What keeps our Mats on the bottom?

What keeps our Mats on the bottom?

We get asked this a lot. What keeps our mats from just up and floating away?

Short answer: Gravity.

More complete answer: Steel frames hold them down. MuckMat Pro and LakeMat Pro frames weigh 47 pounds for a 12’x24’ XL size. The frames sink. Waves effect the surface, but have essentially no effect on the bottom. You can test this. Drop a small stone, a pound or two, in your lake near shore. Wait for a big storm to blow through then go look at the stone. It will be in the same place.

What keeps that stone in the same place? Gravity.

Nerdy answer: The specific gravity of water is 1, at 4° celsius (39° Fahrenheit). Water is the most dense exactly at 4° celsius.  Any material with a specific gravity higher than water will sink. Any material with a specific gravity less than water floats. The specific gravity of steel is 7.8.  Steel sinks better than a rock, (granite has a specific gravity of 2.9).

A cubit foot of water weighs 62.43 lbs. An XL Mat covers 288 sq. ft. So if the Mat sets in water one-foot deep, the weight of the water over the Mat would be:

(62.43 lbs times 288 sq. ft. =) 17,979.8 lbs or about nine tons. It would take immense torque to pick it up. Weight is a measurement of gravitational pull on an object. In water, buoyancy acts against gravitational pull. Because steel’s specific gravity is 7.8, it’s not buoyant unless it’s shaped to displace water, as in a ship’s hull, but water displacement is a whole different subject.

One Caveat:  A strong current in a river could move a Mat if enough pressure from the rushing current gets under the frame. This has happened just once that we know of, during a raging flood.  So if you’re on a river with a swift current, tie a line to your Mat and something solid on shore. If you’re on a lake or pond, trust gravity.

— Douglas Fast

Creator of LakeMats