Mat wells

[The Medway Handyman]

We have trouble with door mats at handyman towers.

Whatever we try, mats just move around & won't stay put.

So, I'm investigating mat wells cut into the carpets at front & back doors.

Seems simple enough, a mitered frame and you drop a coir mat in the hole. We have a thick carpet & underlay, so it would need to be a thickish mat.

But what size to make the hole?

Is there a BS or ISO mat size? Or can you buy it cut to size.

I don't want to cut the carpet & install the frames, only to find in two years time I can't get mats the right size.

[newshound]

I've had the same problem. I have some quarry tiles to replace and when I do I shall make the well "undersize" so that typical ones can be cut down to fit.

[Mike Barnes]

The Medway Handyman :

I've had those in a couple of houses and wouldn't be without.

I made the wells the size I wanted, bought lengths of coir matting off the roll, and cut it to size with a Stanley knife. Easy. You could visit Carpet World or wherever to check the thickness and maximum roll width.

[Dave Liquorice]

The wonderful things about standards, there are so many to choose from.

You can get coir matting by the roll or sellers will cut you a length. Widths of 1 or 2 m are available. I looked at this for the main door here, the matting is cheap but the brass angle frame was likely to costa packet.

I may forego the frame and just put coir matting over the entire entrance area, it'll keep the snow and mud in check.

[Andrew Mawson]

In our recent house rebuild we installed three mat wells - two in tiled floors and one in a boarded floor. We made the wells a sensible size relative to the doors, then bought coir matting by the metre. Two of the doors are double / french doors so the mat well in those cases is fairly wide.

AWEM

[Dave Plowman (News)]

How long does a mat last you? Buy enough the same size to see you out. ;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I made the frame for mine out of hardwood. Looks nice. But it's in a parquet floor, rather than carpet.

[harryagain]

The problem with that is that coir is impossible to clean in situ you have to lift it and take outside for a beating/hose down No problem with a small mat but a big area is really heavy to lift when damp and full of mud.

[Dave Liquorice]

Apart from a small "wing" for the boot area I could lift the end nearest the door and drag it out onto the hard standing to bash.

[Dave Liquorice]

Ah but you are in a city in the warm south. B-) You don't get 2' of snow piled up against the door or large quantities of grit and mud coming in on boots. Not sure that the edges of a hardwood frame in the traffic area would last that well. The adjacent flooring is not likely to be carpet as it's sort of the kitchen.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Not sure why the surround would suffer any more than the floor - and that seems to last forever with a few dents etc.

But the ideal way would be to clean your boots before coming into the kitchen. So you really need a boot room.

[Roger Mills]

Who he?

[I assumed from the heading that some contributor to this NG of whom I'd never heard had sadly passed away!]

[Mike Barnes]

harryagain :

One approach is to have a rubber mat outside that takes the worst of the mud off. I don't think I've ever felt the need to remove the inside mat for cleaning. It dries, it gets vacuumed, that's it.

[robgraham]

I tackled this many years ago - round about the time of the invention of th e internet so no Ebay, etc, and found a mat in a shop (!) that sat in a rub ber tray so that the dirt that went through the mat was easily removed. Th e size of the 'hole' is measured at 61 x 42 cm.

Rob

[PAJ]

Dave, You can buy standard size frames for not a lot of money eg.

[Dave Liquorice]

Edges are vulnerable. And there is far more mud and grit finding it's way into this house than any where else I have lived, they were all in towns or cities...

The matted area would be in effect be a boot room. This is the only external door (of 5) that doesn't have porch or doored off internal vestibule. In the winter up here one doesn't want external doors opening into any thing larger than it has to be, porches and vestibules act as air locks. B-)

[Dave Liquorice]

Which one?

They look like cheap ali not nice brass... A certain amount of salt also comes in on boots during the winter. Salt, wet and ali don't mix...

[Andrew Gabriel]

I specfied this when my hall carpet was fitted. The shop suggested that I shouldn't have a frame, but should have the coir well made the full width of the hallway. There was some specific reason I've forgotten, but it looks fine and works well. It's a strip which extends 18" into the hallway. If you're a family with lots of dirty shoes left near the door (like another part of my family), then I would go for a wider strip, so you can end up with the shoes left on the coir.

The carpet ends with a one-sided gripper with a flat vertical edge, the the coir is cut to fit between that and the doorframe and the skirting boards, and just drops in.

It comes in thicknesses to match common fitted carpet thicknesses (including underlay thickness - you don't put underlay under the coir).

Mine is 13 years old now, and still looks almost new. Interestingly, the loose coir mats in the porch only last 4-5 years.