I recently moved and my space is much more constrained (I'm going to need a foldable wall mounted rack from Rogue). I assured the wife I'll have it set up so that in cases of very foul weather, I'll be able to hang my gear and fold the rack, allowing her to get her car in.
That said, I'm not sure if I should bother building a small plywood platform to fit under the stall mats or just throw the mats down. What do you all think? Is the wood really worth the trouble? Especially if a car gets driven on a portion of it a couple times a year?
I miss my two car garage!
Another option is to place rubber tiles on top of the stall mats. Even though I don't drop or bounce weights, I find that the pads greatly reduce the impact of the bar hitting the ground on my body. A neighbor who doesn't do heavy deadlifts has allowed me to use his garage gym gym during the lockdown. In order to make sure I didn't damage his floor and not take over any of his space, I bought several 1" thick rubber squares that I use to make a temporary deadlift platform. When I'm done, I stack them in a corner of his garage.
Maybe you could try something in between. A single 1/2" sheet of plywood under stall mats isn't much of a hassle to put together and will greatly improve the scattering of the load, putting your mind to peace and allow you to lift without worry.
That being said, thousands of crossfit (or former crossfit) gyms and crossfit garages have seen hundreds of bumper-loaded barbells dropped form overhead on a single layer of rubber every day for up to a decade without much damage.
Thanks all good points made. I wasn’t even thinking of floor damage, I was thinking mainly about joint stress, etc. The concrete is about a year old.