How much bigger than the work zone should a mat be?

Leave about 150mm of deck beyond the zone on every open side. That stops you standing half on and half off the edge, which is where the trip risk and the uneven footing come from.

Do I need to measure the depth as well as the length?

In practice, no. Every kit is 112cm deep. A person standing at a bench occupies roughly 60 to 70cm of floor depth, so 112cm covers that plus the overhang behind with room to spare. Length is the only measurement that changes the answer.

What if my bench is longer than the biggest kit?

Kits butt together, so a long run is two or more of the 249cm size. It is worth sending us the measurements rather than guessing, because there is usually a sensible way to split a run that a calculator will not find.

Should I measure the room or the position?

The position. Matting the whole floor is a different product and a different budget. What you want is the ground you actually move over in a normal hour.

Before you buy

How to measure a work position for matting

One measurement decides the size: the span of floor you actually move over. Everything else follows from it.

Most people measure the wrong thing. They measure the bench, or the room, and then buy either too little matting to stand on comfortably or far more than the job needs. The measurement that matters is neither of those.

Measure the ground you move over, not the furniture

Stand where you work and do the job for a minute. Watch your feet. Most people at a bench occupy a surprisingly small patch: a step to the vice, a step back to the machine, and that is the working length.

Mark the two extremes with a bit of chalk or a couple of offcuts, then measure between them along the bench. That number is your working length, and it is the only input the size decision needs.

Measure the movement, not the bench: the ghosted footprints show the step across a typical 158 × 112cm position.

The 150mm rule

Leave about 150mm of deck beyond the work zone on every open side. So a working length of 120cm with both ends open needs 150cm of kit.

The reason is simple and it is worth understanding rather than just following. Standing with one foot on a deck and one foot on the floor is worse than standing on the floor. You are on two levels, your hips are not square, and the edge is under the ball of your foot for hours. The overhang exists so that every reasonable position you might take is fully on the deck.

An end that is up against a wall, a machine base or another bench is not an open end. It does not need the overhang, because you cannot stand past it.

Why depth is not part of the decision

Every kit is 112cm deep, whichever length you choose. A person standing at a bench occupies about 60 to 70cm of floor depth from the bench edge backwards. Add the overhang behind and you are still comfortably inside 112cm.

So you have one measurement to take and one table to read.

Working length to kit size

Assuming both ends of the position are open, which is the common case.

Working length	Deck needed	Kit size	Typical position
Up to 82 cm	Up to 112 cm	112 x 112 cm	One spot: a vice, a pillar drill, a QC bench, a single machine.
83 to 128 cm	113 to 158 cm	158 x 112 cm	One person stepping along a bench between a vice and a grinder.
129 to 219 cm	159 to 249 cm	249 x 112 cm	A full bench run, a welding bay, or two people at one position.
220 cm and over	250 cm and over	Two or more long kits	A full production bench run, or a cell with several positions.

Three ways people get it wrong

Buying to the bench length

A 3 metre bench does not mean 3 metres of standing. If you work at one end of it, you need a kit at that end, not a deck under the whole thing. Matting the parts of the floor nobody stands on is the most common way to overspend here.

Buying to the room

Matting a whole garage floor is a different product, a different budget and a different conversation. A work position kit is deliberately sized to the position.

Sizing down to save money and losing the overhang

If the calculator puts you a few centimetres over a size boundary, take the larger one. Standing on the edge of a deck for eight hours undoes most of the point of buying it.

Questions people ask

How much bigger than the work zone should a mat be?: Leave about 150mm of deck beyond the zone on every open side. That stops you standing half on and half off the edge, which is where the trip risk and the uneven footing come from.
Do I need to measure the depth as well as the length?: In practice, no. Every kit is 112cm deep. A person standing at a bench occupies roughly 60 to 70cm of floor depth, so 112cm covers that plus the overhang behind with room to spare. Length is the only measurement that changes the answer.
What if my bench is longer than the biggest kit?: Kits butt together, so a long run is two or more of the 249cm size. It is worth sending us the measurements rather than guessing, because there is usually a sensible way to split a run that a calculator will not find.
Should I measure the room or the position?: The position. Matting the whole floor is a different product and a different budget. What you want is the ground you actually move over in a normal hour.