Choosing the right gym flooring for your home or commercial gym may be more complex than you initially thought. This is because several factors come into play when making the best choice for your setup. You need to pick the right material, thickness, and flooring system to support users and provide a safe foundation for exercise. From self-locking rubber mats to gym flooring rolls, you have many options to consider. In this ultimate guide to gym flooring, learn all the options you have available so you can make the best choice for your gym flooring.
In this guide:
- Choosing the Best Gym Flooring
- Home Gym or Commercial Gym
- 5 Important Things to Consider Before Buying Gym Flooring
- How Thick Should Gym Flooring Be?
- 8 Types of Gym Flooring
- How to Install Your Gym Flooring System
- Conclusion: The Best Gym Flooring
Choosing the Best Gym Flooring
Before you delve into the world of gym flooring, it’s essential to understand the qualities that your flooring needs. In general, your gym matting should possess the following properties for gym purposes:
- Durable and resistant – flooring for gyms should be durable and resistant to heavy gym equipment and weights; it shouldn’t mark easily. On top of this, gym flooring should protect the subfloor.
- Shock absorbent and anti fatigue – the flooring needs to provide cushioning to users to absorb the shock that would otherwise hit muscles, joints, and tendons. This is an essential part of creating a safe space for exercise and fitness.
- Non-slip – flooring with non-slip properties reduces the risk of slips and falls. There should be enough traction to exercise without movement feeling restricted.
- Easy to maintain – ideally, any gym flooring should be easy to clean, maintain, and last for years to come.
- Noise and vibration reduction – if you’re dealing with large, heavy equipment, you will need
- to consider noise and vibration reduction properties, as this can make a massive difference to the sound in a gym.
- Visual impact – how your flooring looks can have a big impact on the overall feel of the space. It can make a strong first impression and pull together the whole look of the facility.
Home Gym or Commercial Gym
It’s important to understand that the way you plan on using your gym helps determine the best flooring for you. Firstly, garage gym flooring tends to be different from what you would find in a commercial gym. Some gym flooring is designed with a commercial setting in mind, while others are more suited to a garage or outdoor garden gym. Although there is a lot of crossover, naturally, there are more attractive properties for home gyms and vice versa. For example, V-Interlocking mats can be used for a variety of different sports. They can provide traction and safety for athletes, as well as protect the playing surface.
5 Important Things to Consider Before Buying Gym Flooring
Before you buy your gym flooring, here are five crucial things you need to consider. All of these will help narrow down your choice so that you invest in a high-quality and suitable option. By doing the research beforehand and speaking to gym flooring experts, you can avoid a costly mistake
Traffic
How many people will be using your gym? A home gym has considerably less traffic than a commercial gym. If you are creating a high-traffic gym with a lot of members and foot traffic, you need to find flooring that is super durable and can withstand high use.
Moisture
Although one person in a garage gym isn’t going to produce a ton of sweat in one session, you need to factor in the moisture in the environment when you have over fifty members sweating it out. If you have a sauna or swimming pool, there’s also a higher risk of water damage. It’s a good idea to consider water-resistant gym flooring tiles or rolls.
Equipment
What type of equipment will be on the gym floor? If you plan on installing a free weights area for Olympic lifters as well as treadmills and rowing machines, the flooring needs to be thick enough to withstand this type of use. Also, noise and vibration-reducing qualities are a must when dealing with weights and heavy equipment.
Use
Do you plan on using equipment, bodyweight exercises, HIIT workouts, or a combination of all three? How you plan on using the space should be at the top of your priority list when choosing gym flooring. Match your flooring to your needs and purpose so that you can support users and create a safe exercise space to hit fitness goals.
Space
Finally, how much space do you have to cover? A large commercial gym may benefit from gym flooring rolls and commercial gym flooring tiles, while a small home gym may only need a few gym flooring mats to cover the surface. The amount of space you have and the size you need to cover will help you make a few decisions down the line by narrowing down your choice to the most suitable option.
How Thick Should Gym Flooring Be?
To determine the thickness of the mats you need to figure out how you want to use the space. Gym flooring comes in a range of thicknesses and should always be chosen depending on the application. In general, thicker flooring is tougher and stronger.
Here is an overview of how thick gym flooring should be for certain uses:
- Cardio – at least 6mm
- Functional fitness – at least 10mm
- Dumbbell area – at least 15mm
- Cross-training – at least 15mm
- Weightlifting and rack areas – 20/15mm
- Olympic weightlifting – 40mm
