Hire Or Buy Crane Mats
Using a crane on a site with uneven surfaces may not be safe. Our crane pads provide stability, improve safety and prevent ground damage, ensuring you can work in complete confidence.
We offer crane mats for sale and hire. So whether you’d like to buy a stock of mats for regularly scheduled projects, or just need a short-term hire in an emergency, we can help you out.
At Timbermat, we’ve been helping companies with their crane pads requirements since 1992. Our team has vast experience in helping people hire or buy crane mats and can provide industry-leading advice on the best crane mats for your needs and whether you should be looking to hire or buy.
Whatever you’re requirements, we’re here to help. Call us today on 0800 012 12 31 or fill in the contact form on this page to request a call from a member of our team.
27 years’ of experience
Bog mats to suit your every requirement in stock
Competitive hire and sales rates
Fast response and delivery throughout the UK and Europe
Hiab off-loading and Crossrail compliant vehicles
Stock available from our London, Manchester and Edinburgh depots
What Are Crane Pads?
Crane mats are heavy-duty, solid surfaces that allow you to build strong, stable, durable roadway, walkway or working platforms for cranes.
If the ground you’re working on is unlevel or soft, there’s a risk the crane will become unstable or tip over. Effective use of crane mats mitigates this, allowing you to work in complete confidence.
Even if the ground is stable, crane mats can still play a vital role in your project by providing an additional layer of protection. This will reduce any damage caused over the course of your project, making clean-up easier and allowing for faster environmental recovery.
What Guidelines Should You Follow When Using A Crane With Outriggers?
Outriggers effectively increase the base area of a crane, spreading the pressure over a wider area and offsetting any lateral movement in the centre of gravity.
When using a crane with outriggers, the vehicle should be placed on flat, level, and solid ground, to ensure the forces are distributed evenly in line with any calculations made ahead of the lifting operation.
If the lifting vehicle is equipped with outriggers, these should always be used. Where the ground is not level, or the ground surface is considered too fragile to support outriggers, it may be possible to use outrigger pads to compensate.
Even where the ground is solid and level, it is sensible to use outrigger mats as a precaution, to prevent the outriggers from puncturing the ground surface and emerging into any undetected voids below.
What Is The Preferred Type Of Outrigger Pad Support?
Tropical hardwood mats make excellent outrigger pads. Their dense grain means they are able to withstand significant pressure, yet as a natural material, wood is also able to flex to absorb the strain.
As a result of this, hardwood outrigger pads can deform slightly to better distribute the extreme downward forces applied to them during a lifting operation.
Hardwood timber mats are available in thicknesses from 70mm up to 200-300mm and in sizes of 1×3, 1×5 and 1×6 metres as standard, with several species of timber to choose from to suit the project you need to work on.
Timber mats are affordable and are available to hire as well as to purchase. Their value against other products means they should not affect your site insurance, or cause you concern when away from site, and large numbers of mats can be laid alongside one another to build lifting platforms for even exceptionally large crane vehicles.
