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Mud stompers - door mats

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Sunset, Feb, 1987

Rugged and handsome, these door mats can sustain rigorous stomping as you knock the mud off your boots or work shoes. Two of the three styles have builtin scrapers to catch compacted dirt around heels. Made of wood strips glued and mailed together, the mats are meant for back-door traffic--but not front-door visitors wearing high heels, since there are too many precarious openings.
Our instructions for the three mats aresized for a single door width, but the adaptable designs let you widen or lengthen them to fit outside sliding glass doors (see photographs of grid mat above; instructions are given on page 114).

To save money and get squared-off edges,we bought redwood 1-by-8s and 2-by-8s, then ripped them using a table saw. If you don't have access to a saw, you can still make two of the mats from precut 1-by-1s and 1-by-2s. In all cases, use surfaced or rough wood that is as dry as possible.

Each mat requires 1 1/4-inch-long (3d) galvanizedfinishing nails and waterproof woodworker's glue. We sealed mats with two costs of clear wood preservative.

Mat from 1-by-1s

The easiest to make, this mat can beassembled from one 8-foot-long 1-by-8 or eight 8-foot-long 1-by-1s. Cut lumber into 14 pieces 29 1/2 inches long, 33 spacers 4 inches long, 2 support pieces 20 inches long, and 7 support pieces 2 1/4 inches long. Each piece should measure 3/4 inch wide.
After cutting the wood to size, clamp the29 1/2-inch-long pieces together with ends aligned.

Measuring in from each end, draw lines at 1 1/2 and 3 inches; then draw a line offset 2 inches from the true center line of the pieces.

Unclamp the boards and insert the 4-inch-longspacers to establish the mat's pattern. Between the first and second long pieces, insert one 4-inch spacer at each of the 1 1/2-inch lines and one aligned on the offset "center' line. Between the second and third long pieces, insert one 4-inch spacer at each of the 3-inch lines (none in center). Repeat until the mat is complete.

Now glue and nail the first set of spacersto the first long piece, then the second set of spacers to the second piece; continue until you have 13 glued and nailed sections. Use 2 nails per spacer, insetting nails about 1 inch from ends to avoid splitting. Nail the final long piece to the last section. Then glue and nail pairs of sections together. Let glue dry.

Clamp the pairs together with their bestsides facing down. Center each of the two 20-inch-long support pieces crosswise over the offset filler pieces; glue and nail to lock all rows together. Complete the mat by gluing and nailing the seven 2 1/4-inch support pieces in the center of the mat, parallel to the 20-inch supports, as shown by the dark tone in the diagram.

Alternating 1-by-1s and 1-by-2s

Made from an 8-foot-long 2-by-8 (or four8-foot-long 1-by-2s and three 8-foot-long 1-by-1s), this mat has an optional foot scraper you can add near each end. The scraper can be a strip of 2-inch-wide oak flooring, aluminum bar, acrylic, or scrap metal.

Start by cutting the 2-by-8 into three 30-inch-longpieces. Using a table saw, rip the rounded edge off one side, then rip lumber into pieces 3/4 inch wide. Set aside 13 pieces, then turn remaining pieces on the 1 1/2-inch side and rip them in half to make 16 3/4- by 3/4-inch strips.

Working in pairs, glue and nail a 1-by-1to a 1-by-2 with the bottom edges flush. Also sandwich one 1-by-1 between two 1-by-2s. Group all the pieces to make a solid surface; glue, clamp, and nail on four 1-by-1s to join the bottom.

The scraper bars fit into 1-inch-deep slotscut parallel to and 2 inches in from the ends of the mat. The slots should be wide enough to receive the scraper bar. Make slots with multiple passes with a table or circular saw. To secure the scrapers to the mat, drill a hole through the upper part of each end of two 1-by-2s (see drawing above). Anchor with countersunk screws or long finishing nails.
A grid of cross-lap joints

To construct this mat, you need a tablesaw with dado blades. The shorter 20 3/4-by 26 3/4-inch mat is made from a 6-foot-long 2-by-8, the longer version for the sliding glass doors from two 8-foot-long 2-by-8s.

Starting 1 inch from one end of a 2-by-8,draw lines at 3-inch intervals across the board and down one edge. Put dado blades on the saw and cut grooves between 5/8 and 3/4 inch wide at each 3-inch mark. The cuts should be half the depth of the board. (Use a piece of scrap wood to set the depth of the cut accurately.)

With a conventional blade, rip the roundededge off one side of the 2-by-8. Then set the fence so the width of the cut strips will equal the width of the dadoed grooves. (Again, use the test scrap first.)
For the smaller mat, cut 7 pieces 26 3/4inch long. Make sure that these pieces have a 1-inch-long stub at each end. From the remaining wood, cut 11 pieces measuring 20 3/4 inches long; also make sure you have a 1-inch stub at each end.

For the larger mat, you'll need 6 longpieces sized to the width of your door; pieces should have 1-inch stubs at each end. Cut enough 17 3/4-inch-long shorter pieces (with stubs) to fit the grooves, plus two extra pieces for scrapers.

Assemble the grids, nailing at intersectingjoints. Take the two remaining short pieces and slip them over the top of the 1-inch stubs to make the raised scrapers (see bottom picture).

Photo: Short and long versions of grid mat show flexible pattern scaled to different door widths: a single door, left, and a 5-foot-wide sliding glass door, right. These mats are redwood, but any wood works

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