Tidy Up Your Hobby Space’s Concrete Floor with an Exhibition Carpet –A Man Cave Reimagined!

The appearance of a garage unit or a rented garage can be transformed in a single evening with an exhibition carpet.

Motorcycles, cars, and boats take up a lot of space for storage and maintenance, which is why many enthusiasts acquire various garage spaces for their use. More and more people are looking for these spaces to also offer a more comfortable environment than just a portable radio and a space heater. A garage unit, a rented small industrial space, or an entire warehouse/industrial hall serves as a primary place for many to spend their leisure time as they get their gear in shape for the start of the driving season.

The level of finish in spaces intended for industrial use is often insufficient for leisure activities. That’s why these spaces are improved, ranging from small surface touch-ups to full-fledged man caves. Among these enthusiasts, Expomatto’s exhibition carpets have become a huge favorite when the original floor of the space doesn’t please the eye or the feet.

The advantage of an exhibition carpet is that it is fundamentally designed to be installed quickly, easily cleaned, and is wear-resistant. When a single roll provides tens of square meters of a finished floor, even the most worn-out man caves and hobby vehicle spaces get a completely new look with just one evening of work.

Expoluxe: The Perfect Choice for Hobby Spaces

The most popular exhibition carpet, especially for spaces storing vehicles, is the thicker Expoluxe exhibition carpet. This thicker—and therefore more rigid—mat hides the imperfections of the original floor, from the holes for forklift shelving to small marks from impacts. The long, parallel seams of the mat also won’t gape even with long-term use. The thicker mat also absorbs foot traffic noise and helps to calm the acoustics of the space in addition to improving its overall visual appearance.

Practical Use and Durability

When considering durability, it’s a good idea to divide the space into areas based on use. An exhibition carpet is not suitable for wet rooms, and tight turning of vehicles can cause the mat to bunch up—unless the mat has been very securely attached to the floor. As a rule of thumb, a car can be parked on the exhibition carpet without issues, as long as you don’t turn the wheels or steering wheel while the vehicle is stationary. Motorcycles and RVs move without a problem. During winter storage, you only need to be careful when lowering a boat from a trailer onto support stands to make sure you are truly lowering—not pushing—it onto the stand. The same, of course, applies to all other floor surfaces.

For private use, the exhibition carpet can withstand foot traffic and cleaning for several years. It’s a good idea to put its durability in perspective: during a single week at major events in Europe, hundreds of thousands of pairs of shoes walk on the mat. Reaching the same usage figures would require decades of club nights in even the busiest of garages.

Before installing the exhibition carpet, you should always wash and dry the original floor. The mat itself will contain a reasonable amount of dust, but large, old oil stains, for example, should be cleaned from underneath to prevent odors. The most important thing in cleaning is precisely the removal of the smell. CRC Brakleen, which can be found in every garage, or alternatively any xylene-based chain cleaner, will eliminate the odor, even if some stains visually remain on the concrete.

Preparing the Floor and Easy Installation

Installing the exhibition carpet can be done alone if necessary, although for lengths longer than 10 meters, extra hands are useful to ensure the mat’s line is perfectly straight for the entire run. The tools needed are a long metal ruler and a high-quality utility knife. Even the thickest exhibition carpet is always lighter to fold and fit to the shapes of corners and walls compared to a vinyl floor. Installing exhibition carpets is easy. You can read more about installing exhibition carpets here.

Compared to a laminate floor, an exhibition carpet installation makes dealing with water pipes and floor-mounted bar stools straightforward. The mat also conforms to the slopes of the floor underneath and won’t float or sag near floor drains.

An exhibition carpet roll is typically two meters wide, so in medium and large spaces, seams are unavoidable. The seams can be aligned by taping the mats together from underneath with a purpose-made tape. An exhibition carpet has a very matte surface, so it stays in place surprisingly well on its own on almost all surfaces—with the exception of slippery, durable paints like Tikkurila Betolux. Especially if there is permanent furniture on top (desks, sofas, storage shelves), the mat will not shift at all during normal use.

Your New Hobby Space is a Phone Call Away

Expomatto’s rolls come directly from the factory, so they don’t have time to develop a warehouse smell. However, it’s a good idea to steam clean the exhibition carpet before use, just as you would with any wall-to-wall carpet. With this small effort, you ensure there are no odors and also help the mat settle into place with the warmth of the steam.

Contact our sales team and ask for our affordable delivery options – or even our installation service if you want it! Expomatto’s sales service includes cutting the exhibition carpet to your desired length, so the flooring budget for even a small hobby space stays in check – you don’t have to buy a full roll. The mats are available in all colors! You can find Finland’s widest selection of exhibition carpets on our site!

Our phone sales team is at your service at 050 1446 or you can use our CHAT service at the bottom of the page. You can also request a quote through our order form or by email at myynti@expomatto.fi. You will get a fast response!

An exhibition carpet is also a great fit for a practice space. The black 5mm Expoluxe exhibition carpet seen in the picture helps to dampen acoustics and is a good alternative to painting an old floor.