You’ve just moved into a new house or apartment and everything has finally been settled down into place. Now what? What do you do now? Though there are many things that need to be done, we think it is of vital importance that you know about one thing. Anti-fatigue mats. That’s right, floors wear down, and they wear down fast. According to Coswick, a hardwood and laminate floor specialist, the average life of laminate floors is around 15 years. Hardwood is around 40 years. This may seem like an unbelievably long time, and you’re right, it is. However, floors that wear unevenly look unattractive, and pose some hidden dangers to your household. High foot traffic areas like doorways, kitchens, and bathrooms will wear down faster than the rest of the flooring. That doesn’t sound to particularly appealing to us, so we’re going to show you how to get the best anti-fatigue mat for your money.
Alright, step one. First identify all the areas in the house or apartment you think will need a mat. These should be high traffic areas, entrances/exits, and showers. The high traffic areas and doorways should be obvious but maybe the shower one isn’t. An anti-fatigue mat should be placed right outside of the shower for one simple reason.
Moisture
Moisture will kill a flooring faster than almost anything. It will lead to mold and will manifest into different problems of varying degree of severity. This can cost thousands to fix if left untreated, and from the wise words of Benjamin Franklin, “By failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail.”
After you’ve identified all the places needing anti-fatigue mats, take note of colors and style going on in the area, or rather the look you want to achieve. Take some measurements; you’ll want a mat that covers most of where everyone is going to be walking. Do the same for every area that’s going to need a mat. Write down the colors you think would look decent as well, if possible get some sample fabrics and lay them where your future mats will be. This will hopefully give you somewhat of an idea if the color will work there or not.
The final step to picking out mats is going to require a bit of online research. By now you should have the dimensions and colors you want the mats to be in. So now it’s as simple as finding the mats with your desirable traits. This shouldn’t be too difficult, with plenty of online sources to choose from. Make sure you’re not sacrificing on the function of the anti-fatigue mat though; remember you want it to protect your flooring from wear and moisture. Don’t get sucked into picking some super fancy mat just because it would looks cool in your entryway, you need to find the perfect balance between style and functionality.
And that’s it! This is by no means an exhaustive guide on how to pick an anti-fatigue mat, but we sincerely hoped it helped. We hope you have a great day, and keep an eye out for more!