A treadmill mat is often offered as an optional extra when you buy a treadmill but in reality, it really should be consider an absolutely essential purchase. Treadmill mats are designed to go under the machine to both protect the floor, reduce noise and prevent damage to the treadmill itself. Buying foam or rubber treadmill mat can save a lot of headaches in the future and can be bought at low prices online.

Treadmill Mats Protect Your Floor

When you buy a new fitness machine it looks like a bright, shiny awesome machine on the surface with slick digital controls and shiny new parts and components. The fact is, this is all for show and what you have actually bought is a heavy duty motorised beast which will pound away at your floors whilst dripping belt lube, grease and grime all over your floors. Treadmill mats put a barrier between this mechanical monster and your nice clean floors.

Treadmills and carpets do not play well together. Most treadmills are mounted on feet which dig into your rug like the feet on a couch do. The difference here is you just sit on a couch, whereas a treadmill vibrates, scoots around a little and generally rubs and grinds away as you pound up and down on it. This will wear holes in your carpet over a short period of time leaving damaged carpeting behind. Spending a few pounds on a foam floor mat for underneath a treadmill prevents this from being an issue.

Tile and wood flooring is even worse, because at least the carpet provides some kind of cushioning and stability. A bouncing, pounding treadmill can be a nightmare for tile, causing cracks and lifting. For wooden floors a treadmill will cause indentation, scratches and deep gouges as it moves around, none of which are going to look great when the machine is moved. A thick rubber treadmill mat or deep cushioned foam mat will protect from that kind of damage.

The treadmill lubricant, grease and even sweat from your own exertions can stain carpeting and pergola and wood floors and again, a good exercise mat will prevent this too.

Treadmill Mats Protect The Machine Too

Many people think they can just throw an old piece of rug or carpet underneath a treadmill and that’s enough to protect the floors and dampen some of the sound vibration. That’s a falsehood which can lead to motor failure and poor cushioning. What happens is, the treadmill motor sucks in carpet fibres which eventually cause overheating, make the motor work harder and fail faster. A rubber mat for under a treadmill provides a barrier against carpet fibres and also dust bunnies, pet hairs and other household waste which can clog up the rollers under the deck, or block vents etc.

Treadmill mats also serve another important purpose in protecting the machine from damage. They protect it from itself.

What this means is that when a treadmill is running and when you are pounding up and down on it, there is a lot of vibration caused by the motor and moving parts and a lot of impact shock from your footsteps. On a firm floor surface vibration will reverberate into the floor and rattle back up in the machine which over time puts stress on welded joints on the frame, and loosens component parts like bolts and screws. As parts work loose, there is more movement in the frame which will lead to more rattling, jostling and eventually damage to the treadmill.

Thick treadmill mats dampen the vibrations. They also cushion the impact of your footfalls which prevents shock damage. Often people position their treadmills in a garage or elsewhere on concrete slab and feel they do not need a mat because they’re not worried about protecting the flooring. This kind of hard surface can make a treadmill particularly susceptible to impact damage so a thick mat is required here too.

Reduce Noise With A Treadmill Mat

One of the main complaints about home treadmills is that they can produce a lot of noise when in operation. A noisy treadmill with bother you, those you live with and your neighbours too if you have adjoining walls. A thick treadmill mat deadens vibration and helps soundproof a treadmill as well as stopping it from moving around which will itself reduce scraping and scratching sounds.

Choosing The Best Treadmill Mat

Not all treadmill mats are made the same however, so you do have to be careful when you shop around to make sure you find the right one for your needs.

The prices range from around £20 for a cheap thin mat to over £100 for a long thick one. You may be able to get away with a cheap treadmill mat if you are using a short, lightweight treadmill and are not too worried about sound dampening. The cheapest treadmill mats can be as little as 1/4 inch thick.

More expensive treadmills often have wider, longer running decks, up to 7ft and longer and you will have to find a mat to compensate for this. They are also big heavy beasts which will require a highly durable, thick treadmill mat to protect your flooring and the machine itself which, since it would have amounted to a significant investment, is going to be well worth protecting.

Thick treadmill mats are going to be from 1/2 to 3/8 ich thick, some going up to 1/2 inch in thickness to provide really solid protection and sound dampening control. They are typically made from interlocking foam pieces, PVC, thick rubber often from recycled tyres, or rubberized vinyl. Heavy duty rubber mats provide the best protection in my opinion and usually feature a textured surface to prevent the machine from skidding and slipping which aids stability.

Interlocking Foam Gym Floor Mats

The nice thing about this kind of gym floor matting is it can be put together in a way which suits your home gym layout. You don’t have to worry about getting a larger machine later and needing a bigger mat because the old one is too small, you simply buy a few more floor pads and join them on to the old ones. They also double up great as playroom flooring, providing a nice soft cushioned flooring to protect against falls, bumps and scrapes whilst protecting your floors from spills and food splatter too. When you are done with them, just take them apart and stack them neatly in a pile. If you’ve got a folding treadmill you stow away when it’s not being used this is ideal.

Interlocking Floor Matting – High Impact List Price: Amazon Price: £34.95 Ideal for under heavy gym equipment of for use as playroom flooring, these interlocking foam floor mats are perfect for under a treadmill and will protect your floor and improve the stability of the machine. This is a six pack, with each tile being 1.3 cms thick with 60cm x 60cm dimensions.

The best treadmill mat will be the one which suits your machine and your usage of it. For large, heavy machines and for runners who will be pounding the machine harder than walkers, get a long, thick treadmill mat, the best you can afford as you will need the extra protection. Light users with low cost treadmills who will only use it for walking can get away with a thin, cheap treadmill mat.