Yes, it's correct that a heel strap is useless without ESD flooring or mats in place.

@DaveTweed Thank you for the confirmation.

ESD protocols do have some cost, but as a single bench user yours is minimal. By the time you add the cost of wrist straps and possibly heel/ankle straps and anti-static bags and bins and tools (grounded solder irons) you may have spent a few hundred, so a small anti-static floor mat is extra protection at a low cost.

@Sparky256 So just putting a wrist strap around one of my ankles is not a valid substitute? Also, how much coverage of the floor do I need with the mats? Do I only need to cover the area under which I sit, or do I need to cover the entire bench area?

If you keep your trays of parts and often-used test equipment close by then your mat needs to be no larger then the distance to these objects. Yes you can wrist-strap your ankle but your now tied to your location, and it will pull out if you move without disconnecting it. I sense your trying to keep this budget very small, so just buy what gets you by to start with, then add more later on. NO MFG plant started out with 100% of what it needed up front.

@Sparky256 It is a large workbench, so I am planning to just place equipment (oscilloscope, power supply, parts, etc.) on the other side of the bench, against the wall. So I can reach it all by just bending over the workbench to reach it. In this case, do I need the entire area underneath the workbench to having ESD matting, or is it sufficient to just have matting for the area underneath where I am seated?

The mat should allow you to reach most things if you have to get up and walk a step or two. If way oversized it is wasted money, but normally you buy pre-cut sizes then trim to fit

@Sparky256 Hmm, I already have one of those large rolls that need to be cut oritech.com.au/dual-layer-esd-mats-techspec.html, but I thought that these are only for the top of the workbench. Looking at floor ESD mats au.rs-online.com/web/p/esd-safe-mats/4661643, they seem to have a plug and require being plugged into the ESD bench mount to be grounded; but the large rolls that need to be cut don't have such a plug, so I assumed that they were only for the top of the workbench and not for floor use. That is why I thought that I had to buy separate floor-specific ESD mats.

@Sparky256 I have one of these oritech.com.au/esd-table-mat-with-ground-cord-techspec.html, in addition to this oritech.com.au/dual-layer-esd-mats-techspec.html. Do I need to place oritech.com.au/esd-table-mat-with-ground-cord-techspec.html on top of oritech.com.au/dual-layer-esd-mats-techspec.html when working on the bench? Because, if not, then could I can take the table mat oritech.com.au/esd-table-mat-with-ground-cord-techspec.html , plug it into the bench ESD mount, and use it as a floor mat?

@ThePointer I don't think table mats are designed for the kind of wear and tear from supporting the pressures of chairs and body weight. You do not need to stack table mats.

@DKNguyen Hmm, ok. Thanks for the clarification.

@ThePointer You've not held an ESD mat in your hands yet but it is similar to a heavy dinner placemat or shelf liner. Far flimsier than the flimsiest rugs or welcome mats I have ever seen. If it's just you alone, you might be able to get away with it if you walked on it barefoot (no need for a ground strap either), but the pressure of your chair wheels will destroy it.

@DKNguyen I will be the only one using it, and will be walking on it barefoot or sitting on a wooden stool on top of it (no wheels). So if I just use these oritech.com.au/dual-layer-esd-mats-techspec.html mats for the flooring and bench top, then they don't require a grounding strap, and the only other grounding strap I need is my wrist strap attached to the ESD bench mount?

@ThePointer Stool legs would destroy it too unless you got some weird kind of stool with a single large foot that spread it's weight out over its entire footprint. Floor mats need a ground strap. I meant you don't need a heel strap because you know...barefoot.

@DKNguyen Oh, ok. But oritech.com.au/dual-layer-esd-mats-techspec.html specifically as a bench mat does not require to be connected to any grounding, since the bench itself has an ESD bench mount that I am attached to via the wrist strap?

I don't understand what you mean by the ESD bench mount. The bench might let you plug in a wrist strap but the table mat needs to be grounded too, whether directly or by sitting on a conductive bench surface that is grounded

@DKNguyen oritech.com.au/bench-mounted-grounding-fixture.html is drilled into the wooden workbench. I am then connected to this via my wrist strap. The bench top is covered in oritech.com.au/dual-layer-esd-mats-techspec.html, which I cut to size, but this mat itself does not have any plugs to plug into the bench mount (unlike other bench mats, such as this oritech.com.au/esd-table-mat-with-ground-cord-techspec.html)‌​, so I'm assuming that is fine?

You need to get a grounding kit for the mat. They screw or rivet a metal snap into the mat which connects to a grounding cable which can then run to the wall or to a banana plug that you can plug into the little port on your bench.

@DKNguyen Ahh, ok, that makes sense.

Be careful about product recommendations. That is out of bounds for us.

@Sparky256 No product recommendations. I'm just confused about what general pieces of equipment I need to make this work.