Doormats (Yawn!)

[FluffyBlackCat]

Boring, I know, but I am really struggling here!

We moved into our first house last year and so far I have not managed to solve our doormat issue. Our front door has 0 clearance from the floor so we can't have a mat inside the door (unless it was out of the way of the door, but that just seems silly).

I bought a nice, cheap coir mat from Ikea, but the front of the house is very exposed so it gets wet very easily and takes forever to dry out so we have days of wet footprints in the hall, even after it's stopped raining. Then I found a cheap but small coir mat without the rubber backing which I thought would be worth a try (with a view to buying a bigger version if it worked) but that's just as bad

I'm now thinking that the coir ones that are like a wire mesh might be better, but I can only find small ones (up to about 60x40cm) which look a bit naff in the middle of our doorstep.

I'm not sure about the black plastic/rubber ones, although they do come in some very pretty patterns.

Anyone got any suggestions??

When you say zero clearance is it that, or is it a little? Like 5mm?

I had a thin runner in my hall to help this as I had the same problem. It was £8 from Amazon and is amazingly good value

We have a rubber mat outside and an inset coir mat inside. Would the rubber type work outside? I bought ours from Aldi. By the back door, we have the rubber backed dirt trapper type mats which can be washed in the machine. They are not very thick, but are effective.

I'd change the flooring for a few feet inside the doorway. We have that stuff you see when you enter shops. It's a dark grey, anthracite, colour and can be vacuumed and doesn't show stains. You just wipe your feet take off your shoes and move along, v convenient!

Wombatron - We have a thin turtle mat at the back door as there's not much clearance under it, but the front door has none - it scrapes the floor when you try to open it too wide!

Wowfudge - We had that exact one for a while! Worked okay but I felt it was a bit small. I may have to get over my love of coir (and the fact that it goes beautifully with our wonderful new sandstone) and buy a bigger rubber mat.

Dudsville - I was hoping to avoid changing the floor as we already have a massive list of things that need doing. Although redecorating the hall is on the list so we might do it at that point.

I had the same trouble with coir mats outside the back door never drying, I now have a bathroom duckboard! You can't really wipe your feet on it, but you can stamp off the worst of the wet.

Get a new front door and frame! You'll be prone to water coming in with no clearance. Not to mention damage to your floor.

FritzyMousey - Great idea, I hadn't thought of anything like that! Will have a look and see if I can find one the right size.

Titchy - There's nothing wrong with the door itself and we certainly don't get any water coming in so replacing the whole door and frame would be an unnecessary expense that we can't really afford. Plus I rather like my front door. The laminate flooring is already scratched (and was before we moved in) but that doesn't really bother me. If we get round to replacing it I will choose something slightly thinner but until then my only issue is something to wipe my feet on.

Turtle mats do outdoor mats that might help annoy as they're more absorbent than the regular sort of outside mat. I have a rubber one like the one pictured upthread, and I keep intending to replace it for one.

Very thin transparent vinyl inside and dirt catching turtle mat outside? That way you just wipe the footprints off. I'll try to find what I mean.

This stuff.

Santa that was what my granny used to put on new carpet you weren't allowed to walk on!

Mimiasovitch - I wondered if those would just absorb all the rainwater and stay wet for ages?

Does anyone have any experience of the outdoor turtle mats? Do they dry out fairly quickly?

Santamajormummy000 - Even that wouldn't fit under our door I'm not too fussed about footprints as such, I just hate wet patches on the floor which make my socks soggy because I'm too much of a clutz to watch what I'm standing on and too lazy to wipe them up straight away

I don't think they would. Look here.

Can't you plane a couple of mm off the bottom of the door?

Ooh looks promising mimiasovitch! May have to order one and test it out

PuraVida - it's a PVC door so I wouldn't want to plane the bottom in case I went through the plastic and hit metal or something.

Have you thought about a Recessed Mat Well that's fitted into the surrounding floor, allowing the mat to be sitting flush with the floor.

We have a large coir mat set into the floor inside and then a runner further down the hall. It can be vacuumed and although it doesn't dry your shoes as you step on it it does catch a lot of the dirt and is a good place to take wet shoes off. Our hall floor stays relatively clean because of it.

I briefly considered some kind of mat well, then decided with the ever growing list of other jobs that need doing (half way through completely redoing the garden which we started in AUGUST, new kitchen planned for this summer, downstairs loo needs redoing at some point...) I really don't cba!! I have more or less now accepted that I may just have to put up with soggy socks drying up footprints when it rains!