Help me with my garage mat!

November 20, 2008 6:09 PM

Help me keep the melting snow on my garage mat.

I have a garage mat on one side of my two-car garage, similar to the garage floor protector shown here. It's maybe 7' wide by 16' long, and our car fits comfortably on it. During the winter months, my goal is for the snow that accumulates on the car to fall onto the mat, and stay there. Unfortunately, since it's a flat piece of vinyl/rubber, the melting snow will often run off the mat toward things I don't necessarily want to get wet (e.g., a wooden workbench). I'd like to find a way to keep the water from the melting snow from leaking off the mat - in the past, I've tried stapling 1x2 boards around the edges of the mat, but they tend to pull away from the staples and separate. Any ideas?

posted by brandman to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

Put something under the edges of the mat to lift the edges up an inch or so and this form a shallow pool that will hold the water on the mat? Something as simple as a few strategically placed rolled up old towels might be enough to do it.
posted by COD at 6:57 PM on November 20, 2008

Containment is likely to be complicated I think. Your best bet may be to channel it away, preferably to the drain if there is one or to the garage door and ultimately outside. Think some sort of short barrier, wood or garden edging or whatever, probably glued to the garage floor with construction adhesive or caulking or something.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 7:07 PM on November 20, 2008

Originally I was thinking hot water pipe foam insulation, the sort with the slit, placed into the edges of the mat, but there's issues with the corners and the side you need to drive through. Still, something to consider, or food for thought for others.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 7:12 PM on November 20, 2008

Where is the water going to go when the snow melts? If you don't have drainage for it, you will wind up with nasty standing water when it melts.

I would recommend adding some sort of containment berm to route the melting snow. Then you could use them to route the water out of the parking area and down to the drain.
posted by slavlin at 8:38 PM on November 20, 2008 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks all...no drain in the garage, unfortunately, so I think a nasty standing water pool on my garage mat is my best bet. (The alternative is to have a nasty standing water pool under my golf clubs, or various other items.) Typically, the water will dry up within a couple of days, so we can live with that. I may try the foam insulation...the problem tends to be getting it to stay/stick around the mat (as it was with the 1x2s). Between stepping on the edges, occasionally driving on the edges, etc., we're pretty rough on it I suppose.
posted by brandman at 5:09 AM on November 21, 2008

Wouldn't it be easier to brush the snow off your car before you put it in the garage?
posted by Carol Anne at 6:18 AM on November 21, 2008

Response by poster: Carole Anne...not really, the show sticks to the underside of the car as I drive and there's really no way to brush it off. (I do try to knock off any accumulation in the wheel wells, under the bumper, etc. before I pull into the garage, but there's no reasonable way to get it all off.)
posted by brandman at 7:27 AM on November 24, 2008