Choosing and sizing
Choosing a coir mat: backing, thickness and size
Choosing a coir mat comes down to three questions, asked in this order: does the door swing over it, what floor does it lie on, and how big is the opening? The door decides the thickness, the floor decides the backing, and the opening decides the size. Color and pattern come last.
1. Does the door swing over the mat?
Measure the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor where the mat will lie. A mat needs about ¼″ more than its own thickness to clear the door.
| Mat | Gap it needs under the door |
|---|---|
| ½″ vinyl-backed | ¾″ |
| ⅝″ vinyl-backed | ⅞″ |
| ¾″ vinyl-backed | 1″ |
| 1″ vinyl-backed | 1¼″ |
| 1¼″ vinyl-backed | 1½″ |
| 1″ woven-backed | 1¼″ |
| 2″ woven-backed | 2¼″ |
Most front, storm and screen doors clear a ½″ mat, which is why the everyday doormat is ½″. If the door opens away from the mat, or the mat lies beyond its swing, thickness is free: a thicker pile scrapes deeper and lasts longer under heavy traffic.
2. What floor is it going on?
| Vinyl-backed | Woven-backed | |
|---|---|---|
| Built as | Upright coir pile set in a vinyl back | Coir pile woven through a coir-yarn back |
| Scraping | The hardest: fiber tips up | Good: a deep cut pile |
| On smooth floors | Grips; the back is non-slip | Can shift on polished tile |
| Water | Keeps it off the floor beneath | Drains through; dries from both sides |
| Thickness | ½″, or ⅝″ to 1¼″ cut to size | 1″ or 2″ |
| Biodegradable | The fiber, not the back | All of it |
| Cut to any size | Yes, to the half inch | No; standard sizes |
Choose vinyl-backed for tile, wood, stone or sealed concrete, for a busy door, indoors, or whenever you need a size no one stocks. Choose woven-backed for a porch, a deck or old stone that is not quite level, for a spot that gets damp and needs to dry fast, or when you want a mat with no plastic in it.
For a covered front door on tile or concrete, a ½″ vinyl-backed mat is the one most people should buy.
3. How big is the opening?
A mat should be at least as wide as the door opening, and deep enough for a full step: 18″ catches one, 30″ catches two. For a standard 36″ door that means 24 × 36 in at the least, and 30 × 48 in or 36 × 48 in for a main entrance. Double doors and doors with sidelights want 3 × 5 ft or 3 × 6 ft.
Our stock sizes:
- Vinyl-backed, ½″: ten sizes, mats from 17 × 30 in to 36 × 72 in and runners 7, 8, 10 and 12 ft long. From $29.95.
- Woven-backed, 1″ or 2″: from a 14 × 24 in step mat to 4 × 6 ft. From $34.95.
If the opening falls between stock sizes, or the mat has to fill a recessed well, cut it to size: vinyl-backed coir in any rectangle up to 33 ft long and 6 ft wide, to the half inch. How to measure takes about two minutes.
4. Then color and pattern
Plain coir is natural gold, and its shade varies a little from mat to mat. Cut to size, it also comes in Chocolate and Black at ⅝″ thick, for $1 more per square foot. Printed, inlaid and bordered designs are in Design & Welcome; the bordered mats come framed in black, red, green or blue.
Indoors
Coir works well inside. Use a vinyl-backed mat on smooth floors so it stays put, and expect some loose fiber near the mat while a new one finishes shedding. Out of the sun and rain is where coir lasts longest.