Floor mats for cellar

[hotwine]

Had been on the lookout for mats to use over the concrete floor in the cellar, to hopefully let dropped bottles bounce instead of break. Spotted some at Costco last week and picked up a couple - 3' X 5', 1/2" thick or so, made of recycled rubber products, black in color, price of $18 per. That works out to $1.20/sp ft, which is 40% less than the lowest price I had seen online. They're working out just fine. Need one more, since maneuver area (floorspace not covered by racks) is only 9' X 5'.

[Innkeeper]

Saw that stuff demonstrated at a food & lodging show some years ago. They dropped all sorts of empty glass vessels on it from all kinds of heights; but no full bottles.

[hotwine]

I've still got a bottle or two of plonk that can be used for field-testing....

[Bucko]

Why are you messing with that stuff? Do like WW and put a trampoline on the floor. He never wastes a drop! <IMG SRC="http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif">

[winoweenie]

Actually Hotsie-poo, contrary to Buckos' post, I put down sponges on my cellar floor. No breakage and any spillage can be squeezed back into play. Actually the product you mention should work well. Naturally I carpeted my cellar floor over a 1/2 rebond pad. No breakage in 19 years. WW

[Thomas]

I haven't dropped a bottle in over nineteen years--youse guys needs to be more careful...

[Kcwhippet]

Uh oh! Now Foodie's talking like WW, or is "youse" a regional colloquialism?

[Thomas]

KC, I was flattened when, on my first trip to Ontario, Canada, in a B & B the proprietor asked my wife and me "can you tell what time I can expect youse in the morning for breakfast?"<P>I thought that word was in the domain of my homeland: Brooklyn. Turns out it is used (or yoused) in parts of Ontario too.<p>[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 01-21-2003).]

[Kcwhippet]

Relatives of my Dad say youse. They're from PA east (sort of) of Pittsburgh - Braddock, Turtle Creek, McKeesport and a few others.

[Bucko]

Reminds me of My Cousin Vinnie:<P>What's a yute?<P>What's a grit?<P>Funny movie, least wise I liked it.

[hotwine]

Test report: one bottle of Duboeuf CS (I think - label's gone), dropped from waist high, bounced like a tennis ball. No damage.

[ShortWiner]

Dropped on its bottom or on its side? Let's be scientific about this! <IMG SRC="http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif"> <BR>

[Thomas]

or maybe on its head, like me...

[hotwine]

Scientific?! Yeah, right. On its bottom, quartering. Held the bottle vertically, then tilted to one side and let 'er go, so it impacted on the bottom edge. The first bounce upended it onto its neck, which produced a second bounce back onto its bottom, and so on until oscillations dampened out. Bottle was a Burgundy style.<P>

[Thomas]

sounds like fun--I hope you don't handle babies...

[hotwine]

Not very often......

[ShortWiner]

Oscillations . . . very good, very good. If that's not scientific I don't know what is.<P>

[Kcwhippet]

But wait - that was a Burgundy style bottle. Wouldn't the higher shoulder on a Bordeaux style bottle change the center of gravity and produce a markedly different result? I suppose you'd also have to duplicate the angle of tilt off the vertical to quantify the results appropriately. Perhaps one would have to design a jig that would hold each bottle at the identical angle and height for each trial. A simple release mechanism would ensure each bottle was let go in in the exact same manner so the impact velocities would be as identical as possible taking into account any weight variations of the bottles. I suppose the differences in wind resistance due to the shape variance would be unavoidable but hopefully they would be insignificant to the trials. Boggles the mind.

[hotwine]

The test was suspended due to the small statistical sample size....lack of suitable candidates to place under test (that was the only bottle of plonk within reach). The test is concluded, the mats passed.

[Kcwhippet]

Rats! It was just getting interesting. Wouldn't a real test be better attempted with something other than plonk? I think that would be a more realistic test. A 1982 Bordeaux first growth, for instance.