Experiences with matting up a Jiu Jitsu house?

I've just moved in to a house with another purple belt from my gym, and our plan is to turn the main living room into a matted space for drilling and sparring. I was thinking of just making the mats myself, as it'd cost half the price and it's only a semi-permanent thing. I'd also want to be able to pick them up and carry them to the park for some outdoor rolls.

I'd use one 1/2' thick 8x4 OSB per mat, cutting and staggering to the size of the room, with some carpet padding and a tarp stuck to each one; then another tarp over the whole matted area.

All of the Jigsaw mats I've found in the UK so far have been upwards of 25 quid per square metre. I'd need 16 of those to fill the room, so it starts getting expensive. I gathered that making my own would be better for my wallet.

tl;dr - Does anybody else have any experiences with matting out a room in their house at low cost?

At my old gym we made our own mats some were carpet with canvas over them (walls) the rest we contacted a furnature maker because they have giant spindles of foam that they cut down to cushion size

Puzzle mats are a lot cheaper here then where you are, but there are different prices based on thickness

Also having a matted room sounds amazing

You should look into getting some used mats from somewhere, a high-school or something.

Ive looked into this but never went through with the idea. I imagine since you want to transport them you would want to make it to where they fold up easily. Getrung.com has some really good prices for puzzle mats but I really have no clue how much it would be to get them to you over the pond.

could be useful, not sure about the cost of materials.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehb7tfvrXe8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf6A-dvXpbo

I just finished this today. I changed my livingroom in my appartment into a gym. I made one of the bedrooms into a livingroom.
That livingroom was too big for me anyway.

I made wooden boxes to put around the heating, and put padding on them. For the mats i paid about 15 Euro per square meter. They are thinner than the average, but perfect for rolling and striking. Slams, throws, and takedowns i wouldn't recommend.

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i took the plunge earlier in the year and bought 4cm thick puzzle maps, and i have to say theyre worth it. it was 70 new zealand dollars for square metre (dont ask me to switch that into pound per inch or whatever.) unless you do a really good job on the mats, id say they would fall apart way quicker than if u bought good quality mats and then in the end itll cost u more. start of with 3 metres squared. for two people its enough, small but still enough ive found, and then after a while, get the rest.

when i was training with a friend in his house, we did thick rugs for about 6 months and it was torture.

thinnest kinda matting id go is 3 cm.

good luck anyway

Post pics when ur done Chow :)

If you want high quality mats for a great rate, id suggest Dollamur on ebay. They don't have any listed today, but check every few days because they always have listings for two 4x6 mats, of varying thickness, for about 115$ for 1" thick, 125 for 1 2.5, and like 135 for 1.5", and sometimes 2" for like 150. They usually have free shipping on them, but I think thats for the USA Only. On top of that, every other month I see a 30% off sale on top of those already killer prices, so you can get 8x12 of mat space for about 250+shipping if outside of usa. I have these and have some puzzle mats surrounding them on the outside, and they are awesome. They are the same ones our gym uses, and the same ones NAGA uses for competition. Overall it cost less than the higher quality puzzle mats do. Not sure what the shipping to England would be though.

In america i found some really thin puzzle mats that arent specifically for jiu jitsu, but they were cheap as fuck. I bought two packs (30$). then i just put them on carpet it works amazing for barely above 20 bucks

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Originally Posted by DanConway

If you want high quality mats for a great rate, id suggest Dollamur on ebay. They don't have any listed today, but check every few days because they always have listings for two 4x6 mats, of varying thickness, for about 115$ for 1" thick, 125 for 1 2.5, and like 135 for 1.5", and sometimes 2" for like 150. They usually have free shipping on them, but I think thats for the USA Only. On top of that, every other month I see a 30% off sale on top of those already killer prices, so you can get 8x12 of mat space for about 250+shipping if outside of usa. I have these and have some puzzle mats surrounding them on the outside, and they are awesome. They are the same ones our gym uses, and the same ones NAGA uses for competition. Overall it cost less than the higher quality puzzle mats do. Not sure what the shipping to England would be though.

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The Dollamur mats are awesome. I totally agree.

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Originally Posted by Eddie Bravo

Post pics when ur done Chow :)

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Will do! :)

Thanks for the input guys. The dollamur mats are a bit out of my price range for the amount we'd need, so I think it's down to DIY. I like the Gracie Academy mats, so I think that may be the procedure we follow :)

Dollumar if you can swing it. We have those at the gym and they are awesome. We also have some from getrung.com and those will get the job down as well. We have drop weights(400lb deadlifts, kettle bells, dumbells) and they are barely fucked up and they are maybe 5 years old). Have fun!