Mental mapping of spaces and objects within them is essential for orientation and mobility. Most people use their visual channel to create and form mental maps of spaces, but this is not always available owing to situational or environmental factors, or visual impairment. Research has explored various haptic devices for navigating an environment by warning of obstacles and offering directions. However, none of these approaches help the user to understand their environment and the relative position of items in it. This paper seeks to address this gap, drawing on prior work on social haptic communication (SHC) developed in the deafblind community to investigate whether vibrotactile patterns delivered through a commercially available haptic vest can effectively support recipients in developing a mental model of the spatial layout of the environment. Existing signs from SHC for five common objects were converted into vibrotactile patterns to be displayed. This was combined with radial co-ordinates given using the location and intensity of vibration to represent direction and distance respectively. An experiment was conducted in which participants were presented with sets of objects and their co-ordinates. No difference in performance was found between the use of the vibrotactile method and the same information presented in a verbal form. Participants found the object and direction signs easy to recognize, though use of varying intensity for distance was less successful. We conclude that the use of SHC signs and direction information can be used to help build a mental map of an environment and warrants further study.