Our process for choosing the right home gym floor mats was a bit of a bumpy road but in the end we found the right fit for our gym floor.
Hey, it’s Brent here today sharing how we chose our home gym floor mats. Have you ever stumbled across the perfect pin? You know the pin that gives you a fantastic idea guaranteeing to take your project to the next level. When the supplies are easy to source and the skills needed aren’t too advanced, Pinterest can inspire you to try something new.
Sure, in the back of our heads we all know “Pinterest Fails” are a real thing but we try and be optimistic and never think it will happen to us. As we began work on our home gym room makeover, we experienced our own “Pinterest Fail”. It wasn’t the messy kind of disaster that leaves you feeling empty on the inside but rather the kind that forces you to decide if you are willing to settle for something almost right or start over.
By now hopefully you have seen the plans for our home gym. This is our first total room makeover and at first it was hard to decide where to start. But after seeing a pin with the perfect solution for a gym floor we were exited to get to work.
How To Install Home Gym Floor Mats
SUPPLIES
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INSTALL GYM FLOOR MATS
1. We woke up early to start tearing up the carpet. After the first rip of the carpet from the nail strips there was no turning back.
First Attempt at Installing Home Gym Floor Mats
Once the carpet was out, we took the advice from what we thought was a reliable source based on a pin on Pinterest and went to purchase our new flooring.
We drove thirty miles to our nearest Tractor Supply store where we purchased brand new black rubber stall mats. Maybe you’re already seeing the red flags, but we thought the idea of stall mats in a home gym was just crazy enough to work.
Plus, it was going to save quite a bit of money.
As we loaded them, a stranger in a cowboy hat asked us what we were doing with 15 stall mats but I’m sure what he actually meant was what is someone driving a Ford Focus doing trying to squeeze 15 large stall mats in the back.
We were excited to inform him of our genius idea. By the expression on his face he was not as convinced as we were.
When we arrived home I started placing the mats on the floor and cutting them to size as Courtney unloaded the mats from the car.
Our main concern was if we would be able to cut the mats but that part turned out to be easy.
After scoring the mat with a straight edge, I simply folded the mat over and continued cutting along the previous mark with my box cutter until I cut all the way through the mat.
The first row went down great but once we started placing the second row we noticed a thickness and size variation from mat to mat.
This size variation resulted in gaps between the mats and ridges where a thicker mat lined up to a thinner mat.
We were really torn on what to do in this scenario. The black mats looked and felt great in the room but the small gaps just made it feel slightly off and not clean or professional.
After sleeping on it, reading the Tractor Supply return policy, and admitting we are in fact not smarter than a fifth grader we returned the uncut mats to the store.
Luckily we had only cut through three.
Second Attempt at Installing Home Gym Floor Mats
We decided to do a little more research and concluded that our original idea of gym foam tiles would look the best, be a breeze to install and actually cost a little less than the black stall mats.
One of the reasons we went with the black mats to begin with is because we thought it would be cheaper but we found we were able to get 10 packs of four of the gray foam mats on Amazon for less than we had spent on the others and these would work really well as our home gym floor mats.
2. We installed the foam squares starting in one corner of the room and worked our way around the room cutting the last piece of each row to size with a straight edge and box cutter.
3. The tiles come in packs of four and we quickly noticed that each pack is a slightly different shade of gray.
Varying colors weren’t as noticeable or as big of a deal as varying thicknesses. We were able to mix the tiles all together to avoid large areas of the same shade of gray to make it look intentional and are happy with the results of our home gym floor mats.
It is exhausting to change gears mid-project and have to start over with a new idea and it may be a blow to your pride to admit defeat but we always try and keep the picture of what we want to the finished room to look like in mind to keep us from settling even when things get hard.
That way when you reach the intended final result, the sense of accomplishment is even more gratifying. It is said that comedy is tragedy plus time and we certainly like to laugh so I guess it is all worth it.
PIN IT FOR LATER
Recently, my wife and I decided to invest in more gym equipment, and we’re interested in turning our guest room into our private gym. We’re glad you talked about your experience removing your carpeted flooring and installing gym floor mats. We think we’ll look for a professional to help us choose the right flooring for our room because we’re not great with tools and DIY projects.
What did you do with the foam tiles at the doorway? My workout room is in the basement and is completely open to a short hallway on one side
(I couldn’t find a date on this post or replies… hopefully this isn’t a super old post :))
Thanks, Brent… I really appreciate your insights on the factors which should be taken into consideration while choosing the flooring material for the gym. People often ignore the quality of materials while selecting the gym flooring mats which could cost them a lot. So, a person should do some research prior to buying flooring materials for the gym. Assistance from experienced professionals could be very helpful to choose the quality materials for the gym flooring.
Thanks for sharing! I do a lot of work our videos that involve a lot of cardio. (Jumping, kicking, moving from side to side). Are the mats soft. Would I feel unstable doing cardio on them?
Hi Taylor! I do cardio as well and the mats are pretty soft and provide cushion but still firm enough that I can work out on them and not sink into them. I don’t feel unstable but our mats do not move because we have them running from wall to wall on our concrete floor. I would think if you just used a square block of them on top of another surface they would move around. Hope that helps!
Hi,
Thank you for your post that is amazing way to know about that how we can apply home gym floor.
Thank you for sharing! I’m struggling with the idea of making my office into a home gym and this may have sealed the deal for me! Just to be clear…you just landed the tiles on top after you pulled up the carpet, no adhesive?
Thanks
Corine
Hi Corine! Correct. We did not use adhesive. We just made sure the mats fit snuggly and ran from wall to wall. We haven’t had any issues with them coming up or moving.
Thanks!
Courtney
What about putting cardio equipment on floors? Treadmill and bike…do the mats move or dent when equipment in use?
Hi Susan, We have had a treadmill on our mats for at least three years now and they have not moved at all. Since we have the mats pushed up to the wall around the whole room, we have had not had any issues with them moving. The mats probably have dents in them if we were to move the treadmill from where it has been this whole time but if they do, it isn’t noticeably sunk into the mats. We have had smaller equipment on the foam mats and there hasn’t been any dents but I would imagine that the weight of the larger equipment would put dents in the foam over time. So if you plan to move the larger equipment around the room, foam mats might not be the best option. Hope this helps!
Hi there. So glad to have read this. We tried putting the mats down on the carpet but couldn’t open the door over them. It was a lot softer under foot though but I found the mats moved and our gym equipment also dented the mats more with the carpet under. I lifted the carpet and laid the whole room and it looks much more professional and doesn’t move around at all now.
That is great to hear! We are glad the post helped you install your gym floor tiles.
Hi I was wondering if u put them just right on top of your OSB floor or was your floor concrete
Hi Carrie,
We pulled up the carpet and laid the floor mats on top of the concrete.
Do your mats show all your footprints? I just installed a black rubber tile floor and it shows every foot print. Would love to avoid that.
The foam does not show any footprints. It is another reason why we went with the foam tiles over the rubber ones. When we had the rubber mats for just the brief amount of time we had the same problem with the footprints.
This was a great post! i have seen a lot of info on stall mats as well.
Has anyone put these tiles over carpet? ( i saw the previous post that you don’t recommend doing that) My carpet is on top of concrete …… I know my husband will not want to pull up the carpet, turning this into a huge project.
Please advise :).
Thank you!
Debbie
You might could get away with leaving the carpet if it isn’t too fluffy. our worry would be if the floor isn’t solid under the mats they will come apart where they hook together. You could always buy one pack and try it out. Let us know if it works.
This is what was needed at the right moment! Thank you that you planned to do, but did not understand how all this can be done independently. Now have a full understanding of how to implement all this
What is on your cats neck??? ????????????
Ha – the latest in cat fashion of course! Just kidding, he had to wear an inflatable doughnut cone to keep him from licking his stomach for a little bit. He is better now and much happier to have that crazy thing off. 🙂
Thank you, we thought the horse stall mats were a brilliant idea too, were going to install in the next week or two! Do you know what thickness your mats are?
Hi Stef! The floor-mats we used are .75 inch thick.
Have you had any issues with using weights on these mats? I cross fit and have rubber plates do you think dropping them from overhead would rip them?
The most aggressive activities we do on the mats are pushups and core exercises with a medicine ball. I want to say they would hold up but can’t be sure for certain. We have a rug in the area we do yoga. Maybe you could use a rubber mat like we tested in the first part of the post as a “rug” in the area the weights would land.
Hey! It’s just amazing, love to watch your site! Great tips on gym flooring.
Thanks a lot!
Where did you purchase/cost for the floor mats? What do you do to clean the gym floor?
Hi Liv, we purchased the mats from Lowe’s but they were about the same price as they are on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Norsk-240275-Reversible-Recyclamat-Multi-Purpose/dp/B002MXY79S/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1471136414&sr=1-1&keywords=Norsk+240275+Reversible+Recyclamat+Sport+Multi-Purpose+Foam+Flooring%2C+Black%2FGray%2C+4-Pack. The mats wipe clean easily and I just take a small handheld vacuum and use the long attachment to pick up any dust, hair, etc. that makes its way on the gym floor.
-Courtney
Thanks for your post. I plan to try this when we move into our townhouse in a couple weeks. And Pinterest Fails are very real. I tried making Santa Hat Brownies once based off a Pin a saw, and mined turned out looking like dead melting Santas with spears through their heads. Not the holiday cheer I was hoping to inspire, but they were still delicious? haha. Thanks!
Haha too funny Sam! I don’t think anyone is immune to a Pinterest fail every now and then. 🙂 At least they were still delicious! We’re glad you like the post and hope it helps when you go to tackle the project yourself in your townhouse. Thanks for stopping by our blog!
-Courtney
Can you put them over carpet? My husband is insistent that he doesn’t want to rip up the carpet in the downstairs living room aka future gym.
Hi Sheena, We haven’t tested it, but I probably wouldn’t recommend using these type of foam mats over carpet. Without a hard surface I would imagine they might slip or come apart easily.
I love how easy you made this look. I’m surprised but relieved that you don’t have to glue the mats down. It looks like the cat approves as well.
Thanks Drew. The hardest part was actually pulling up all the carpet. But the mats went down really easily and since we cut the end pieces to fit up against the wall, the mats are still sitting snug and haven’t moved a bit. And yes, Jake the cat definitely loves this flooring for some reason.
Hey, do you have to glue them down at all, or do they just hold in place well?
Cheers!
Hi Nancy, we did not have to glue them down. We just fit them together and cut some of the pieces so they would sit tightly against the wall. We have had the flooring in for about 7 months. The mats get daily use and they have held in place really well.
-Courtney
HOW ARE THE TILES HOLDING UP?
The gym flooring is holding up great! We are still really happy with our choice. 🙂
Thank you for your prompt reply. I almost went with the horse stall mat until i saw you post, you saved me time and money.. Belinda