Buying and fitting your own rubber matting?

Blizzard

Blizzard

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Two liveries at my yard got rubber matting the other day, they needed 6 mats, and including delivery, fitting and seaing it came to just under £300 for each stable.

ive been wanting matting for a while, these are the same as the mats they got,and are the ones I want:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RUBBER-STABLE-MATS...1QQcmdZViewItem

I need 6mats, we have alocal supplier who sells them for £30 each, so thats £180.

So my question is how hard are they to cut, fit and seal. I know they weigh close to 50kg each, but have wiling and able men to do the lifting etc.

Also if you have sealed your own matting, what did you use to seal it please?
 
They sell interlocking mats here that are nice and come made to fit snugly into a 12/12 or 10/10 stall precicely.

They cost a great deal more than the ones you need to cut but the convenience is what you are paying for I assume

I have no idea about how hard they are to cut but are pricing some myself atm and have a MAJOR gripe!!!!! WHY do they come in dimensions of 4/6 when that is not even a common stall dimension when doubled! GRRRRR


why noy come in 6 by 6 or 5 by 5 sizes!?

I can tell you this...overlapping without cutting is a bad idea
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It makes cleaning out the stall very difficult


a "friend" told me
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We have Kraigburg mats in all our stables. They are the ones with little legs and are self draining. The concrete floor was laid with a slight tilt. We had to cut the mats to fit as they are very old stone stables and hence an odd size.

When cutting them you need to mark the line that you want to cut along with a red marker pen or chalk, including and bits that jut in or out. Where the mats are to be cut is straight lines, you need to hold a straight steel bar on top of the mat along the line that is to be cut. Pressing down on this and using a very sharp Stanley knife, you need to cut down into the mat pushing down as hard as you can. (Better to get a well muscled man to do it!) It will take a couple of 'slices' to get through the mat.

We didn't have ours sealed as they are a snug fit and you need the seams to allow the urine to seep through rather than wetting a large area of bedding. As the ones you are buying appear to be self draining, do you really need to seal them? If you do seal them, how will you take them out for cleaning (which we do once or twice a year)?
 
Fitting the mats is quite easy. All you need is a tape measure, a steel ruler.straight edge & a 'Stanley' knife & some spare blades.

As for sealing them, I've never sealed mine & have had no problems, infact I don't think any on our yard of 26 horses have. Just make sure they are a tight fit & avoid having a joint in the doorway.

Oh, when you've finished cutting & fitting count your fingers....if they come to 10 you've done pretty well
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Thanks everyone,

5 of the stables at our yard have the mats, and they have all been sealed. They dont need lifting because nothing can get underneath them, as they are sealed around the edges to the stable.

The only person who has mats that arent sealed has Equimats, and hers arent too stable!

I have two spare mats in my stable at the mo, they weigh about 45kg, and when Beau turns around he moves them out of place, so i think I will have to get them sealed? he is a big horse.
 
i have mats and didnt find them too difficult to cut once i sussed out the best way to cut them, which was unfortunately after the knife slipped and sliced through my thumb!! mine are not sealed either. Otto never managed to move his but they covered the whole stable,the pony only has half her stable covered and they are always moving about.
 
I have equimats, and they were easy to cut with a sharp knife. I didn't seal mine though, because the pee runs between the mats, so it seemed a bit pointless to seal round the edge. My mats don't move when Chex walks on them, but they weigh a ton! They fitted perfectly in my old 12x12, but now I have a 10x14 and can only fit 4 mats in without cutting them - very annoying!
 
I've just laid rubber matting for the first time - I got a really good deal on some end of line stuff, cost me £400 for 14 mats (7 for each stable) 12x14 stables, 6x4 mats, 17mm thick from Horsemat.

They are extremely heavy but 2 of us laid them, 4 mats fitted in stable with no cuts & had to trim the other 3. You just need a really sharp stanley knife & ideally 2 people doing it, they look fab. We were advised not to seal and to butt edges up as close as possible, shavings would fill in any gaps, we hardly had any gaps.
 
I bought my mats from the people you have shown. They are fantastic. I bought 7 mats and went for them with my hubby. (I would have them delivered next time though). The company were lovely and the mats are excellent quality.

They are VERY heavy so I find they don't move. Hubby cut them with a stanley knife without much bother at all and we didn't seal them.

I can't recommend them enough and wouldn't like to be without them now.
 
Thank you everyone.
i hadnt even thoght about not sealing them,the ones at our yard are all sealed between the mats and around the edges,so basically its like a new floor!

Thanks I might get a delivery quote for them Amanda,they are a bit cheaper than the ones I can get.

Will be great if i dont need to seal them.
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