After hours of research, you finally decided on the best type of treadmill to fit your needs. You are extremely excited to start on your fitness journey when you realize that you haven’t thought about where you are going to put the treadmill! While you might know that you have enough space in your house for the treadmill, you may be wondering which type of flooring is the best.
As a general rule, the best type of flooring to put your treadmill on is rubber flooring. However, there are cheaper alternatives if you don’t want to replace your flooring.
In this article, we will show you why rubber flooring is the best option for your treadmill. Additionally, we will cover some other types of flooring that will work for your treadmill and how to keep your treadmill from damaging your floors.
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Rubber Flooring is the Best Flooring for Your Treadmill
Treadmills are very large, heavy pieces of equipment. They can be really noisy and put a lot of wear and tear on your floor. That is why placing your treadmill on thick (at least 3/8” thick) rubber flooring is best.
Even if you don’t notice it, the daily impact of you running on your treadmill causes it to slowly move forward on most types of flooring over time. Rubber flooring is perfect for keeping your treadmill in place.
Even the best treadmills make a lot of noise and vibrate when they reach higher speeds. Rubber flooring is a great absorbent and will help dull the noise and vibrations to keep you from feeling like the whole ground is shaking while you are running.
The problem with rubber flooring is that it’s rather expensive. In fact, just one 3’ x 3’ tile costs upwards of $30 a tile and you would need at least 9 to 12 tiles to cover the square footage of your treadmill.
Additionally, rubber floor tiles aren’t always the ideal flooring type for the location that you would like to place your treadmill. Unless you have a dedicated workout room, rubber tiles can look out of place. Luckily there is a cheaper less expensive alternative.
A Treadmill Mat is a Great Alternative to Rubber Flooring
When rubber flooring isn’t an option using a treadmill mat is the second-best choice. Treadmill mats are made of rubber and provide the same benefits as rubber flooring as they reduce noise, vibrations, and prevent slippage.
When purchasing a treadmill mat you will want to buy a quality product as cheaper mats do little to protect your floors. Quality treadmill mats will:
- Be at least 3/8” thick, although the thicker the better.
- Extend well past the outer edges of your treadmill
- Be stable on or constructed for the type of flooring you are using
- Prevent your treadmill from damaging your floors
The best part of treadmill mats is that they are significantly cheaper than rubber flooring. You can get a high-quality mat to cover the entire surface area of your treadmill for less than $70.
While treadmill mats are great alternatives, they aren’t perfect. Even the best treadmill mats will allow for a little slippage over time. Therefore, it is important to check that your treadmill is still on the mat every so often.
While treadmill mats will work on pretty much any flooring type, some flooring types work better. Let’s take a look at how treadmill mats, in general, perform on different types of flooring.
Carpeting Prevents Slippage and Reduces Noise
Carpeting is actually the best type of flooring to put your treadmill on if you are looking to reduce the amount of noise that your treadmill makes. In fact, it’s even quieter than putting your treadmill on rubber.
A treadmill also won’t move on a carpet. You can even put a treadmill directly onto your carpet without having it do any more damage than a heavy piece of furniture would. So you might be wondering, why is carpet not the best type of flooring for your treadmill?
The carpet fibers attract and hold a lot of dust and dirt. When you start to run on your treadmill all of the dust on the carpet underneath your carpet gets kicked up. While the kicking up of dust isn’t great for the cleanliness of your house, it can also damage your treadmill. Exposing the motor, belt, and rollers to dust over time will certainly shorten the lifespan of your treadmill.
Additionally, really thick carpets can cause your treadmill to overheat and damage the motor.
Placing a mat underneath your treadmill when placing it on carpeting will help prevent it from getting damaged due to dust or overheating.
Using your treadmill on carpet with a mat is actually one of the best ways to considerately use a treadmill if you live on the second or third floor of an apartment building. The added padding of the carpet helps reduce noise and vibration, while the mat protects your treadmill from moving and damage.
Do Not Use Your Treadmill Directly on Hard Floors
While you can technically use a treadmill directly on carpet without too many problems, you should never use your treadmill directly on a hard surface.
The problem with hard floors is that they do not have much grip and your treadmill will move over time. Additionally, the lack of padding or carpeting makes for an extremely noisy experience even at the treadmill’s lowest speeds.
You should never place a treadmill directly on hardwood floors. Even if you are using a high-quality treadmill mat, there is no guarantee that the treadmill won’t damage the floors.
If your only option is to use your treadmill on hard floors, its best to buy an extremely thick mat and use it on cement flooring in the basement. Even then you will be in for a very noisy running or walking experience with a lot of vibrations.
Choose the Flooring that Works Best for Your Home
While we never recommend placing a treadmill directly on carpeting or hard floors, don’t stray away from purchasing a treadmill if those are your only options. There are different types of rubber flooring and mats to fit every style and need.
There’s even rubber flooring that is designed to look like wood and safely go over carpeting! The point is that no matter your situation, there is a flooring solution for you to safely and effectively operate your treadmill with minimal effort.
