I know this subject has been brought up before but I thought I would ask again.
I have gone through several of these stupid plastic things and they seem to get eaten up within a couple of months. It is really irritating. Maybe it is the rug it is on (a Berber) or maybe it is the quality of the mat. Either way, I am sick of it.
Would any sort of thin plywood even come close to looking good? If so, what should I use to finish it? It is going to take a bad beating with the wheeled chair.
Thanks.
I wondered about this as well. I have gone through several anti-static plastic chair mats over the years--all eventually cracked. A pre finished-engineered flooring with some kind of tapered edging is what I'm thinking. I havn't seen any proven plans, however.
Tue, Oct 16, 2007, 6:04pm (EDT-3) snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com doth say: I know this subject has been brought up before but I thought I would ask again.
The magic 8-ball says check the archivs.
One of our work locations has a pre-fab office inside the shop that was assembled about 20 years ago. It has a plywood floor that over the years has been tiled, vinyled, carpeted, you name it, but all of the floor treatments were torn up pretty quickly. Finally one of the supervisors had some 1/8" steel plate cut & laid over the plywood. It's a few years old now and actually looks _better_ than it did when new, as it's gotten shiny over the years compared to the original black steel finish. If the aesthetics are acceptable I recommend it.
I really, really like this idea but I don't think a 1/8" steel plate is going to fly in the family room...but it certainly is enticing and way cool. Sort of like the Tim Taylor version of a chairmat.
I have been wondering about engineered flooring as Phisherman suggested but I don't know what sort of base to put it on. I keep coming back to a doggone 3/4" piece of plywood to mount the engineered stuff on because anything thinner might buckle as the chair rolls over it.
I really think it has to do with the carpeting. I have the exact same chairmat at work but it is on a relatively thin, flat carpet laid over concrete. There is no give at all and I think that has helped the chairmat not crack. Who knows; I could be totally wrong, but I sit in that chair 8-9 hours a day, 5 days a week and it has lasted for two years now. Not even one little crack in it. The one at home is about a year old and it is not only cracked but chunks have come out of it already--and the chair is not occupied nearly as much as the one at work. I just don't understand. The latest though I had was maybe using a piece of plywood, maybe 1/2", and putting the anti-static mat on it. There will still be some play for sure but maybe the more solid surface under the chairmat will make it live longer...
JT, I understand what you are saying and I totally agree. I will Google this group and the entire Internet but I think questions bear to be repeated because what if somebody came up with a good solution to a problem--any problem--and if the question is never asked (again), then the newer ideas will never be shared. There is a good reason to look back to find answers but there is also a lot of value in asking those same questions again at times.
Change the chair wheels?
FWIW, there are steel floor tiles available. The Boat School has (or had 30 years ago) one at each turning point in the halls--vinyl won't stand up to 4,000 screaming Plebes making square turns at full chop all day every day. They are slippery when wet.
Have you thought about just getting a sheet of 3/4 inch Baltic birch or Appleply and using it instead of the plastic mat?
I use a thin sheet of Baltic birch plywood with vinyl sheet goods on top. I have one I did 10 years ago that is still fine. Thickness of wood depends on weight being applied.
My father built his using .75"x2.75" strip flooring with a bevelled hardwood frame. Sits proud of the floor, but won't disintegrate like the plastic mats do (I've the same problem you do, they last about a year now, where the older ones used to last a decade).
You could probably frame in some engineered flooring from the borg too.
scott
My son is a big boy and weighs in at about 210 and he plops into the chair (he doesn't sit--he PLOPS). I truly believe that is probably the biggest reason but certainly not the total reason. I also think like somebody else said that these mats are nothing like they used to be years ago.
So one of my questions is: How thick should the plywood be? I really like the idea of vinyl squares or something on top because they are pretty thin. I don't really want anything too thick under the chair because it is a fairly high traffic area and I can see people tripping over the mat if it is too high.
I would rather have wood but I like the vinyl suggestion...
1/4" is probably good enough, but 1/2" will probably stand up to almost anything. It partly depends on how much support the carpet gives. Thick carpet and padding requires a thicker pad. Sheet vinyl is probably better than squares. I routed the edges of the wood and wrapped the sheet over the edges and glued it on the bottom.
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