Can you cut anti-fatigue matting?

Yes. Foam matting cuts cleanly with a sharp blade, and it arrives on a roll precisely so it can be cut. The part worth getting right is which edge you cut, because a roll has two bevelled long edges and two square ends, and only one of those is meant to be walked over.

Cut across the width, not down the length

Matting leaves the factory as a roll with a bevel running down both long edges. Cut across the roll and those two bevels stay on your piece, while the two cut ends are square. Cut down the length and you have removed a bevel and created a raw edge along the side people step over, which is the one edge that should never be raw.

So the square ends go against something: a wall, a bench plinth, a machine base, another mat. Put a square cut end into open floor and you have made the trip hazard the matting was supposed to remove.

How to make the cut

• A straight edge clamped down, not held. Foam pushes back and a hand-held rule wanders.
• A fresh blade. A blunt blade drags foam rather than parting it, and a torn edge on 12.7 mm is visible from across the room.
• Several light passes rather than one heavy one, cutting on the waste side of the line.
• Let a cold roll come up to room temperature first. Cold foam is stiffer and tears more.

When it is worth having it cut for you

One cut across a 60 cm roll is a five minute job and there is no reason to pay somebody for it. A full roll is a different problem. At 91 cm wide, a roll of 9.5 mm foam weighs 39.97 kg and a roll of 12.7 mm weighs 67.4 kg, and it has to be unrolled flat, held flat, measured and cut square six or seven times before you have your lengths.

Cut to size from us, Elephant Skin at 91 cm is £42.95 per metre€50.05 per metre and Diamond Plate is £77.95 per metre€91.00 per metre. Lengths go in whole metres, from one metre up, because that is how the roll is priced and it means nothing is cut off and thrown away.

The one case where you should buy the whole roll

Above about 15.4 m on the 9.5 mm foam, and about 17.2 m on the 12.7 mm, a whole roll costs less than the same length bought as a cut. A full 18.3 m roll at 91 cm is £662.95€770.20 for the 9.5 mm and £1,342.95€1,561.22 for the 12.7 mm.

Past that point you are better off taking the roll, cutting the pieces you need and keeping the rest. We say so on the product page rather than waiting to be asked, and the price switches to the roll on its own. It is the one moment in this trade where the honest answer and the bigger order happen to be the same thing.

How much do you actually need?

Measure the standing position, not the furniture. A person occupies roughly a metre of standing space at a bench, and matting that runs past the end of the working position is matting nobody stands on. Width is the second question: 60 cm suits a fixed position at a bench, 91 cm covers a position somebody steps back from, and 122 cm covers a run where two people pass.