Cheapest gym flooring

Awesome Mick! Looks a good size too! Good thing I'm the handy one in my household

Here is the finished product:

Big Mick said:

Been a busy boy, all done now and looking good!!!!!!!

Here is the platform getting painted up using some left over paint, I propped it off the ground with some weight plates, to stop paint getting on the floor:

Here is is all done ready for business, I cut the mats with a sharp pocket knife and screwed them into place with 30mm long screws:

Have fun building your own, it's well worth the effort, I loved training on it for the first time, and things will only get better from here!!!

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My platform uses the design from Ironmind, they're found here:
http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Main/homesweathome6.html

I'm going to add 25mm rubber to each side making it 40mm of rubber, just because I can.

And oh yeah, if you glue everything together it's a bitch to pick up and move around!

Mick, any dramas with the wood cracking from big weight?

ordinary particleboard from timber supplier, 3 layers, each layer with the grain at 90 angles to the previous layer, screwed together.

glue on marine carpet.

Simple

This is basically how the powerlifting platforms are put together.

this is STRONG and IMO way better than rubber. The strength comes from the overlapping grains. It shouldn't crack even with 400kg dropped deadlifts.

That rubber stuff comes off and goes everywhere. Rubber is also no good for powerlifting. Your deadlifts bounce too much, which makes it very difficult to do proper touch and go deadlifts without cheating - you have to actively dampen the bounce before going again which wastes energy and destroys stretch reflex.

I have a concrete slab and I just bought 2 squares of 1m squared rubber flooring and lay them where the plates are going to fall. Done

Mick - any reason for having the standing area lower than the edges?

Either Bunnings or a horse shop. Thick 1/2 inch to an inch hardish rubber flooring. Seems to do the job.

@Deep: Make a platform or buy one, your deads are only gonna get heavier

@BigMick: Your platform rocks man! I love the design.

@Pistol: Be careful pistol, that thick tile polymer rubber is considerably softer than regular gym flooring rubber. I know this as I got it installed around the playground in the Holiday Park I managed for many years. Still good stuff, but may be a bit spongy for lifting IMO. Make sure you check it out and stand on it first before a purchase, than imagine twice the weight on it, if its still good go for it. If your only going to use it for dumping your plates on when on the platform, it would be fine IMO.

@Gunner: Simple yet effective mate........just my style, I started with 2x50cm squared pieces LOL, and it worked just fine.

Thanks mate, I have been there and checked out their different tiles and the gym tiles don't seem to be soft. Well they better not be as I've just ordered a shed full!

They have a large range of different tiles for different applications with different hardness.

Rambodian said:

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@Pistol: Be careful pistol, that thick tile polymer rubber is considerably softer than regular gym flooring rubber. I know this as I got it installed around the playground in the Holiday Park I managed for many years. Still good stuff, but may be a bit spongy for lifting IMO. Make sure you check it out and stand on it first before a purchase, than imagine twice the weight on it, if its still good go for it. If your only going to use it for dumping your plates on when on the platform, it would be fine IMO.

@Gunner: Simple yet effective mate........just my style, I started with 2x50cm squared pieces LOL, and it worked just fine.

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