Five signs it’s time to switch up your entrance matting
If excess dirt, debris and moisture in your building’s entrance is posing a potential health and safety hazard, it’s time to rethink and replace your entrance matting.
1. There’s moisture beyond the building’s front door
If employees and visitors are tracking in excess water every time it rains, your mat may have lost its ability to remove moisture – or you may not have the best entry mat for your environment. Buildings in locations with frequent rain or poor drainage need commercial entrance matting that can absorb large amounts of moisture, as well as reduce the amount of dirt that’s walked or rolled into the building.
Try: Gateway Plus, which combines an aggressive tread pattern that scrapes shoes and wheels clean with heavy-duty absorbent carpet inserts that remove and dry moisture.
2. Dirt and debris is frequently tracked inside
Did you know that up to 80% of debris in your building comes in on shoes or wheels? Your entrance matting should be powerful enough to stop this unwanted dirt and debris in its tracks but if you’re noticing dirty footprints or the maintenance team is needing to clean more often, it’s time to replace.
For the best entry mat solutions, look for an integrated entrance system with an aggressive tread pattern that scrapes shoes clean, plus an open-grid that traps and collects the unwanted dirt. This winning combination will prevent unwanted debris from being walked in, effectively protecting internal floor finishings and reducing cleaning costs.
Size is important too. You want entrance matting that’s custom fit for your building’s specific needs, environment and dimensions, and allows for both feet, and the full circumference of wheels to travel over the mat when walking or rolling into the building. We often recommend an entrance mat extend at least 6ft (about 1.8m) from the entryway for effective dirt removal, as that should comfortably allow for two steps and the full rotation of a wheel.
Try: Gateway XT, our extra slip-resistant entrance mat designed to tackle large amounts of dirt and debris. It can also be used inside and out, making it the best commercial entrance mat or external walkway matting for high traffic buildings.
3. The existing mat is difficult to clean
Maintaining and cleaning your entrance matting shouldn’t be a chore. In fact, regular daily vacuuming and a thorough monthly clean is all you should need to do to keep your entrance mat in tip-top shape.
If these regular cleaning tasks are taking longer than they used to or it’s getting harder to remove dirt and debris even with regular vacuuming, this is a telltale sign that it’s time to replace your mat.
It's vital that your mat is easy to clean, because if you don't remove the dirt and debris that the mat is trapping, it will just build up and fill the mat grid, and sit on the surface of the mat. This means the mat will actually put MORE dirt on people’s shoes as they walk in, instead of scraping it off.
The flexible, one-piece construction of our Gateway entrance mats means they can be easily lifted or rolled for cleaning, and the open grid allows trapped dirt to be quickly removed via vacuuming – no special cleaning tools or products needed.
4. Visitors and employees complain about slippery surfaces
Slipping and tripping is one of the common causes of injuries in the workplace, with slips, trips or falls accounting for around 20 percent of the cost to businesses for workplace injuries (over $11 billion!), and the average employee involved in an incident missing an average 38 work-days.
The right commercial entrance mat plays a crucial role in preventing accidents for members of the public and your workforce. The average cost of a slip, trip or fall injury is $20,000 (and the cost to defend a slip of fall claim is $50,000!), so at the first sign that moisture is being walked inside the building and making floors hazardous, it’s time to look for a replacement.
Your new entrance matting should have an aggressive tread surface for extra grip underfoot, plus an open grid for excellent drainage. This combination will help to improve safety underfoot, remove moisture and debris from the entranceway before they can cause harm, and also provide thermal and acoustical enhancement.
5. The transition from mat to floor is no longer smooth
Whether you have a little or a lot of wheeled traffic, it’s imperative to provide a smooth transition from the front door all the way inside the building. This means a surface that’s free of obstructions, and is either securely fixed to the floor or has ramped edges.
Made from flexible PVC, our Gateway range can be cut to fit any entrance, with the option to install the matting in two secure ways:
1. In a recessed mat well, to provide level and smooth transitions between the entrance matting and the surrounding environment.
2. Surface mounted, with the option of two different ramped edges (PVC and aluminum). If you need something more flexible that can be moved with ease, you can also choose from modules with ramped PVC walkway edging.
