Picked rubber flooring for my basement gym over foam tiles and now I get why everyone warned me about the smell.

After 3 weeks of airing it out with fans and still catching whiffs of that new rubber factory smell every time I walk down there, I'm starting to wonder if the durability was worth the odor - has anyone else had this issue with rubber rolls?

2 comments

2 Comments

faithrodriguez16d ago

Three weeks is actually pretty standard for rubber flooring, so you're not alone there (and I say this as someone who went through the exact same thing last year). The trick people don't mention is that you really need to scrub the surface with a mild soap and water solution before you start airing it out, because there's a factory coating that traps the smell if you don't wash it off first. I did that after the first week and it cut the odor down by like 70% - just a bucket of warm water with some dish soap and a mop, nothing crazy. Also, make sure you're not blaming the rubber itself for what might actually be off-gassing from the adhesive underneath, especially if you glued it down directly to the concrete. Give it another week or two and keep the fans running, it'll fade way faster than you think (but yeah, that first month is rough).

vera_roberts16d ago

Oh boy, isn't that the truth with so many things these days. It seems like everything we buy has some kind of hidden layer or coating that you have to figure out the hard way, like new towels that won't dry until you wash them three times or those "nonstick" pans that need a special seasoning. It's almost like they're banking on us not reading the fine print.