Comparisons, load-spread calculations and specification references for crane mats, outrigger pads and temporary works
Browse the library
"Hire or buy?" sounds like one question about crane mats. It's really three — about frequency, time horizon, and whether you want to own ground protection at all — bundled together because they get asked in the same breath. Here's how we work through all three, and why the answer is your numbers, not a borrowed rule of thumb.
Read the guide
Below roughly one square metre, the real choice isn't aluminium against plastic mats — it's HDPE against certified Nylanite against aluminium pads. Here's how they actually compare.
Read the guide
A Safe Working Load rating tells you a mat won't fail. It tells you nothing about how much it bends while it's carrying that load — and bending is what decides whether a mat is really spreading load, or just moving the problem underneath it. So we built a rig to measure it, and ran ALIMATS aluminium against a competing UHMW-PE plastic mat at three test loads. This is the full data.
Read the guide
Timber crane mats were doing this job long before anyone extruded an aluminium profile for it, and for good reason — they're cheap, they don't conduct electricity, and everyone on site already knows how to handle them. We build aluminium mats, and we'll still give timber's case a fair hearing, numbers included.
Read the guide
Steel is genuinely stronger and stiffer than aluminium — that isn't in dispute. What matters is where that advantage earns its keep on a UK site, and where a lighter, plant-free material wins out instead. Here's how we weigh the two.
Read the guide