Horse stall mats for home gym flooring

Horse stall mats are the open secret of home gyms: thick, dense rubber, made to take a 1,000 lb animal standing on it all day, sold at farm-supply stores for much less per square foot than “gym flooring”. They're not perfect. Here's what to know before you buy.

What you're buying

• Size: the usual mat is 4 × 6 ft and ¾ inch thick. Some stores sell other sizes; check before you plan.
• Weight: roughly 90 to 100 lb each. Plan on two people to move them.
• Feel: firm and stable underfoot. Great for lifting; harsher than foam for floor exercises, so add a yoga mat for those.

How many you need

4 × 6 ft mats, laid in a straight grid, without reusing cut-offs:

You don't have to cover the whole room: many people mat only the lifting area around the rack and leave the rest bare.

The downsides, honestly

• Smell. New recycled rubber smells strongly. Leaving the mats outside or in the garage for a few days, and washing them with mild soap, helps a lot. It fades over weeks.
• Edges don't lock. Mats butt together; they can shift a little. Their weight keeps most in place.
• One side may be textured and the other smooth. Smooth up is easier to clean; textured up grips better.
• Not soundproof. They take the sting out of setting weights down, but dropped deadlifts still carry through a house. For upstairs or condo gyms, look at a lifting platform with layered materials.

Cutting and laying

1. Let the mats warm to room temperature first. Cold rubber cracks.
2. Mark the line, lay a long straightedge on it, and score with a sharp utility knife.
3. Make many shallow passes rather than one deep one, and bend the mat open along the cut as you go.
4. Put cut edges against the walls, factory edges where mats meet.