EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) blended with rubber in foam form has been used for various hard-wearing applications, such as shoe soles and padding in Body Armour and Sports Equipment. The material was initially used for animal flooring as a stall mat for cows, but has also been used widely in the UK for stable mats.

Being light-weight and tough, it is easy to handle, but does not wholly recover after compression, meaning that the material can spread with age and wear. To combat this movement, we used to dove-tail mats together, however these dovetails can be a problem - edges need to be cut straight to fit walls, and the dovetails themselves can tear during movement. Because of this we now advocate either laying the mats as straight edged sheets, tight to walls so that the mats do not move, or using an aerosol contact adhesive, by edge bonding the sheets into larger seamed sheets. We now offer straight edged mats as standard, but can dovetail where required at our factory in Bulmer in standard 22mm thickness although this will incure extra charges (other thicknesses on request).

Thinner material (10mm and 20mm) is used for stable and horsebox/trailer wall padding. It is successfully replacing stock-board (recylced polyethylene sheet) which has a tendency to warp in heat and can crack when kicked, leaving sharp edges. EVA foam has good heat stability and being a semi-rigid foam will simply dent when kicked, and slowly recover.

The material has other benefits - it acts as a thermal barrier, retaining heat in the stable while stopping cold from coming through the floor and walls - it is water resistant and will only absorb moisture on the cut edges, where the microcellular material is split. It can also be heat welded and is easily bonded with hot melt adhesives. Being UV resistant it also holds colour very well, and while we have standardised on Green floor mats and Black wall mats, we can produce a full range of colour to special order.

EVA Foam mats can also be supplied for 'soft-fall' areas, in childrens play-rooms or for sports activities such as Martial Arts.

 

THIS IS A FLOORING GRADE MATERIAL - NOT TO BE MISTAKEN FOR STANDARD EVA MATERIAL WHICH WE USE FOR WALL LINING - IT  HAS A PART RUBBER CONTENT GIVING IT EXTRA RESILIENCE AND WEIGHT LOAD CAPABILITY - RESULTING IN MUCH BETTER WEAR CHARACTERISTICS. IT ALSO BENEFITS IN BEING REVERSIBLE, SO CAN BE TURNED OVER AND USED BOTH SIDES, GIVING TWICE THE USABLE LIFE OF THE PRODUCT.

 

 

Following trials with other EVA mat patterns, we found that drainage feet on the bottom of the mats simply compress into the mat in a short period of time making them ineffective. The downside of this is that the mats can only easiliy be used one-way up. Because fof this, we developed our mat with the same pattern on both sides, allowing it to be used either way up - as soon as one surface wears, the other surface can be used - which means the mats last twice as long!

Even with the harder wearing EVA floor mats, road studs and nails should not really be used, as they can damage the mats quite quickly - using EVA mats with dogs can also be a problem as dogs dew claws can tend to be sharp, and again can tear these mats (dogs also seem to prefer chewing EVA foam more than solid rubber!).