Rubber Stable Floor

The most common type of stable floor is concrete. However, many stable owners are covering their concrete floors with rubber, which offers a number of advantages:

• Yielding. A concrete floor is very hard and can cause various types of injuries. For example, when getting up from a prone position, a horse can scrape skin off against the concrete. Also, if the bedding is thin, walking on the hard concrete can stress joints, potentially injure feed, or cause sore points where the horse lies down to rest or sleep. A rubber surface provides a softer and more yielding surface, which minimizes the rick of such injuries.
• Warmth. Rubber is naturally insulating, which is more comfortable and healthier for horses, especially in winter.
• Traction. Concrete and wooden floors can be slippery when wet; rubber provide better traction and thereby reduces the risk of injury to horses.
• Bedding. Rubber performs some of the functions of bedding (e.g. insulation, traction, shock absorption, softer surface), reducing the amount of bedding required. Stable owners, on average, report that they require only half as much bedding with a rubber stable floor as with concrete floors. This results in a considerable saving in bedding, labour and storage costs.

There are two solutions for providing a rubber stable floor. One is rubber stall mats which one lays on top of an existing floor (e.g. on top of a concrete floor) and join together to form a interlocking rubber floor mats. The other solution consists of liquid rubber which is poured onto the concrete floor and then allowed to harden (this takes one or two days) to form a single rubber surface which covers the entire floor. The term 'liquid rubber' refers to the fact that the rubber is in liquid form when it is initially put onto the stable floor, but it then forms a solid rubber floor. Both solutions have advantages and disadvantages.

By Doug M Stewart

Stall Mats versus Liquid Rubber Flooring

The main disadvantage of stall mats is that urine can run underneath them. This occurs at the seams where the mats join (one normally uses multiple mats to cover a stable floor) and also at the gaps between the mats and the walls. This urine builds up under the mats, releasing odours and harmful ammonia. Although one can partly compensate for this by periodically lifting the mats and cleaning under them, this takes a certain amount of time and is not easy (rubber stall mats are heavy).

With liquid rubber, the floor is in a single piece and joins with the wall (in fact, one would normally apply the rubber onto the wall as well for a height of at least several centimeters). Consequently, there are no seams or joins which would allow the urine to enter. Furthermore, the rubber bonds with the concrete floor, so there is no space for urine or dirt underneath the rubber. This is a major advantage over stall mats, as it is not only healthier but also there is no need to periodically clean underneath it.

An important advantage of stall mats is that they are not fixed to the floor, as they rely on their weight to hold them in place. Therefore, one can remove them and use them elsewhere. This makes them convenient if you are just renting a stall for a period of time. One would not want to use liquid rubber in a temporary stall as it bonds to the concrete floor and cannot be removed or reused. Another consideration is that rubber stall mats tend to be less expensive than liquid rubber.

Consequently, liquid rubber is a superior solution for a permanent stall, while stall mats are more appropriate for short to medium term installations.

By Doug M Stewart