With the wet weather upon us, those plastic yellow “Caution! Wet Floor!” stanchions have popped up like winter’s daffodils in lobbies and stores everywhere. Yet despite how dangerously slippery a wet floor can be (and how expensive a slip-and-fall accident settlement can be!), many businesses don’t actually do something to solve their slippery wet floor problem. A quality entrance matting product not only makes your entrance look better, but it also makes it safer – and helps to cover your liability for slip-and-fall accidents. Commercial entrance matting systems help businesses of all kinds provide a safer, healthier and more attractive environment for their employees, customers, patients, students, tenants, guests and visitors, and these are four of the key benefit areas:
1. Safety – Slip & Fall Accidents
The best kind of entrance matting system is the one that does the best job of cleaning incoming foot traffic. Comprehensive entrance matting systems consist of a variety of products that each perform a specific function: aggressively scraping off dirt, removing additional debris and moisture, and drying any remaining moisture to effectively clean shoes before traffic reaches your interior flooring. Comprehensive matting systems use their pieces in harmony to improve safety and reduce the risk of liability from potential slip and fall accidents. Inferior matting products curl at the edges or slide across your floor, turning a safety benefit into a safety (tripping) hazard! Durable, permanent matting systems with quality backing and heavy duty edging will ensure that mats remain flat and securely in place.
2. Protecting Interior Floor Surfaces
You’ve invested a great deal of time, energy, and money into your interior floors – and entrance matting can help make them maintain their appearance for longer. Dirt, sand, grit, and other environmental contaminates traced in on footwear can contribute to premature wear of your interior tile, stone, and carpet and can greatly increase scuffs, scratches, and other unsightly damage. Trapping these contaminates at the door keeps them off your floors before they can do harm.
3. Lighten the Cleaning Load
It doesn’t take a professional cleaner to know that it’s easier to pick up dirt when it’s in a neat pile rather than strewn all over a room – and the same goes for your entrance. Studies have shown that over 80% of the dirt and debris contaminating a building are tracked in via shoe bottoms – and that it costs (on average) over $500 to remove one pound of distributed dirt! Under typical commercial traffic loads, it takes just 16 linear feet of high quality matting like our Grizzly FX to stop 75% of dirt, dust and moisture from going beyond your building’s entrance. If space allows, installing 30 linear feet of matting will ensure that each foot makes contact with the matting approximately 6 times to remove nearly all of the incoming dirt. This allows for most of the cleaning to occur in one convenient location and less dusting, mopping and vacuuming around the building.
4. One Shot at a First Impression
Your logo is integral to your brand – and your marketing department would relish any extra chance to be in front of your customer’s eyes. Your customers are already looking at your door as they walk up – why not use that opportunity for them to see your logo on your entrance mat as well? A capable entrance matting system allows your facility to present a clean, fresh look to give your clients the right first impression of your business.
