the iceberg for all the reasons both professionals and ‘Do-It-Yourselfers’ chose to use high-quality rubber mats to protect their flooring and safeguard their living and working space.
Rubber mats are created with recycled rubber from tyres, diverting tonnes of waste from landfills and putting to good use a valuable material that would go to waste. This economical product is actually a masterpiece of manufacturing genius. After passing through a series of shredders, the rubber is pulverised to a powder, then its super-heated, injected into a mould, and then pressed with tremendous force—in fact, with enough pressure to snap a hard wood like red wood. The heat and pressure act to magnify the cushioning ability inherent in rubber, making it the perfect mat to protect against tremendous weights.
Rubber mats have this unique ability to sit perfectly on both hard surfaces and loose gravel, instantly turning a space from a slipping hazard to the perfect high traction flooring. With its ability to repel water, rubber mats also work well in damp areas, or in areas with a lot of filth. Rubber mats can be cleaned easily with a pressure washer.
Some rubber mats—like the 20mm dog bone rubber jigsaw tiles offered by Stable Mats Ireland—even have interlocking connectors at the edges of every mat, and these create a seamless floor. They’re also incredibly easy to use for many uses, like creating wonderful courtyards for your garden.
The dog bone rubber mats are made from a crumbed rubber material which is incredibly soft, cushioning every step, whilst also providing a high-friction flooring.
First Thing First: Rubber Mats Are Perfect Horse Stall Mats
For those who own race horses, you want everything to be just right when you present your horse to the world—including the flooring that sits underneath its hooves. That’s why dog bone rubber mats are perfect for parade grounds, places to display your thoroughbreds. For those high-traffic areas in your barn, purchase durable rubber flooring with a wonderful brick-like appearance which instantly draws your eye.
You’ll be purchasing flooring which will take the weight off of the joints of your horse. You invest countless hours into all the horses you own and board, and you want to do everything in your power to increase their quality of life because a happy horse is a fast horse. Ant-fatigue, high-traction rubber flooring makes a significant difference to your horses, allowing them to gain traction and, by extension, confidence with each step.
Do-It-Yourself Uses for Rubber Flooring
Maybe you’ve stumbled onto a stable mats website desperately looking for an inexpensive fix for your home. You’re not by any means in the wrong place and, in fact, rubber flooring has a wide variety of uses. So you’ve just stumbled onto the perfect solution for that thing on your ‘to do’ list, which has been vexing you.
Garden Courtyard Flooring
There’s a lot to love about rubber flooring, including its ability to mimic other everyday materials, like clay bricks and cobblestones. The dog bone shaped rubber flooring mats listed above provide a rustic clay brick feel, while also giving you proper high-traction flooring for your garden. If you’re worried about slips and falls, or if you’d like to safeguard your garden for your guests, then putting down several rubber flooring tiles can be the perfect addition to a drab, dated outdoor living space.
Rubber mats also instantly transform your outdoor space into additional living space. With its anti-fatigue properties, it’s also great to stand on for a long period, so rubber flooring can be a perfect addition to tool sheds.
Rubber mats are fairly easy to cut to size, but if you’re interested in a more in-depth treatment of installing rubber mats, check out the blog post, “THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO HIGH-FRICTION RUBBER FLOORING”. Just one tip: a simply utility knife can cut rubber mats, but a jigsaw could be your best bet to get through the dense rubber.
Outdoor Play Area
Whilst growing up, you might have played on concrete or asphalt surfaces, which offered very little shock-absorbing properties. You might have received minimal injuries like cuts and scrapes, but because of the unforgiving concrete surface, you could’ve received much worse injuries.
If you’d like to create a dedicated play area for your kids or grandkids, then you might search through all the alternatives. Some play areas have a grass or turf surface which offers a minimal amount of shock absorption. Grass surfaces also degrade quickly, from both environmental conditions and regular wear from children. If you’re looking for a dedicated area for your children to play, you’ll need something which is a much more durable.
Wood mulch, rubber mulch, sand, or pea gravel still are also good options for your child’s play area, but these four options offer minimal shock-absorbent absorption and can be incredibly inconsistent when large chunks shift or move. Over time, loose materials are swept away by the wind or rain, and don’t provide consistent cushioning.
Another flooring choice for a child’s play areas would be EVA foam mats, but they’re ill-suited to be used outdoors. They bleach in the sun and expand in the heat, but they’re also incredibly light, weighing just two kilograms, and this means that they could blow away with a swift gust of wind.
The safest surface for your child’s play area is a resilient rubber mat or rubber playground tiles. Rubber is most comfortable and consistent flooring, and since it doesn’t shift, you won’t have to worry about unsafe playing conditions
Rubber Flooring for Underneath Trampolines
Another spot that might need rubber mats is underneath outdoor play equipment like a trampoline. The dog bone shaped rubber mats are incredible useful for underneath trampolines because they tessellate together, creating a seamless rubber floor. It’s incredibly hard to separate these rubber tiles, even after running, playing on them, or bouncing on a trampoline. This locking mechanism creates a stable base for a trampoline, allowing your kids to jump to their heart’s content. Caution: Although the dog bone rubber mats will absorb some impact and break fall they will still be hard to fall on from the heights attained from a trampoline.
Rubber flooring can also be incredibly attractive, mimicking Stone or clay blocks, adding a rustic appearance to the area that your children are playing. Laying out ten square meters of rubber flooring, you’ll notice the uniform texture that they all possess, but when you observe them from closer up the rubber crumb, the differently coloured pieces seem to make an aesthetically pleasing mosaic of neutral colours.
Two More Uses for Rubber Mats
Beneath Your Above Ground Pool
Rubber mats have an ubiquity of uses and this article has only scratched the surface, but I want to give you two more ideas. The first is that rubber flooring can be placed underneath above ground pools to protect the base from sharp objects, and also to give the guests at your pool a soft, cushioning surface to step out onto after having fun in the pool. Side note, for a soft underfloor for pool use EVA jigsaw mats such as parlour pit mats.
Another great choice for a base to an aboveground pool is EVA tiles. Although not as resilient as rubber, 20 mm EVA foam mats are the perfect protective layer to place underneath your outdoor furniture, even your pools. The two issues that you may run into is, as noted above, EVA foam can bleach in the sun and dent over time. Rubber holds its original shape much better than EVA foam.
Dog Run
You love your dog, but they sure make a mess. Their claws tear up your grass and they leave little ‘presents’ for you on the ground, which you inevitably step in. What if you could have a dedicated space for your dogs to play on? Setting up a dog run can help you keep your sanity, as you give your dog their own space to be as messy as they want.
Rubber mats work perfectly in these spaces because they’re designed for mess. Dogs cannot easily tear, scratch, and chew durable rubber mats. And when they relieve themselves, you can easily scoop it up and hose the area down to clean it up. Also, if you fence in the area, then you should extend the rubber past the fence posts to stop your dog from digging underneath.
Conclusion
If you’re looking to tackle some projects at your home or in the barn, dog bone rubber mats solve your ever growing ‘to-do’ list. Whether you’re a horse farmer and you need high-traction flooring for a trot up area leading to your parade ring, or if you’re a homeowner trying to create the perfect play area for your children, outdoor rubber mats is the durable, eco-friendly choice to rejuvenate your dab outdoor areas, which will withstand the regular wear and tear of life.
Author: David Van Kooten