Inset door mat within wooden floor - opinions please!

[jayne10b]

We are about to have a wooden floor put down in our hallway. I was thinking of getting an inset doormat/mat well, so that the mat would be flush with the floor, but have read some mixed reviews. Would just be interested in what others think.

Thanks in advance.

We have one, it works well. It's coir. Really hard wearing, looks good. You need to get a really hard wearing material otherwise it will start to thin etc and look bad...

We had one in our old house and it was great because the mat didn't slide about all over the place.
I would recommend buying two mats if you can, so that when you want to clean one you have another to put down in its place.

i have one...its fine,and does pull out and then slot back in again.

We have one and it is easily cleaned.

We dont have one as I thought it would spoil the look of the floor and they can smell a bit musty. However, the mud and dust is just traipsed over the floor despite an outside mat so maybe a practical boon.

WE have one, it's fine. I have no v strong feelings about it tbh, but nothing niggly. A loose door mat would just slide around.

I was against it initially because I thought it would make our hall look like a shop entrance ... but as others have said, it means you don't have a mat sliding around, and it can be easily lifted up and shaken outside.

we bought inset for tiled hally way but bottled out as it would have spoilt the tiling but I think it would work better with wooden floor.

Definitely get one. It stops it sliding around/catching under the door, and IMO looks much better. I also think that it contains the dirt better.

We did this when we put wooden flooring down in the hall. We didn't go for coir (bits everywhere) but just got a normal doormat from a hardware shop.

Thanks for your replies!

I would definitely have one if I was starting from scratch. Much neater and doesn't slip around like our one does. If you get a standard mat size then if you get bored of the mat you can still have a shiney new one

I had one put in our old house when we a had wooden floor put in. It was fab. teh only reason I didn't have one put in this house is that our hall is small, and I thought it would take up too much space. But of course there is a turtle mat down now.

You get the mat cut off a large roll, so it doesn't matter if it's not standard; you cna have it cut to any size you like. In one house I actually considered having the hall carpeted in matting.

Of course - there's always one isn't there..... we had one put in our last house, had a lovely oak floor put down and a mat inlaid - it was nicely done etc but I could have cried. I really felt it spoilt the whole entrance way and just looked too 'functional/commerical' :(

CHippingIN- yes, we bought a mattwell and didn't use it as though that it would spoil our nice intricate mosaic tiles. You can have ours if I can find it.

I think it would work better with a wooden floor though?

Has anyone had a coir matti well then had fitted carpet along the hall, I can't make my mind up as we are having the same fitted carpet throughout our bungalow and not sure if this will spoil the look of the hallway, grateful for any advice!

we have this at front and back door. It is so easy to keep the area clean around it and it stops muddy shoe prints.

we had an unfortunate incident at the back door mat when the cat flap was locked and poorly cat needed to get out. however for less than £20 we got a new coir mat from ebay and fitted it ourselves in no time.

the mats were in when we bought the house and initially i didnt like the back one as it leads from the dining room but when i am in and out to the bins in winter and the cat is in and out it makes a massive difference to keeping the floor clean

Yes looks much smarter than a loose mat on top. Try to get a well that fits standard size mats as large as possible too.

We have one. I like it. You can get a new chunk of matting if it gets stained or worn. We had one in our last place too.

We have one. And as a choice I would have a loose one which I could hung in he washing machine,

We've just had wooden floors and had an inset mat. I'm pleased we did as it looks neat and doesn't slide about. The coir will get a bit grubby in time but we bought an inexpensive piece off Amazon which you just cut to fit so very easy to replace.

Many thanks of all your helpful remarks, just another couple of things on the same subject,

1. do you find that your carpets do stay much cleaner with a matt well rather than loose matting?

2. do you find when guests visit they are more inclined to take off their shoes by having the matt well there before stepping onto your carpet/flooring

The mat well is a godsend for keeping mud/ wet / leaves off the wooden floor as it's large and doesn't move. I don't ask visitors to remove shoes but the kids remove their shoes ( and leave them there but that's another story). There's also a rubber mat outside. Without a large mat well you'd be leaping to mop up the hall floor all the time.