How Long Does It Take To Connect 100 Sq Ft Of Interlocking Foam Tiles

Winning the challenge for the fastest to install are the Foam Kids and Gym Mats Premium. At ⅝ inch thick, these tiles are among the thinnest options tested. They also feature a universal interlock system, uniform color and uniform pattern, meaning there was no need to worry about what direction the tiles faced when putting them in place.

One of the biggest challenges were the border strips. Each tile comes with two border strips. One strip is slightly longer than the other to make a smooth transition around the corner of the tile. So when using borders along the straight edges, the shorter strips needed to be used.

Coming in at just under 15 minutes was the ¾ inch thick Gym Floor Workout Fitness Tile Pebble. What slowed this installation down a bit was the fact that the tiles are significantly thicker than the ⅝ inch thick product and as a reversible product, orientation of the tiles is a consideration as they do not feature a universal interlock. This left 2 options for installation instead of 4.

The battle for 3rd place was a close one, with the Royal Interlocking Carpet Tile narrowly edging out the Wood Grain Foam Tiles Reversible product at just under 16 minutes.

The somewhat tricky part with this foam-based tile is that it does have universal interlocks, so it can attach no matter which way they are laid, but… they have directional arrows on the underside to ensure that the nap or grain of the carpet all lays the same. Paying attention to the arrows did take a bit more time.

Like the ¾ inch pebble textured tiles, there are also two different length of border strips on each tile. Add to that the directionality of the carpet fibers and there is a bit more to pay attention to during the installation process.

Coming in at just over 16 minutes was the reversible wood look foam tile. Again this product did not have a universal interlock. It also has a wood grain that has to be paid attention to. There is the option to allow the wood grain to align amongst the tiles or be installed perpendicular to the adjacent tiles. (This can be handy for making a parquet look.) Nevertheless, it did add something to pay special attention to in order to create a uniform look.

Another consideration for this product is that the two sides that come with border strips attached also share a corner piece. The corner piece can be removed for side borders or left in place for corners. With that being said, once the corner piece is removed, it cannot be reattached, so special attention must be paid to which tiles/border are place in the corners.

The slowest to install was the 1.5 inch thick Home BJJ Mats, finishing in just under 22 minutes. By far the thickest of the options tested, it took a little more time to remove border strips from the tiles that needed them removed. It also took a little more effort to push the tiles together, due to the additional friction.

These tiles are also reversible with a different color on each side. Staying true to the original intent of this being a martial arts matting system, a competition/training ring was designed using the two different colors, so thought went into that process.

Again as a reversible tile, they also do not have a universal interlocking system. And like the Wood Grain Foam Tiles, the border strips feature a removable corner piece that cannot be reattached if removed.