jul1604 from Lloyd Erlick,

Very true, especially 'poorman technique'.

But -- if we're going to talk about spilling chemicals --
maybe a large absorption device might be an advantage. The
rubber mat cleans easily with a hose, no doubt about it, but
it still leaves all your fixer on the floor. The carpet
might catch most or all of it, leaving a minor amount
scurrying under your sink or into the bottom of your
walls...

But really, the floor covering is for comfort. The sink is
for chemicals. My personal policy is that chemicals never
leave the sink. Always handle chemicals in or over the sink,
and spills never hit the floor. My floor has been wet many
times, but water only. This is one of the reasons I like to
use my solutions one-shot, and mix from dry powders to a
working solution rather than perparing stock. A big jug of
some chemical or other in water solution stored in the
cabinet is just an invitation to a spill. Might as well use
glass containers, just to add broken glass to the fun.

Ideally we'd all have nice waterproof floors with a drain.
Hose down the floor, squeegee toward the drain, done.

I very foolishly discarded my last fatigue mat during my
move. It came from the back alley; I had to trim away the
parts torn up by truck traffic. It had all the advantages of
carpet scrap (zero cost) as well as the cleanability of
rubber. Too bad it was irregular, but so am I, so why did I
throw it away? Silly boy.

regards,
--le