Fitting carpet mat wells

[The Medway Handyman]

We have a fairly light carpet at Handyman Towers & have had annoying problems with door mats not staying in place. tried everything known to man (including double sided tape), but the buggers kept moving about - which annoyed SWMBO no end.

So creating mat wells & using coir seemed the best solution, one by the front door & one by the patio doors.

Posting this so anyone else thinking of installing them might find my experience useful.

Looked on line & ready made frames cost a fortune - £25+ each for a 30" x 14" frame & £8 extra for the coir mat, plus delivery. And of course, not the size I wanted.

Found a carpet trade place on a local industrial estate, car park full of carpet fitters vans, so I knew I'd come to the right place.

Two 2:7m lengths of 'square edge' carpet trim like this -

A 1m x 1m piece of rubber backed coir matting & a tube of the special adhesive they recommended for concrete floors;

Whole lot came to £34!

Job was actually easier than I thought. Marked out the area of the mat using a Sharpie marker, carefully cut out the rectangle of carpet, new blade in Stanley knife & a straight edge. Then cut the underlay back to accommodate the width of the square edge trim.

Square edge aluminium trim was easy to mitre on a chop saw with a carbide tipped blade.

Bit fiddly to get the last section in, tucked the carpet into the gripper with a bolster, then applied the adhesive to hold the trim down.

Left overnight it's as solid as a rock, cut the coir to size & Robert is your Aunts husband.

Probably not something I'd do as a paid job, but surprisingly simple.

[GB]

My brother is called Robert, as it happens, so we make that joke surprisingly often. Never seems to get stale. :)

Congratulations on your mat well job.

[Capitol]

The alternative appoach I used, was to buy a plastic office chair carpet protector from Costco ( the US ones are tougher than the UK ones as they have to cope with 300lb people). Cut it to just under the mat size, drop it down and if necessary to stop the mat from moving, add a bit of carpet tape. Worked on the lounge mat on carpet which rucked as people walked on it also.

[Bob Minchin]

Did you have to use specially thin coir matting? at first thought, I wonder if the depth of the well would be insufficient to take a standard mat.

We have abandoned the traditional door mat as too small the import several visitors at once without loosing too much heat out of the door

We have a 6 foot semi sacrificial rubber backed pile mat for foot wiping that is easy to hoover and eventually chuck if it becomes too soiled.

[The Medway Handyman]

I just used what the specialist suggested, it's a perfect fit. The top of the coir 'pile' is a mm above the trim.

The coir is so cheap I plan to do the same.

[GB]

If I understood correctly, there is no mat well. It's just a hole in the carpet and underlay, so the coir mat needs to be very thin.

In a previous house we had a huge coir mat that stretched across the hall for about 4 feet from the door instead of carpet. That worked really well, but it may not be to everyone's taste.

[PeterC]

got something similar from Ikea - lot better than Staples' version and cheaper, but the thing moves on the rug. I don't wantt o glue or tape it down as it's ttansparent and the rugs quite nice.

[Nightjar]

Including a couple of nails through into the floor? I find that holds my mat in place very well.

Colin Bignell

[The Medway Handyman]

Yes, the 'well' as such is in the carpet, not the sub floor. The coir mat is around 12mm thick, comes on a giant roll & they cut off what length you need.

[Peter Johnson]

I have a couple of Hug Rugs

for the same purpose. Made of recycled stuff, washable and they don't slide about if a bit more expensive than TMH's solution.