Self-installed in Home - Living Room

Russ from Idaho wrote...

I ordered 120 square feet of the 7/8″ tatami mats for portable home use in my living room. My family trains karate (stand up striking), jiu-jitsu (ground work grappling), and general calisthenics fitness on these. The kids love leaving them out to play on and even watch movies on. They've also found that the puzzle edges allow you to build many boxes and triangles creating excellent forts! So, that's an unexpected side benefit ;) We've had them for about 2 weeks now. Overall I am satisfied. I was able to order these brand new with shipping included for less than some local sellers were selling used mats... so the price is excellent. The quality is good. Puzzle interlocks are cut very well and fit nicely together. The tatami finish has a nice texture. Out of the box the tiles are dry to the touch but have a slippery feel. You would not want to do any serious stand up striking/foot-work on these until they've been used a little bit to wear off the slippery. This doesn't take long though, after only a couple grappling sessions they feel like normal. I think just wiping them down with some old towels would do the trick. The mats provide a lot of cushion. They are not too marshmallowy to stand on, but you can definitely feel them squish a bit under foot. Rolling/wrestling on them is very comfortable. I specifically picked the tatami version over the 1″ grappling mats because I expected the tatami mats to be a bit more compressed and less squishy than the grappling mats, making them more useful for stand up work. They mats are secure, the only time I've had them come loose is when we are grappling along the outer edge and someone pushes out hard on the outer row, then the puzzle pieces can pull free, but it's a quick and easy fix and none of the puzzle edges have ripped. The surface is not terribly strong. We have to be careful to pick them up after use and make sure all pets have well-trimmed claws if they might wander across them. Ours have a few small claw holes in them after a couple weeks of ownership until we realized we needed to pay a bit more attention to this. I do not believe these would stand up very well to any type of foot wear. If these were being used in any sort of self-defense class I'd be concerned about people wearing any sort of shoes on them. Note: I dont think the manufacturer intends these for anything other than bare foot use... just wanted to point it out to potential buyers. The size is excellent for home use because the 2'x2' squares are easy to stack and store without taking up an unusual amount of space. For comparison I often train in a dojo that has the 40″ square Century puzzle mats. The Century mats have a stronger surface and are harder overall but would be difficult to store in a home environment due to their size. I believe rubberflooringinc.com sells a similar type mat that is comparable to the Century mat and I would probably favor those in any sort of commercial space because they might be a bit stronger. Overall, I'm very happy with these for recreational home use. I may likely order more in the future for a bit more mat space and if a few get damaged I would order replacements.