OK- so i'm moving into my new place in the next couple of days, and I'm going to be using one of the spare bedrooms for my weight lifting equipment (which I had in my garage at my old place). I would like to get some rubber mats to put down on the ground to protect the floors and reduce the sound of falling weights. My question is, does anyone know of a good way of going about this? I don't want to buy some made for it, because on average they run 65 bucks for a 4x6 pad, and i'd probably need at least 2-3 of those...

5/22/2008 12:29:10 AM

Either buy the mats or throw down some scrap carpet?

5/22/2008 1:58:43 AM

http://www.greatmats.com/products/puzzle-tile.php

5/22/2008 7:39:23 AM

are you gonna be doing this on the lowest level of your place?

5/22/2008 8:22:49 AM

^good question

5/22/2008 8:42:27 AM

^^^that comes out to even more for a 4x6 area (and I have a feeling I'm gonna want at least an 8x10 area for my stuff)

^^and I haven't decided if this will go in one of the bed rooms (all upstairs) or if I will have it downstairs... I won't be doing any olympic/power lifting upstairs (so no deadlifts, cleans, or push presses)- If i want to do that, I will bring it downstairs and outside

5/22/2008 8:55:50 AM

your problem is that youre not going to find anything much cheaper than somewhere in the ~$2-$3/sqft that is actually WORTH buying for your purpose. I bet you could find some even cheaper mats but by the time you save another $1/sqft youre getting a mat that isnt worth having/worth its cost for the purpose you want.

so while you dont want to spend it $65 bucks is a pretty fair price for 4x6 really in my experience. Might be able to find something down close to $50 but who knows how well it will hold up.

[Edited on May 22, 2008 at 9:13 AM. Reason : ]

5/22/2008 9:13:27 AM

yeah, I'm just thinking that you guys lift a lot of weight and if you are dropping it on the floor with enough force that tiles/mats are necessary, it would probably be a lot safer to do it on the bottom level. I highly doubt those condos were designed to have floors that can handle that kind of weight. Usually floor joists can handle around 50 pounds per sq. ft.

I dunno, just letting my engineering shit cloud my mind

5/22/2008 9:18:27 AM

you can get a roll of some 6x33 commercial carpet with around a 7/16" heavy rubber backing for $35-50 or 6xYY @ 2.99/sqyd depending on color pattern. But you'd probably use more gasoline getting to greenville to justify the savings.

5/22/2008 9:18:32 AM

my ex works for mohawk down there, so she might be able to hook it up for me... i know she gets a helluva discount. I just hadn't really thought about more carpeting, but i guess that would work

5/22/2008 9:20:54 AM

well those prices are just some 5yr old shit we're trying to push out the door at this bullshit warehouse job i'm working atm.

a $35.00 6x33 "BuyItNow" roll of that commercial mess ends up being like 1.60/sqyd on some carpet that normally would approach 10 or 15.

No idea what kind of deals she could get from mohawk. They don't actually make it there do they?

5/22/2008 9:26:11 AM

walmart sells those mats. for like treadmills and stuff.

i dont remember the exact price, but they were pretty cheap.

5/22/2008 9:58:43 AM

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=3357068

that's what i want, but it's out of stock... dammit

dicks has something similar, but a lil more expensive

http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2927175

[Edited on May 22, 2008 at 11:53 AM. Reason : grr]

5/22/2008 11:43:17 AM

go to the store and get that...you'd get it like 2 days quicker

[Edited on May 22, 2008 at 11:50 AM. Reason : .]

5/22/2008 11:49:08 AM

well, if you can't get it online, i find it unlikely that they would have it in the store... i guess I could be a little more proactive and actually call the stores, but who wants to do that?

5/22/2008 11:54:26 AM