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HERMEQ DACHBog Mats / Timber Mats
Bog mats, also called timber mats or wooden mats, are hardwood mats laid to form stable temporary access routes and working platforms where the ground is soft or environmentally sensitive. They spread the weight of heavy plant so machines can track, lift and turn without rutting the ground beneath. The HERMEQ range runs from D30 European oak and beech, through Okan and Dabema tropical hardwood, to D70 Ekki. Ekki resists weather and acid, which makes it the high-spec choice for long projects on wet, exposed or remote sites in infrastructure, civil engineering and energy work. Standard sizes are held in permanent UK stock with next day delivery.
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- Tropical Hardwood Bog MatsQuick 5 Day Delivery
Ekki, tropical and European hardwood bog mats
The choice between the three turns on timber species and strength class, which together set the loads a mat suits, how it copes with wet or hostile ground and what it costs.
Ekki bog mats
Ekki bog mats are graded D70, the highest strength class in the range, and are the mats to specify under mobile cranes, piling rigs and any job that asks more than oak or beech mats are rated for. Ekki is one of the toughest mat timbers available, so a set bought for one contract goes on to the next. On repeat civil engineering work, that reuse gives cost certainty across a long programme.
Tropical hardwood bog mats
Okan and Dabema are dense tropical hardwoods with strong resistance to water and decay at a lower cost than Ekki. Tropical hardwood bog mats suit access that stays down for weeks or months in muddy or waterlogged ground, as on power transmission, renewable energy, oil and gas and infrastructure maintenance work. They are the choice when a long stay in wet ground matters more to the job than the top strength class.
European oak and beech bog mats
European oak and beech bog mats are graded D30 and are the economical choice for general site access, temporary roads for wheeled and tracked machinery, excavator pads and crane staging on a tight budget. They are easy to handle and reposition, which suits housing developments and utility installations where the mats move with the work and protect the ground around live services as it progresses.
Timber bog mats or plastic ground protection mats
Timber is the right choice when the load is heavy and the ground is very soft: cranes, piling rigs, tracked excavators and haul roads carrying heavy plant over saturated ground. A hardwood mat has the stiffness and weight to stay in place under tracks and to spread an outrigger load across the ground below it.
Plastic ground protection mats are the better fit for pedestrian routes, light vehicles and work on turf or hard standing, where a lighter mat laid by hand suits the job better than one lifted into place by machine. Many sites use both, with bog mats under the crane and plastic mats on the footpaths and parking around it.
A mat is laid on the ground and is not built to span an open excavation. To carry vehicles over an open trench, use road plates. Where pedestrians cross a narrow trench, trench covers give a level footway, and a ditch or watercourse is crossed on foot with temporary site bridges.
Crane mats, haul roads and working platforms
What the job asks of the mat, whether a point load, a long stay in wet ground or a hazard beneath it, decides which timber suits it.
Crane pads and piling rig platforms
Under a crane, the load reaches the mats through the outrigger feet as a concentrated point load during the lift, so the lift plan sets the mat specification more than the crane's travelling weight does. Piling rigs are tall, heavy and work in one place for long periods, which makes a level platform that does not settle the first requirement. Timber crane mats in D70 Ekki are the range's answer to both.
Temporary roads and swamp mat crossings over soft ground
A run of mats laid across a field or wetland gives plant a continuous road where the subsoil would otherwise rut or a machine would sink. Continuity matters most, because a gap or a stepped joint is where a wheel drops and a mat starts to rock, and the run needs the width of the widest machine plus room at any turning or passing point. Tropical hardwood suits roads that stay down through a wet season, and oak and beech suit shorter jobs and general access.
Substations, overhead lines, rail and pipeline work
On this work the ground and the hazard choose the mat as much as the load does. Ekki resists acid, which makes it the mat for substations, chemical storage areas and contaminated land, and it is electrically insulating, which matters on overhead line and rail access. Pipeline routes often cross farmland or habitat that has to be reinstated afterwards, and a continuous mat run keeps tracked plant off the soil along the whole route.
Event and festival ground support
Outdoor events put stages, grandstands, generators and supply vehicles on grass that turns soft after rain. Bog mats give a firm base under those structures and along the service roads behind them, while plastic mats take the public areas. Mats laid before the build and lifted at the derig keep the venue workable for the whole programme and protect the turf beneath the heaviest loads.
Bog mat thickness, length and strength class
Thickness and length
Mats across the range run from 100mm to 300mm thick, in a choice of lengths. A thicker mat bends less and spreads its load over more ground, so softer ground and heavier plant call for the thicker end. Longer mats build a road with fewer joints and ride over soft spots more evenly, while shorter mats are easier to place in tight compounds and around buried services.
Strength class for the ground and the load
The strength class is matched to the heaviest machine that will use the mats and the worst ground on the route. Where a ground bearing assessment or a lift plan gives a bearing pressure, work from that figure. Where it does not, err towards a thicker mat or a higher class on wet or made ground.
Laying a run or a crane pad
A run beds down evenly when debris is cleared and high spots are levelled first, and the mats are lifted into place by machine with chains. A road is laid with mats side by side across the line of travel, butted tight with no gaps. A crane pad is usually built as a double layer, with the top mats at right angles to the bottom, which spreads each outrigger load over more of the mats below. After heavy rain the run is checked and any mat that has settled or rocks is re-levelled.