Under-stand floor covering for bike room .. best materials?

[Dead Man]

Gentlemen,

I've recently made a move from my house w/ garage in the country to apartment w/o garage in the city. At my old place, I had a shop compressor, concrete slab I gave no ****s about, and was sloppy and messy and just let the whole thing go to ****. Here, I kinda have to keep the place clean.. and I also just want to.

Fortunately I do have a cool bonus room that is my bike/laundry room. It's nicely painted concrete slab, but access is through my kitchen/living room/all up in my home. So protecting the floor is really secondary to just wanting to keep bike crud/dirt/grease/oil/etc from getting tracked around the room itself as well as into my nice clean flat.

My first thought is just to go snag a big chunk of linoleum, preferably in the most busy/crazy/nauseating pattern I can find (for my own amusement), and then just do my diligence with sweeping/mopping it up when it gets dirty. I could even keep some flip flops in there that STAY in there whilst I'm working on bikes, to further prevent tihs from getting tracked into the kitchen/et al..

Seems like a sound plan to me... but I wonder what others are doing in this situation (space you need to keep cleaner than a garage)? Mebbe sumbuddy gotta better idea

Thanks,

-B

[Jcgill]

I used an indoor/outdoor grey rug from lowes in my bike room....$20 for a 6'x8' piece.

It is basically the same material as automotive carpet or boat carpet.
I still try to be neat, but this provides extra protection. I am sure oil would soak thru this rug, but i try to not spill in the first place.

I think your lenolium idea is going to be your best bet.

[carpediemracing]

Front door welcome mat at the doorway?

If worried about oil soaking through, how about those plastic rug liners that people used to put down in hallways or on stairs? You can put them under padded matting. Or just a big plastic sheet, thicker than the painting sheet/tarp things.

For the workshop area a black padded standing mat would work well.

I have modular exercise mats under my bike/trainer, covers most of the room. No liner underneath so when a bottle of chain oil tipped over it basically ruined the rug underneath but a liner would have helped immensely if I had one.

[David Tollefson]

Get "stall mats" at your local feed and tack store. For your purposes, the thin ones will work fine.

[GScot]

An extremely picky friend who had to protect the carpet in his townhome bike room made a roll out floor cover from a canvas drop cloth backed with thick plastic. He taped around the edges to keep them together and added a rope or something to the end seams to help it lay flat. Lasted several years at least and was quick to pick up and store in the corner of a closet.

[Blown Reek]

If you have a "nicely painted concrete slab", you can just vacuum and wipe your mess when you're done. Then you don't have an ugly linoleum afterthought to look at.

[hokoman]

I don't know how much you work on your bikes or what kind of mess you anticipate, but I've never felt the need to put a protector down (usually in the garage), but even when I'm wrenching in my living room. I must be doing it wrong.

[572cv]

Originally Posted by David Tollefson

Get "stall mats" at your local feed and tack store. For your purposes, the thin ones will work fine.

This is a good suggestion. These are made of recycled rubber tires and are Extremely Durable. They are black, and the standard size is 4ft x 6ft. The 3/4" thick ones are heavy, and do not move around. I use them in the workout space, in the basement, as a standing mat in the shop. The last ones I bought cost about $32 each. Per DT's observation, you could go to 1/2" easy.

[72gmc]

I also have concrete (not nicely painted) and I put down foam puzzle mats . Keeps things from breaking or bouncing to who-knows-where if I drop them, easy to wipe or sweep off, feels better on my feet.

With a shop apron and some cheap sandals I do all right at confining the bike crud to the bike space.

David's stall mat suggestion may work just as well.

[Dead Man]

Originally Posted by David Tollefson

Get "stall mats" at your local feed and tack store. For your purposes, the thin ones will work fine.

I'd never even thought about dropping stuff - and having dropped expensive alloy parts and dinged them before, I can't believe I haven't till now.

Gonna investigate this one for sure... thanks!

[zap]

Best to get stall mats made in Canada. Lots of off gassing so you don't want mats made with/from suspect process/materials.

[julseas]

bring the bike outside to work on. seriously.

[SoCalSteve]

My only thought is that if you do drop small stuff ( screws, etc ) finding them will be difficult if you have a crazy designed piece of linoleum...that's all I got.

[donevwil]

One more rec for "stall mats", they are the best affordable solution I've found. There are caveats, some already mentioned.

- Outgassing: they stink pretty bad for quite a while, it does go away eventually.

- They drop tiny rubber beads whenever moved so have a shop vac ready when placing or moving.

- I needed to add a vapor barrier to eliminate mold formation beneath the mats from moisture wicking up through the slab.

- Dropped bike parts will bounce farther than you might imagine.

[Dead Man]

Originally Posted by julseas

bring the bike outside to work on. seriously.

Not in Portland