What might work as soft flooring for tricky buns?

[Catlyn]

I've been wondering for quite a while on what flooring to try with my buns.

At the moment they have just their bare, slightly slick floor of unknown materials, preaumably just lacquer-painted floor-cardboard from the mid-80's or something. From ages before we moved in. Then there are six 33cm2 ceramic tiles, two of them in the entrance of the buns' side, four in a row along the wall.
There's also a tunnel topped with one of the sturdy shelfboards from my old closet, on top of that used to be something akin to a bath-footmat, similar to memory-foam stuff. The ramp up to that is covered with a strip of low-pile rug, though i feel it's too rough for real flooring.
Their litterbox is probably the softest place- rough-hay pellets as absorbent and a generous coating of consumable hay on top.

Now here's what i've tried:
*more of these bathmat-things.
The problem is that Iris will chew at the edges. Had to dump that because Sir would just use it as a secondary toilet, even though he's otherwise fully litter trained.
*any random low-pile rug on the floor.
The problem with these is that for some reason, Storm loves peeing on them. But only if they're part of his enclosure. He leaves them well alone when they're part of "my space" in our room but oh boy there's a pee stain of it's in his space. (Not talking about the "revenge pee" situations)
I've yet to find a suitably soft carpet/rug in an acceptable size with an equally acceptable price. I want someting 1*2m2 and i don't have the resources to fork out 200€ on that.
*foam mats-puzzle, eva, camping mats.
Storm is the culprit again as to why these didin't work. He'd just pull the mats apart then dig them into a mess and leave a puddle somewhere in between.
*a sheet of lino/pvc
The only thing wrong with this is that i don't believe it to be soft enough just laid on the floor. Iris would love to chew the edges but i can block out those from her. Storm won't pee on top of it, though even if he would, cleaning would be easy.

I can't just bring a gigantic rectangle of grass and soil indoors, nor can i let them hang out outdoors all the time. I don't want to spot-clean a carpet twice a day because of some mister's stubbornness, nor do i want to let them get into some possibly dangerous flooring material. I can't keep their access to my mattress all the time either- the sir, once again, will gladly use it as his toilet. At the same time, i don't want their hocks to get hurt either. I'm already seeing some minor fur loss, especially on big boi, but i'm out of ideas on how to prevent it from getting worse.
For the time being, i placed an order on some mildly textured pvc coating to give them a grain of soft-ish non-slippy flooring and maybe a bit more time before things get even more not-so-good. It should arrive on friday.

 

[JBun]

This is always the dilemma with rabbits. Needing soft flooring that they can't chew and destroy, or want to pee on. I can see Storm wanting to pee on new soft rugs initially, but does he keep peeing on them after awhile or will he stop peeing on them after they've been in his area for a while, once his scent is all over them?

 

[Catlyn]

No, that rascal is untamable when it comes to soft stuff and puddles. He even peed on top of the wicker basket lid until i closed and pushed it against a wall.
I would understand marking as well, or revenge pees if box is too full/after nail trim/combing/vet or other similarities...

But it's like... with my bed for example..
Because of rather unconvenient room arrangement and better comfort, my mattress is right on the floor.
Storm would come by and say hi. Possibly probably dig at my blanket and unsuspecting me while at it. I get it, rabbits will always remain rabbits and i don't really mind it. He's got nothing else to dig at anyway and as long as he won't bite me through the blanket, okay, cool. Then he left a puddle by my feet.
Okay, "new" mattress, "my" smell, need to mark it. Dry and wipe it out with vinegar, whatever. He goes and does it again the next day. I clean it up. The day after, he pees in that general area thrice. Bly me, he is really into it. I dry it off and pick the mattress from the floor. He goes and leaves a thing on the mat atop their tunnel instead. Then he hops in the loo and leaves one there as well. This repeated in a cycle about four times before i'd had enough of it and just decided that plain drying is enough if he pools my mattress regardless of how clean i try to get it.
Bly me again, what's his issue? Iris is a stellar girl in that regard, only peed once, in the parents' bed, and my other two boys were usually gents in that aspect as well. I've lost count of how many times he's soiled a bed...
In the apartment, if my bed was ever left unsupervised, Storm would sometimes leave a gift on it. He would never lay his pee on the carpet in the communal area of the room though, even when the xpen panels were later introduced.
Does it have something to do with Storm just being a nutjob? Or might the hypothetical lingering presence of pee in the house enclosure mess with his understanding of an acceptable toilet? I do remember him banding up with Iris to pee in between a gap in the wall, so there's probably some smells stuck below the floor. There's absolutely nothing i can do about that...
And apparently the lino that i placed an order and already paid for... is out of stock and won't probably be restocked, so i now have to bother myself with going to the store to choose another pattern with a similar texture and the same pricing.

So what am i going to do with their flooring in the meantime? Could i try getting my hands on one random mattress/sheet of eva foam/puzzle mats and covering it with the lino i'd eventually get? I figured it'd be soft yet waterproof and if i can tuck the ends properly, i doubt Iris would like a taste of that.

 

[JBun]

Some rabbits are just very determined about marking. My rabbits could never resist peeing on soft surfaces either. About the only wipeable soft surface that I've found that can work with rabbits, is the EVA foam tiles, but that have this wood veneer top to them. The veneer somehow convinced my rabbits they couldn't chew at the mat, gave some cushioning with the foam, and was waterproof and wipeable. Though I'm sure this wouldn't stop a really determined bun, who would find a way to chew it anyways.

The main problem I started having was. as they got older and started have incontinence issues, the pee would go through the cracks where the tiles connected. So I had to seal those. I used mat tape that worked ok for the most part, but some pee still seeped through. I think silicone caulking it would have worked better, but I just didn't want to go through the bother.

I used something similar to this:
EVA floor tiles w/wood veneer

I know some people recommend rubber horse stall mats for a chew resistant, water proof, semi soft flooring. But you would need to get them pretty thin(less than 1/2 inch) or they are incredibly heavy. It's not something I've ever used though, so I can't say how well they might work.

I don't know that having foam under the lino is going to be helpful at all, as your rabbits will still be on the hard surface of the lino, even with foam under it. I just don't know if it will provide enough cushioning to be helpful. But I guess you could give it a try.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

I went to a carpet store and bought a remnant.

 

[FunBunMom]

I went too dollar tree and Daiso, they have threes small rug strips that are washable and replaceable. My rabbits are in LOVE!

 

[Catlyn]

Well, the lino i placed the order on is quite thin, about 2mm if i remember it right, and it was *moderately* soft even on its own, so i figured that a squishy surface below that would help with reducing impact on the floor.. especially since Storm has been a recent fan of thumping at almost everything.
I could possibly also get my hands on lino that is felt-backed and 7mm thick but i don't see the point in that-the fatter samples were more rigid and stiff and also nearly triple the price.. i guess it does matter if a square meter costs 7.50 or 22.50€...

 

[JBun]

You can always try it and just see how it works out. That's how I always found out what did and didn't work for my rabbits. Tried all different kinds of flooring, litter boxes, litter, etc. I have piles of stuff left over that didn't work out that I basically wasted my money on

 

[Catlyn]

As i was googling around for those veneer coated foams and the stall rubber thingies, i found out that gym foam mats are also a thing, they should be pretty sturdy, i think? Most of them claim to be soft, but i guess that can never be assessed through the web. They seem to be a bit pricier than the linos and other stuff i've found, though i haven't really found the plush part of the possible floor either. Maybe, since they seem to be supposedly both soft&sturdy, then maybe i could get two thicker squares of 'em (the 20*1000*1000mm ones) and just do away with buying the lino altogether?

If a link/product bio will help you any with helping me decide if this would be a reasonable thing to try, there's that: PEHMED MUSTAD JOOGAMATID 10 MM JA 20 X 1000 X 1000 MM (literally 'soft black yoga mats')

If it seems reasonable, i can go ahead and place an order on it in the morning and then head over to get a refund on my lino order.
If it won't work out as well, then maybe i could splurge and just get a lino anyway, and if the rabbits will not like the configuration in any way or form, then hey, back to square one with them and free training floor for me!

 

[Catlyn]

Well, i got something.
I had to go and pick another type of flooring altogether since the store had run out of pretty much all the textured, thin, cheaper lino's. I ended up buying a 3*0.6m segment of what i think is wallpaper on a reel?
It's grippy and mildly textured on the top, is thin and looks nice, though i presume it's just some paper with coating because Iris had approved it as something tasty. I cut it up, taped it down and so far so good, buns don't slide around on that coating and don't bother destroying it. Also, no puddles.



Iris' favourite showcase of love- "hugging" Storm. Now possible on a non-slip floor.

But the beneath is still very much the hard floor. And i still haven't made up my mimd on what i want to soften it with.
I linked the gym foam tiles above, but i was wondering if just a slab of thin mattress foam would also do the job.
I figured that since the tiles are pretty much like eva foam mats, they should be sturdier than just a cut of straight foam. I believe that the plain foam would be springier though, but since i've never seen or felt a gym mat in person, i can't really compare. The foam would have cleaner edges (none of the joint bits) whereas i'd need further investment for the mats. But mats are more versatile if i ever decided to move as i'd just have to pluck them off the floor instead of juggling with different cuts of foam (given the specific one i was thinking of buyimg, i'd have to make some cutting adjustments).
I was planning to match the soft stuff to the amount of grippy floor area, which, if assembled in one row, is just about 2m2. Gym mats to cover that are 35€ with the shipping, the porollone is ~20€ with shipping.
I can't make the final decision on which of these would be more reasonable.
Could i get some insight and help in deciding?