Plywood chair mat

[Jason Koon]

I make my living as a software developer, so I spend a lot of time at my computer. I'm pretty unhappy with the plastic chair mats available at places like office depot etc. I've also been unsuccessful in finding something like glass or rigid plastic to fill the role. So the thought occurred to me to use some 3/4" plywood.

Has anyone done something like this? Do you think the plywood would hold up well? I've thought about covering it in something like wilsonart etc. Maybe putting on a 1" hard wood border to dress the edge.


Thanks,
Jason

[Michael Wildt]

What is the chair mat on top off ? carpet ?

I'd take the plywood as a sub floor and then put some pergo on top. Add an edge and you should be all set.

Michael

[Jason Koon]

It's on top of some fairly deep carpet. I like the idea of putting some flooring on top.. I'll look into that.

[J D Thomas]

Jason,

Like you, I became frustrated many years ago with those cheap plastic chair mats for my studio in Burbank CA. I went thru a couple and they started cracking after less than a month, and this was on fairly deep carpeting. Those plastics pieces hurt too!! I called around to see if anyone offered anything better, preferably made from wood, and I found a place in downtown Los Angeles that made them, but they wanted $650 for the size I was looking for.

But all was not lost. I got the idea to build my own, using parquet oak tiles from the borg. Here's a pic of the finished product:

http://www.thomastudios.com/images/Woodworking/chairmat.jpg

I used 1/2" plywood for the base and applied the parquet tiles on top of that. I then milled some 5/4 red oak for the outer frame. One thing I did regret was the tiles I used required thick tile glue and I must have used too much because over the years it kept oozing up from the cracks some, requiring regular cleanup. If I were to do it again, I'd probably try that peel and stick variety.

I placed it on the floor and screwed it down to the subfloor with 3" screws, right over the carpet and it never moved. It worked great and only cost me less than $100 in materials. The finished size was about 60x60.

[Chris Stolicky]

You could try to use some bamboo flooring to build a mat with...

It pretty durable. I was some at the borg for around $3 sqft.

Attach it to some 1/2" ply with a border of sorts.

[NICK BARBOZA]

my girlfriends father has used MDF for his desk chair to roll around on. he just laid it down over the carpet. cheap effective solution.

Nick

[Eric Franklin]

You could try to use some bamboo flooring to build a mat with...

It pretty durable. I was some at the borg for around $3 sqft.

Attach it to some 1/2" ply with a border of sorts.

That bamboo floor is very soft. I purchased the exact same stuff at Costco for $1.98 sqft and scratches really easy.

You want to buy bamboo flooring that was harvested at 5 years. Most of the cheap bamboo is harvested at 3 years.