Canal Rubber Supl Co Inc

I’ve been here a few times and it’s a pretty cool, old school New York shop. I remember the sign from when Canal at was still Canal St. With all the radio shops, hardware stores ect. But this is one of the hold outs. If you need anything rubber they have it or they can get it. It’s isn’t really a place for browsing but if you know what you want it’s good. The folks there were helpful, I had a few questions at first and was guided in the right direction. They were busy (which is good) so it did take a minute or two to get help. But it was meaningful help.
And for the guys who were talking about the shop not being open on their posted hours; with small businesses it’s always a good idea to phone ahead to make sure somebody is there. Sometimes there is only one person on duty and if that person has an emergency then the shop might not open.
Just saying.

My go to for all my rubber/​foam needs. Nice family run small business. Great prices and service.

I needed to make a seat cushion for a bench. My daughter sews. She also reupholstered her furniture. She told me if I purchased the foam rubber needed for the seat, and the material to cover it, she would make the upholstered seat cover for me. I searched the Internet and found Canal Rubber and Foam. I took the measurements in and explained to them what I was trying to do. They found a nice piece of heavy dense rubber to my liking. Then they cut it to the specifications I gave them. I felt the price was very reasonable. They also rolled it up and tied it so I could easily carry it home on the bus or train.
If I need anything for this type of project I will be sure to go back to them!

The sales staff was incredibly patient and helpful. The guy talked me into buying something significantly less expensive than I thought I needed and the cheaper option worked out just fine. Very trustful. I highly recommend this place.

This is the second time I’ve ordered custom cut foam from Canal Rubber. On both occasions I’ve experienced excellent customer service and a creative approach to my requested cut, which in this last project, cut my costs by half. (And their prices already are lower than the other suppliers I investigated.)
Double thumbs up from me!

We needed to replace the foam on an older couch.
The owner went to a lot of trouble explaining the pros and cons of the different types of foam. He was both patient and thorough –customer care from another era.
When we asked for any suggestions for upholsterers he told us about Lee one of his employees who does this work on the side. Lee did a great job delivering the finished article with our fabric. Highly recommended.

This place is ok in a fix, but its tiny, congested and not very clean. My biggest issue with them is that they open and close whenever they feel like it and don’t observe their posted hours of operations. More than once I’ve been there during posted business hours to find them closed. Just yesterday I went in all the way from Queens, arrived at 3PM and they were closed — No signs, no explanations. This is really inconsiderate to your customers. I try to avoid going there and will only go to them in a pinch.

My couch cushions were getting saggy and I wasn’t ready to replace the whole couch. So I googled it and based on the excellent Unilocal reviews I made a trip into Chinatown to check out Canal rubber. Sort of an «interesting» place inside. But the young man who helped me was very informative and explained the various options. I can’t comment on price since I didn’t shop around but based on this one experience I would definitely recommend this business.

Went to Canal Rubber to replace the too soft foam sofa cushions. Lee was incredibly helpful — and patient — answering all my questions. I priced the same foam cushions at another place and found Canal to have much better prices. I made a second trip to buy the cushions and batting, which were cut perfectly to size while I waited. Even got help getting the cushions into the covers which meant less hassle for me. Win-​Win!

I had purchased a fancy, super expensive (in the ball park of $ 3,000!) mattress from a mattress store in Manhattan in 2008. My husband (still my boyfriend at the time) was hesitant from the beginning and thought it was too soft. I should have listened to him. Within a few days of making that big purchase, I felt that my back was not getting proper support, but it was too late — I couldn’t return it and I couldn’t afford to throw it away!
I suffered with my expensive mattress for three years. I then enrolled in graduate school and between the stress of school and the pain in my back, I felt like my body was breaking down. For many months, I actually had a vertebra that was sticking out of my spine in my lower-​mid spine area. It was painful to the touch and after trips to the chiropractor, I finally decided that I had to bite the bullet and get a new mattress.
I started asking friends about their mattresses and I took a little poll. Recommendations were all over the map, but a few people talked about memory foam mattresses. I was unwilling to make another expensive mistake, and I decided to go a more affordable route: Canal Rubber in Manhattan.
I went there and told them that I wanted a Queen sized mattress. A young man helped me. He had a piece of foam (smaller than a mattress but big enough for me to lie on) that he placed on the floor and I laid down on it to get a general idea of what it may feel like to sleep on.
I was afraid that the foam actually had the potential to be too hard (I did not want the pendulum to swing the other way!) and so I expressed my concerns, and he suggested a memory foam topper. I think they had a few options about thickness, but I decided to go with the three-​inch memory foam topper, thinking that I could try the mattress both with the topper and without, and it would not be too much money lost if I decided not to use it.
I did not want to spend money (I know I sound so cheap here!) to get the mattress delivered to my apartment, so I borrowed a car and we attempted to fold the mattress and sort of shoved it into the car — this was NOT easy — and not really recommended for a Queen sized mattress, but I did save the money. (Had I purchased a Twin sized, this would have been more easily done)
In total with my foam mattress, topper, and cover, I think I spent less than a third of what I had spent on my old Kingsdown.
Long story short, I have now been sleeping on my foam mattress for three full years, so I can write a proper review. I am a petite woman (5′) with a bad back (apparently!) and my husband is 6′ without back problems. We are both very happy with this mattress. We have it on a platform bed. We keep the three inch topper on it — the topper makes it the thickness of a regular mattress. I think that without the topper, our bed may look oddly low to the ground.
That weird vertebrae sticking out of my back subsided within a few weeks of sleeping with proper support. Although my husband does not suffer with my back issues, he agrees that the foam mattress and memory foam topper are great for his back as well.
We have moved apartments twice since we purchased this mattress, and we keep taking it with us. I feel comfortable saying that this foam mattress and topper make for one of the best purchases I have made in my adult life. I wish I had bought it sooner.

The staff was helpful and they had a good selection of foam, rubber and odds and ends. They didn’t seem to know much about basic techniques like tufting, but otherwise were able to answer questions about foam density for different furniture types.

This is actually my first Unilocal review, but I had to post one after the great experience I had with these guys. The polar vortex had me looking for ways to weatherproof my drafty, freezing apartment, but I wasn’t coming up with a lot of options that weren’t super expensive, doable in a rental, etc. A friend who lives in the neighborhood suggested that I check out this place, and it didn’t disappoint. I went in not knowing exactly what I was looking for, and Matt was able to direct me towards a couple of different, easy-​to-​use weatherstripping options. He asked several questions about the different parts of my apartment where air might be coming in (I have a through-​wall AC, big window, etc) and he was able to find me a product for each of these areas. Not only was the price right and everything super easy to install (literally took about 5 minutes), but Matt seemed genuinely interested in helping me. His father was there and weighed in a little too.
Problem solved, and I love that this is a small family business (way too few of those around in NYC anymore). If you need anything involving rubber, check them out!

This is an appealing slice of old New York, with old proprietors (I think), an old building and lots of cool materials. Service was very personable and pleasant and what I got was perfect for my purposes: 2 custom cut pieces of foam to bolster a sagging couch.

I came here to get some material to pad some low hanging pipes in my apartment that I have hit my head on one too many times. They had what I needed.
I met a guy here who buys foam and rubber to make costumes. I’m supposed to go and see him in a performance at an off Broadway theater. Pretty cool.
They also sell mattress material here for those of you who are into «doing it yourself». I haven’t bought any but it looks pretty legit.

The man running this place is very rude. I talked to him all of 2 minutes and he said he can’t chat long. Instead of getting another associate to help me, he walked away from me and left me there. I still didn’t know what I was buying for my situation, I needed their expertise. So I talked to a younger man who helped me out and he was nice.
At the register, I asked if they do returns and the young guy there said yes. Then the man who runs the place said he would like to interject and said that I can’t just try something and then decide to bring it back if it doesn’t work. So, what they said to me essentially is that they do returns, it is their policy, but they are discriminating against me and saying that I can’t? I find this completely shady.
He then said he was trying to help and I was not listening and he has other things to do. I don’t understand where he got that from cause again, we talked for about a minute and a half at most and I still didn’t know what material I was supposed to buy for my situation.
I don’t respect businesses that take my money and are unwilling to work with my needs/​questions and discriminate against who can make returns even though they have a return policy.

The gentlemen working here are very helpful and knowledgeable. They did not seem put off by my unsophisticated questions. The prices for the two items I purchased were reasonable.

After living in downtown manhattan for 30 years, I only discovered this store last October (2011) while trying to put together a halloween costume. My original thinking was Pearl Paint. While I was able to find some items there, the prices were relatively high at P. P– I looked all around stores in Tribeca/​Chinatown/​fashion district to no avail… After walking in to this rubber store (I randomly found it during my journey), I was immediately inspried by ideas. I made an amazing costume for my girlfriend and I (we were lego people). The prices were inexpensive. This year I am making some different costumes and again found exactly what I needed here. There seems to be more than just rubber, or at least the materials that I found I wouldn’t have considered to be rubber.
My «only complaint» was that this store didn’t seem to be open on the weekends. But I just called and I was wrong– they are open on Saturdays from 9 – 3:45PM.
I also agree that its great to see mom and pop type shops survive… particularly on Canal street where there are a ton of knock off stores and high rents. Hope that this store can stay in business for many years to come!
I’ll be going back there tomorrow.

Do NOT get a mattress here! I ordered on the phone based on good reviews & salesman’s description, even though price was higher than on website & delivery charge was excessive. Mattress felt like hard packing material & even though it had not been used or even taken out of plastic wrapper, they refused to make any adjustment whatever. My bad!

First of all, just to set the record straight: I am not into rubber. I ain’t playa’ hatin’, I just don’t swing that way, so don’t send me creepy messages about this review people.
I tried to source some specialized tchotchkes the other day and thought these guys would be worth a shot. Great place, well stocked and totally comprehensive inventory. An artist friend of mine told me that they will even do custom fabrications. Well, long story short, they did not have what I needed. Why the review? The clerk was so helpful and courteous, he gave me his full and undivided attention and even recommended a competitor as an alternative. Super classy, eyes forward.
I would definitely shop this place if I needed rubber stuff.

Before I heard of this place, most of the time, I get my rubber and latex from European countries. Never did I thought there is a rubber store located in NYC. I admit it took a lot of research until I found this place. Actually, it was a photographer who told me that there a place called Canal Rubber that sells latex sheeting for people like myself who were interested in working with the material.
The store is located in an «industrial commercial» area where they sell signs for stores, commercial kitchen supplies, etc. The Canal rubber store is raised by two steps which raised the store by two feet. Upon entering, you can smell the rubber in the air. It smelled almost like rubber tires.
This store actually sells rubber mats, tubings of all sorts and sizes and anything that is made of rubber, they might have. I came here specifically for latex sheet. Because the prices of the latex sheet was a bit pricey, I hesitated to buy too much before I try it out first. The first time I came here, I bought one yard of the .3mm navy blue latex sheet, 1 yard of the .3mm white latex sheet and half a yard of the .45mm (thicker) transparent latex sheet. I went home to construct some things out of it and I have to say the quality is superb!
I came back for more latex sheeting the following day. ^_​^ The only thing I would suggest of Canal Rubber is that they carry more colors. I know nothing about the other products of the store and while the prices of the latex sheeting is a bit on the higher end, the quality of the latex is pretty good and worth the buck especially if you need it right away and don’t want to wait a month to get it imported from Europe.