Following. I am working on my pain cave as well.

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I use stall mats. They are heavy, thick, and once in place are pretty much there to stay. Mine are laid over carpet, and my only nitpick is that makes a couple of the seam heights not match up exactly. Could likely be remedied with some tape or something else, but its really minor. If it was concrete underneath I would have no issue, so if thats your situation then I really don't think you can go wrong with them...heavy, cheap, durable, can be cut as needed. Seems like the long rolls might work well also, I just didnt like the idea of the tiles due to being not as thick, more connections needed, more expensive, etc.

How thick are the mats that you have? 3/4"?

yes. 6x4 and 3/4" thick. From Tractor Supply Co. Also scooped up a sweet John Deere hoodie.

If I were starting over I'd go with carpet tile as the main flooring material and use individual stall mats on top of that at the treadmill and trainer locations.

This is what I have, it works great!

I just redid mine this weekend. Stall mats from Tractor Supply. 3/4" 6'x4' for $39each. Interestingly the guy at Tractor Supply said 80-90% of the mats they sell are for personal gyms etc. He even said there are people that buy them from Tractor Supply and resell them at gyms for twice the amount.
My office/gym conversion is 12'x11'. I got 5 of them. You can cut them to fit as needed with xacto knife. If you roll them up they are easier to carry, load, etc.

Thanks for the input, basically sounds like I would pay an extra $500 for strictly cosmetics. What a racket.

any idea how the stall mats would hold up to cars? considering the entire garage floor, not just the pain cave portion?

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TEAM F3 Undurance

No insight here, sorry.

I got the stall mats a week ago and they stink to high heaven. Left them in the garage for a week to air out before putting them in the basement and the whole house smells like tires.

Does the smell go away after a while or do you get used to it? Or did I just get a bad batch because they were sitting out in the sun.

Hey. It's common. You'll find tales of woe on the web. I got 6 rolls in April. Super bad odor, head ache and mild nausea bad. Now mostly gone. Like yu I left them on a covered patio for a week to air out some, but that didn't help much. I found some recipes for cleaning solutions via google - vinegar, baking soda, amonia, etc. I scrubbed 'em with a long handled (standing) stiff brush, hosed off, and let them bake in the sun, all x 2. That cut the smell down by maybe half, no more. I went ahead and laid them in place in the basement. The smell has further faded over time. I often left/leave a basement window open and trainer fan spinning to speed the fade. Hopefully it's not noticable at all by the time weather and short daylight render me an indoor-only rider.

Good luck

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The Ride of Truth - OWN your ride.

Thanks. If that is the case, I guess I am out $200 since there is no way I can live with that smell in the house for that long.

Anyone one to buy some horse stall mats?

This might be a less smelly alternative :-)

I have been using these for the past 8 months with great success. I picked them at Lowes 4 for $20. They interlock and are easy to clean and maintain. Not as sturdy as the rubber mats by far but on my tile floor at home they get the job done.

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From now on...

Pretty sure I bought from this website 5 or 6 years ago. If not this company then one of its direct competitors.

The rolls lay down flat and seams are a non issue (even if the rolls skew a bit you can force the seams together when you lay down the next adjacent roll). They are heavy. Getting up and down stairs with them was a chore.

Functionally they are perfect. I rolled them out over concrete flooring without any real prep. Placed free weights, treadmill, elliptical and a couple of trainer on top of the flooring for my home gym. I never put a towel or any additional mats down to absorb sweat. I am a heavy sweater and my wife is not afraid to tell me if I stink. I don't recall her complaining about the smell of the gym.

Only minor complaint is that before I completely finished my basement they would catch a lot of dust, as the rubber is a bit tacky due to surface roughness. Wet mop wipes them clean.

I used those in mine, over carpet tiles. used gorilla glue on the seams to help keep them tight.

That's what I've used at my apartment and now I'm my basement. They work and easy to clean and cheap. When my baby comes I'll probably lay down over most of basement floor for extra padding too.

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Take a look at Rubbercal for an alternative that doesn't have much odor. I think they are the vendor who makes the flooring in most commercial gyms. On Amazon you can buy it in all sorts of sizes. I use the 1/4" version in 4ftx8ft under my trainer/stretching matt.

Question for those using interlocking mats or similar as mentioned above -

If you have a treadmill (mines in my garage), would you place mats and then roll the treadmill onto the mats, or would you just leave the concrete floor bare for where the treadmill stands and just mat around it?

I ended up going with the Interlocking Mats from Amazon, got 160 sq feet for $116 shipped. With that being said, I don't use the mats for treadmill or bike room, but I have a separate mobility room setup where I foam roll, stretch etc. I have found the mats compress pretty easily, it seems given enough time they spring back to life, but I don't have anything crazy heavy on the mats like a treadmill. While I do like the interlocking mats from an ease of assembly standpoint, I don't think they are the most durable thing in the world. I noticed with my rolling that I actually rolled the mats wider/longer. I am now rotating the mats trying to elongate a whole row, and eventually all of them.

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I have interlocking mats, bought off of Amazon. Not the gym level ones, but colored blue/yellow ones I made into a giant Swedish Flag floor. It's been about 10 years now, they are still holding up great. Just a half inch foam, nothing fancy. Easy to pull up & wash or replace if needed. We have an inversion table, TV & stand, gaming chair, treadmill...all the heavy stuff is on Magic Sliders to move around & distribute the pressure from the smaller "legs" of whatever equipment comes with. I would not hesitate to buy them again. I also like that you have a lot of cushion to do things like jumping jacks without shoes. The gym version may offer better grip for that though, it is a bit slick in socks but do-able.

A tip for you, to keep them from mildew faster, I would use that "UGL DRYLOCK" to keep moisture away. We pull up the flooring 1x per year to wash it and dry it out in the back yard during our spring cleaning work.