I’m constantly tracking sawdust out of my workshop and into the rest of the house. The little chips are especially bad, as they get embedded in the low pile carpet on the stairs. It takes several passes with the vacuum wand to get them out. To keep the house cleaner without getting on my hands and knees, I’ve been looking into sticky or tack mats for the entrance to my shop.
Tack mats are pretty much what they sound like – sticky sheets that you put in front of entrances. They are sticky enough to pull dirt of your shoes, but not so sticky that they stick to your shoes and get pulled out of place. They usually come in pads with several layers stacked on top of one another. When one pad is used up and less effective, you rip off the top layer to expose a fresh sticky surface.
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One of the least expensive brands I found available was the 3M Dirt Catcher. The mat itself measures 26″ by 32″, and accepts 24″ by 30″ refill sheets. It has a non-skid backing on the bottom to prevent it from sliding around.
You can purchase either the starter kit, which includes the mat plus 15 refill sheets, or just a package of 15 refill sheets. Over on the Sherwin Williams website they list the starter pack for $16 and the refills for $7, but they do not have an online store.
I called one of the local stores, and they said they didn’t have any on hand. So I called another store close by and they had several in stock. I visited the store to purchase the starter pack, but they wouldn’t give me the online price. The best they could do was $26 with a contractor discount.
On the website it says “All prices displayed are for U.S. Sherwin-Williams locations and are in U.S. Dollars. Prices do not include taxes or other fees as applicable.”, but I haven’t a clue as to why the Sherwin Willaim store wouldn’t honor this price.
Buy Now (via Sherwin Williams)
Alternatively you could purchase them from Amazon. There the starter pack will run you $34 and the refill $17.
Buy Now (Starter Pack via Amazon)
Buy Now (Refill Pack via Amazon)
If you think you can find better pricing, look for 3M model number DCSP, for the starter kit, and DCR for the refill kit.
Another sticky mat product I found is the StepNGrip Gel mat, and this one doesn’t require refills. It’s made for basketball players who want to keep dust off the soles of their shoes so they grip better on the court. It serves a similar purpose as the tacky mats above, so maybe it would work equally as well for the job site or home workshop for certain applications.
Rather than peeling off the top layer when the pad is dirty, you can simply wash it off. Since the gel is thicker than a tack pad, the gel can squeeze into the grooves and gaps of shoe soles to pull away even more dirt.
The only disadvantage is that StepNGrip Gel mat will cost you $100, but according to StepNGrip it should last for years.
Buy Now (StepNGrip Gel mat via Amazon)
Jerry says
I was thinking to myself what about the stuff they use for lint rollers that rinse off with water. Then I read about the Step and Grip, which sounded like similar stuff. Makes me wonder if a person could try a $5 lint roller and see how it works before springing for the $100 mat. The kids at the local high school B-Ball team step on a wet towel, then a dry one. Might be worth a try, too.
Mike says
“I’m constantly tracking sawdust out of my workshop and into the rest of the house. ”
Or, take off your shoes. Other than sheer laziness, why do you wear shoes in the house? You track all kind of stuff inside.
Benjamen says
To answer your question, no I don’t generally wear shoes in the house, but I do in my basement shop. The entrance to the shop is in the laundry room where I have a mat, my shoes, and some works shirts and hats hanging on the door. I’ll generally take my shoes on and off at the door, but the area that I do that gets dirty from what sticks to my shoes. It doesn’t take long before that area spreads through the laundry room and up the stairs.
I’ll admit I don’t take off my shoes every time, if I’m carrying loads into or out of my shop, because it’d be a pain to take them off and on multiple times.
I do a decent job of keeping the floor of my shop sawdust free for safety sake, but I admit that there are times when I don’t clean up right away when I’m in the middle of something.
I figure a sticky mat would help keep the sawdust in check where I take off my shoes, or even if I need to keep my shoes on when I’m racing upstairs because my dog is carrying on like somebody is robbing us when the doorbell rings.
Szymon says
Home Depot also has this for $19.97
http://www.homedepot.com/p/3M-26-in-x-32-in-Hand-Masker-Dirt-Catcher-Super-Sticky-Mat-Starter-Pack-DCSP/202019829
Rich says
OOS sorry no dice.
RKA says
Very timely recommendation, thank you! I’ve got a contractor coming Saturday to do work on the second floor. I will insist the sawing takes place outside, which means they will be tracking sawdust inside. Hopefully this will cut down the mess.
Milwaukee tool Steve says
Yes this is very cool but what will happen when you track the stickiness all over the hardwood floors?
Benjamen says
I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think the “stickiness” comes off the pads — Think of it more like a giant post-it note.
Tom says
These aren’t really for sawdust and woodchips, but I grabbed a couple of these for under $10 at Costco recently:
http://www.amazon.com/Trek-Clean%C2%AE-NeatTrax-Absorbent-23-5in/dp/B00MT3MUVI
They are microfiber doormats and they are amazing. A couple steps and they almost entirely dry your shoes and get a lot of dirt off. I vacuum them weekly and it is astonishing how much stuff they pick up and prevent from getting into your house. I have one at every door now.
Graham Howe says
If I used these in my small garage workshop I’m pretty sure they would be nicely coated with a layer of dust and chips long before I actually stepped on them. I have to sweep/vac the floor every time I finish working in there so I can’t see how the mats would be kept clean enough to be effective when I tread on them.
Benjamen says
Ideally you’d use these in an anteroom, but failing that you’d want to place them inside your house at the garage entrance to catch any remaining dust that has stayed with you as you enter from your garage, not in the garage itself.
Graham Howe says
No ante room here unfortunately and I think a pad like this on the hardwood floors in the hallway would be even less popular than the sawdust.
G says
I like using the two carpet method. One carpet goes outside the door , and one inside. This allows for a second “cleaner” carpet. As the inside carpet gets too dirty to keep indoors, it becomes the outdoor carpet, and the outdoor carpet gets thrown away, or recycled to some other use. I keep a few spares that I buy when they are on sale, usually outside a hardware store in a big pile.
Jon says
Doesn’t 3M have a similar product sold in giant rolls for use in spray booths? This is going back to something I saw many years ago. It might not have been adhesive on both sides. I can’t remember now. But I think even with dust collection in my shop this would still get completely coated in a single afternoon of work. I’m in and out too often and there are just too many sources of dust and chips (and I can’t afford the space to make my dust collection system more perfect).