Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Custom Chair Mat

Last summer when I first moved out of my sewing room, I realized how much damage my rolling chair had done to the floor. You can see the whitish spot in the photograph below where the finish was basically worn off.
After spending the bucks to have the floor professionally refinished, I figured it was important to get a chair mat to protect my investment. Well, I spent months looking around for one. A standard chair mat would not work because of the arrangement of the sewing tables. I would have had to buy two of them and I would have had to figure out a way to cut at least one of them down so it would fit in the corner.

Since I am really trying to clear out the forever tasks from my To Do list, I finally found a solution. It turns out you can order Custom Chair Mats! Okay, maybe you all knew that, but it hadn't occurred to me until last week.

Of the companies I contacted, only one company, American Floor Mats, was willing to sell direct to non-commercial customers and also had some sort of warranty on their mats. I sent them my drawing and they sent me a quote. Basically the way their pricing works is you buy the standard size cutting mat that is larger than your design and then they cut it down to your dimensions for free. I needed the largest size (96"x60") which was $304. But since the floor refinishing was nearly $1500 (including the hallway) I feel like it's a worthwhile investment.
I received the chair mat today. It came rolled up so it's going to take it a while to relax and flatten out again. But I think I'll be really happy with it.
Update much later: The mat relaxed and lays flat on the floor. It has protected my floor beautifully and I'm really happy with it. I'd recommend this company.

2 comments:

  1. Do you think it will protect the rug in any way?

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    Replies
    1. It will if I leave it on top. I haven't decided if I will though. I might just tuck it under the rug.

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