We had 12x12 stalls at old farm. Did not have interlocking mats. We are upgrading to 14x14 at our new farm and I am wondering how people cut their mats. Also wondering if the interlocking mats are any better to prevent shifting and shavings getting up under the mats. TIA
An X-acto blade is the only way to cut those &)):&&4!?’ things. Seriously. That’s how the folks who install them professionally do it. There’s a YouTube video of a carpenter who tries to cut them for their stalls with a circular saw and the mat basically laughs maniacly as it repels the saw blade.
I got mine from The Rubber Man in a custom size. I cut mine with an exacto swapping blades frequently. We did do the long cuts with a circular saw and had no problems. We did lay the mats so they were flat but off the ground with nothing under where we cut.
The interlocking mats have been super nice and have not shifted. We did need to use a Hoof pick to fit the interlocking part together because it was too hard to do by hand.
Utility blade, not an exacto knife.
A cutting guide is a really nice tool to keep your cuts straight. Like this: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Johnson-…4900/100188970
Prep the base with care. The more perfect your level, the better the mats will fit.
Cut mats 1/4-1/2" longer than measured so you can get A TIGHT fit. That tight fit plus a level base = mats that don’t shift or catch your fork when cleaning. They should be so tight you need a screwdriver to pry them up and a rubber mallet to get them in.
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Or concrete under the mats (a hotly debated topic on COTH but hands down the best IMO: no redoing the base, no holes, no hills, mats lay flat, easy to fix if some pulls up a mat…)
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Utility knife but add dawn dish soap (pour a little on mat or dip the blade in it frequently) not sure why this works but my dad swears by it.
Yes they are worth it. When we built our new barn we bought the interlocking mats, worth every $. We used a utility knife, a long straight edge and bent back the section to cut with one of us holding it down and the other cutting. The pressure on the rubber by bending it makes it cut easily; just have everything marked, a good straight edge and a sharp knife.
Totally agree, and would willingly give up a limb for concrete under my mats. If the budget can take it, definitely worth it!
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You could go to a 12x16 and you wouldn’t need to cut. I’d do that or have them made custom. DG under the mats. Definitely interlocking. Ours are in going on 20 years. They will shift a little … but not much and only along the wall. You pull them back, clean out the shavings and drop them back into place. We don’t have to do that very often.
The interlocking mats are 100% worth it in my opinion! We have ours over concrete and we pulled them out last summer for a deep cleaning of the stalls; there was almost nothing (dirt wise) that had worked its way beneath them - much different than my experience at a boarding barn with non interlocking mats.
I second that interlocking mats are worth the extra cost. I have three stalls in my barn set up for horses and two of the three have interlocking mats over screenings, crusher run or whatever you want to call it. One has had mats for 16/17 years and I have never had to do anything with the mats. Yes I suppose I could pull them up and add a little screenings but they are pretty much level. And have never come apart in spite of the stall being 12.5x25 and the mats a little smaller. The other stall with them has not had them as long but no problems in there either.
The third stall has regular non-interlocking mats. They are horrible. Now they are cheaper and not as heavy as the interlocking ones but I constantly have to pull up the edges and get the bedding / manure out from under them. Sometimes I have to take the whole mat out to get the stuff from underneath it and a week later it has stuff underneath it.
I want to replace those mats but nobody within a 100 miles sells interlocking mats anymore and the shipping would be 2x the cost of new mats. So I wait until either I find some on CL or TSC gets some in…
I learned my mat cutting trick from a COTH forum and it makes all the difference!
- Use a chalk line to mark the line you would like your mats cut to.
- Take a heavy duty utility knife and cut along the line once. (This pass is more a score then a cut)
- Place an old 2x4 under the mat under your cut line.
- Spray the line with WD-40.
- Repeat cutting and spraying until cut through.
This method has made mat cutting a breeze. The WD-40 does something that makes the knife go through the mat like butter. The 2x4 allows the crack to widen as you cut since the weight of the mat pulls the edges down instead of trapping the knife and creating more friction. Whoever posted this trick to COTH where I read it many years ago, I am in your debt.
I can’t believe I posted this without getting flamed! Times have changed!
I owned a farm with a pre-existing barn. It was built by someone who installed five stalls on packed subfloor and then dog runs, and later expanded so the dog runs were in a different outbuilding and they put three more stalls on the concrete. All stalls had mats. Before buying this property, NEVER had I dreamed of concrete under mats. I thought dragging out mats, lime dust, releveling, dealing with hills, was all normal. My eyes were opened! Current barn thankfully had concrete already under the mats because one of my mini donks likes to play with them.
Oh we might both get flamed. But having had to do the base and install mats in a couple properties, I have perhaps more familiarity than your average bear with that hell. Bring in the concrete!!! :lol:
That is all we had in Europe and no one ever complained.
Horses did fine, many school horses living into old age sound and healthy after spending their lives on concrete floors with proper bedding, we didn’t have mats then.
I didn’t see dirt floors until I came to the US and boy, what a pain they are to keep level and if there is something horses really like to stand on for long times, level beats softness any time.
Then, yes, to lay down, they prefer a soft spot, but that is what bedding provides, or dirt in outside runs.
A friend bought a barn with dirt stalls and fought that for a decade.
One day he decided to pour concrete, now another decade has passed and he still will say, he wishes he had concreted sooner, all around better now without those dirt floored stalls for him and the horses to fight with.
We don’t all have to agree and every opinion should count.
every equine surgical vet clinic I have been to all had concrete under the matted stalls, every one of them
I actually had added a fourth stall at our last farm over concrete. In 8 years that was the only stall I never adjusted the mats! I have had several people tell me if my mats were done right over the rock dust that I shouldn’t have any problems. Sounds like that might be debatable 
On a side note, how would you recommend cutting the mats to best accommodate a 14x14 stall. I found one company that did custom kits but is was way more money. Not sure I can justify that unless I am missing something. I have a local supplier that can get interlocking 4x6 mats for $59 per mat.
See the 14x14 layout one the web page below (one of the images)
If you are building from scratch, consider laying the mats as one long run of mats and then build your stalls over them. I did this with my stalls, because I had the divider between stalls as a removable section. That way I could turn a 12x12 stall into a 12x24 or the whole thing could be 12x36.
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I was thinking about this when I was cleaning stalls :lol:
If you’re building from scratch, and doing concrete, it might be interesting to consider insetting a 12x12 square of mats in a 14x14 stall. Horses aren’t really going to be using or walking on that 12" space around the perimeter. If that is brushed concrete and you create a 12x12x3/4" inset in the middle, you avoid the weirdness of that little 2’ square mat in the middle of the stall (what a bad place to have a little piece of mat :-/), you save some on the mats themselves, and you create a nice hard edge to butt the mats against, so you can get them TIGHT when you install.
Just musing, really, but if I were building a barn and wanted 14’ stalls, I’d think more about it. I’d also inset the mats or pavers in the aisle.
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