Floor Mats: The Most Overlooked Areas Within Facilities

What are some of the most overlooked areas of the facility where matting should be considered?

A typical matting program consists of matting 10 feet outside the facility, 10 feet within the vestibule and another 10 feet inside the entrance. However, facility managers should contemplate matting programs beyond the first 30 feet of a building to ensure maximum protection and coverage. For example, buildings that have common walkways or paths through a lobby or entryway should consider the implementation of a custom-cut matting system.
Additional considerations for a comprehensive matting system include the installation of anti-fatigue matting in areas where people are standing for a long period of time or anti-slip or grip matting in areas that experience wet floors.
— Rochelle Quandt, Market Development Manager, 3M Commercial Solutions

The benefits of matting include protecting visitors and occupants from harm, building owners from liability, and interior flooring surfaces from damage. The entrance is the first and most obvious place to realize matting benefits but there are other areas throughout a facility where it can be advantageous as well.
Beyond the entrance, it is important to install matting in areas where water or liquids are prone to spills or accumulate on flooring. Consider matting in front of the coffee stations in break rooms, beneath drinking fountains in corridors, in shower areas and locker rooms, and surrounding indoor pools.
Durable contract flooring can accommodate high foot traffic, wheeled chairs and carts. These hard-wearing benefits also typically mean that it’s not that comfortable to stand on for long periods of time. Anti-fatigue matting provides insulation from cold flooring and reduces stress and fatigue in joints and muscles for employees that spend most of their days standing. Workers that stand at a cash register in a store, a teller’s station in a bank, behind a reception desk at a hotel, or at a nurse’s station in a hospital can benefit from using anti-fatigue matting.
In buildings that have reception or information desks, visitors can cause wear in that one spot where they stand to speak with receptionists. Matting will also wear over time, but it’s much easier and more economical to replace a mat rather than an entire floor, or even part of the floor.
Gymnasium flooring is a large investment for schools, universities, and community centers. Wood flooring is not only costly to install, but also to repair and maintain. There are three types of matting needed for protecting a wood floor investment.
1.  Place matting at the gym’s entrance to defend the wood flooring from dirt particles and debris that erode the polyurethane finish. These types of mats are ideal for including the school logo, team name or mascot.
2.  For some sports, often basketball, folding chairs are placed in front of bleachers for the coach, members of the team and/or VIPs. This can cause indentation, scrapes and scratches to the flooring surface. Placing sideline mats underneath folding chairs will help prevent damage. This is another good opportunity to incorporate a logo on the matting.
3.  Many gymnasiums are not just for sports, they are also used for school and community functions. Large, easy-to-handle mats are used to cover the sports surface during non-sporting events. Chairs, tables, and high heeled shoes that accompany dances, ceremonies and other functions can wreak havoc on wood flooring. Gym floor cover matting is more rigid than plastic sheet covers to provide safer and more appealing wood floor protection.
— JoAnn Durette, Vice President of Marketing, Mats, Inc.

Managers should observe and note where the heaviest traffic patterns occur and pay extra attention to those areas. Good mats will increase the coefficient of friction wherever they are placed. After entrance ways, some often overlooked areas include: water fountains, restrooms (under urinals, sinks, and hand dryers), outside showers, and any transition areas where one floor surface changes over to another.
— Dan Silver, Vice President of Product Development, New Pig

Other areas are anti-fatigue where security personnel stand, anti-slip kitchen matting, and gym matting to protect gym floors during presentations.
— Mitchell Saltzman, President, Proform

Why is it important to have matting that starts outside facility entrances, between entrance doors (breezeway) and stretches into entry lobbies?

A great situation is to have 30 feet of matting before someone hits the facility floor – starting with an open-back matting system 10 feet outside the facility, 10 feet in the breezeway, and 10 feet of rubber-back matting inside the building. By doing that, facility managers can help ensure that most of the debris – including salt, dirt and dust – are removed by the matting without people having to stand and scrape their shoes off.
— Rochelle Quandt, Market Development Manager, 3M Commercial Solutions

It is correct to think of matting as a multi-step system. Outside the facility is where aggressively textured scraper mats are needed to remove the majority of ice, snow, mud, or dirt from shoes. Better to scrape the big chunks off before ever passing through the doors. Inside the entrance way, absorbent matting is needed to remove dust and light dirt and to dry the bottom of the shoes to provide safe walk-off to the interior areas of the facility. Then, inside the facility, it is important to have mats that provide high traction surfaces in any area that could be subject to moisture.
— Dan Silver, Vice President of Product Development, New Pig

The more matting the more dirt and dust is removed. An exterior mat is a great place to start removing dirt and sand. It's also a great place to improve the appearance of the entry with a great logo.
— Mitchell Saltzman, President, Proform