Coir, rubber or synthetic: an honest comparison

We sell coir mats and nothing else. So take it seriously when we say coir is not the right mat for every door. It is the best mat for most covered entrances, and plainly the wrong one in a few places where rubber or a synthetic pile wins. This sets out where each material earns its place, so you can decide from your own doorway.

The three in a minute

• Coir: coconut husk fiber, stiff and springy, as a brush pile or a woven mat. The traditional scraper.
• Rubber: molded natural or synthetic rubber, usually with raised lugs, scrolls or a grid. Close to indestructible outdoors.
• Synthetic pile: polypropylene, nylon or polyester carpet fiber on a rubber or vinyl back. The commercial wiper mat, also sold as washable home mats.

Side by side

Scraping: where coir has no equal

A doormat's first job is getting grit off a sole. Thousands of stiff fibers flex against the shoe, reach into the tread and brush it clean, and what they remove drops down into the pile, off the surface, where the next shoe cannot pick it up. Rubber lugs knock off caked mud but slide over fine grit, and everything they remove stays on top. Synthetic pile is too soft to scrape; it is a drying mat, not a cleaning one.

If your household brings in garden soil, gravel dust, sand or dried mud, nothing at the door beats a coir brush pile.

Water: where coir loses

Rubber wins any door that is rained on directly. Coir can get wet, but it has to dry: under open sky in a wet climate it stays soaked, and soaked coir rots at the base of the fiber within a season or two. Rubber does not care; it will lie in the rain for a decade.

Synthetic pile sits between them. It takes water off shoes better than either, which is what it is for, but out in the weather its pile holds water and dries slowly, and in a freeze a soaked pile mat goes stiff as a board.

So: no cover at all, put rubber outside, with a coir mat just inside the door to do the fine cleaning. At any covered or recessed door, coir handles scraping and everyday wet on its own.

How it looks

Coir looks the way a front door should: warm and traditional against brick, stone, wood or paint. Rubber looks like a loading dock. Synthetic pile ranges from fine to plainly plastic. And because coir hides dirt in the pile between cleanings, it looks presentable while it works. A rubber mat shows everything it has scraped off until you hose it.

The environment

Coir comes from coconut husks that would otherwise be waste, and needs no petroleum. The fiber is biodegradable. Be exact about the back: a woven-backed coir mat is natural fiber through and through, while a vinyl-backed mat adds a PVC layer that does not break down, in exchange for grip and a barrier against water (Choosing a coir mat compares the two). Rubber and synthetic mats are petroleum products, except natural rubber. They last a long time, and they last a long time after you throw them away.

Cost and life

Rubber lasts longest; a heavy rubber mat is a ten-year purchase, priced like one. Coir costs less up front and gives two to five years under cover, more indoors, which makes it the most cleaning for the money. Synthetic mats run the whole range, from cheap mats that flatten in a year to commercial wipers that last many.

Coir has one thing neither of the others has: it cuts. Rubber is molded to fixed sizes and synthetics rarely come in more than a few. Vinyl-backed coir cuts cleanly to any rectangle, so a 6 ft double-door mat or a 15 ft porch runner is an ordinary order.

The verdict

• Choose coir for any covered door where cleaning, a natural look or an exact size matters. That is most front doors.
• Choose rubber for a door open to the weather with no cover, or a pure work spot: a workshop door, a dock, a commercial exterior.
• Choose synthetic pile as the second mat inside, where soaking up water is the main job, such as an office lobby, or when it has to go in the washing machine.
• The strongest pair for a wet climate is rubber outside the door and coir inside, each doing what it does best.

Decided on coir? Cut it to your doorway, up to 33 ft long and 6 ft wide, priced by the square foot as you type and shipped the next business day. Or start with what owning one involves, shedding and rain included.