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ES Robbins 36" x 48" Natural Origins Chair Mat With Lip For Carpet, Clear | Deflect-O DuraMat 46" x 60" Chair Mat for Low Pile Carpet, Clear | Member's Mark 27" x 72" Runner Mat | Floortex 49" x 39" Cleartex Ultimat Polycarbonate Chair Mat | Deflect-O 36” x 48” Rectangle Clear Vinyl Chair Mat for Low Pile Carpet |One mat designed to protect both carpet and hard floor surfaces Stud-free SuperGrip� coating offers 2x better grip than our standard studs on carpet Exclusive SuperGrip® coating prevents mat from moving on hard floors Limited Lifetime Product Replacement Warranty Sign up or log in to customize your list. Here's how it works: Anybody can ask a question The best answers are voted up and rise to the top I want to build a chair mat for the desk in my home office which has high pile carpet. It gets heavy use and I'm tired of buying a new plastic one every year or so. The last one I got was from Costco and supposedly super heavy-duty.
Cost was around $100 US, but it hasn't quite lasted a full two years. The dimensions needed are approximately 50"x60", no more than ¾" think. What would be good to use to construct it? I'm assuming wood will last much longer, but suspect using solid lumber might be too heavy, although I've read good things about bamboo and it's fairly light (even if not actually wood). That leaves plywood, possibly hardwood-veneered if it would make it last longer (or be advantageous in some other way beside looking nice). Since appearance isn't high priority, perhaps putting some type of commercial flooring on top be worth the extra trouble? If not, what would be the pros and cons of various finishes? Being able to refinish it easily would be a plus. Plywood seems like a good solution here until you look at the material in detail. With modern plywood in particular, in addition to generally not being as well-made as plywood used to be (more voids, junkier wood in the core layers) over the years the surface ply has gotten incrementally thinner, to the point where on some plywood it's now like a sheet of paper.... and about as durable!
Even very good quality cabinet plywood (note: not all "cabinet grade" plywood is good) has a fairly thin surface ply of the 'show wood' and wouldn't be made to have the necessary durability. What is made to be durable enough is flooring, where regardless of what's used underneath the wood or bamboo laminate surface is significantly thicker than that on plywood. So for a high-wear surface if the choice were between plywood and flooring I know which one I'd go with. Since you can't just use the flooring by itself it would need to be mounted on a board material (plywood or OSB) which will make for a very thick 'mat'! I don't know how high the ply is on your carpet but it would need to be in the range of 70s shag carpet for the resulting thickness not to be some issue :-) Whatever wood/bamboo solution you go with the ideal finish is the same thing you'd use on a floor. A quality floor-grade varnish should give you the same durability you'd have if the carpet weren't there and you were rolling the chair directly on a wood floor.
What about the chair? There are two things interacting here and you shouldn't look at just one of them. I think you should also examine the castors/casters on your chair. Castor wheels are made in various materials and harder ones are very wearing of floor surfaces. Modern laminate flooring (which has a very thin resin-reinforced paper surface) wears quickly when hard castors are used, but much better if softer ones are fitted. Regardless of what mat you come up with if the chair's castors are hard it would be worth changing them to a softer type. A sheet of hardboard is another traditional solution, though it may wear as quickly as the plastic does. You could try applying flooring to a sheet of plywood to create a portable floor, akin to the dance-floor modules some hotels drop over their carpet when an event needs that. You could ask a hotel where they buy those modules and see if you can place a small order at an affordable price. You could just finish a piece of furniture-quality hardwood plywood.