Commercial mats don’t just make your premises look good; they can overhaul your business. If you think this sounds farfetched, then read on.
If you want a product which can make your building safer, reduce hazards, prevent accidents, make your premises cleaner, create a good first impression and enhance the wellbeing of your staff, then look no further than a commercial mat.
Non-slip, shock-absorbing mats enhance health and safety, brush matting helps to remove shoe dirt and reduce cleaning bills and logo mats can extend your branding and communicate important messages. In just a few examples, we’ve already demonstrated that floor mats are much more than just a pretty face.
Matting can play a key part in the floorcare routine of the building you care for, and also help to look after your staff, customers and visitors.
Industrial rubber matting and non-slip mats for kitchens, washrooms and areas where spillages can happen can prove essential when it comes to health and safety; protecting against slips and reducing water spillage hazards to keep the area cleaner and safer. As well as protecting your colleagues, commercial mats also help to protect floors from long-term damage caused from water and dirt. The alternative is allowing your floor tiles or floorboards to become quickly tired, worn and damaged requiring potentially costly repairs or even needing replacement.
A loose lay mat is a floormat which can be placed wherever needed, as a permanent or temporary solution. They are easily re-sited and can be periodically removed for deep cleaning. Alternatively, dirt trapper mats can be cut to size as a permanent solution for mat wells or on any floor area and are an excellent choice for entrance matting. As the name suggests, they are designed to remove dirt and moisture from shoes and preventing them from being walked into – and throughout – buildings.
Why do I need industrial matting?
A commercial mat has a range of purposes and more benefits than you may think. It can be a helping hand in many situations and is easy to maintain.
Durability and effectiveness are two of the main characteristics of a good commercial mat. They must cope with not only removing foot-borne or wheel-borne dirt but also keeping hold of it so that it doesn’t spread through the floors of your building or, indeed through the air. When you consider that as much as 85% of outdoor contaminants are brought into a building within the first four steps taken inside, suddenly the role of the entrance mat becomes indispensable. They are designed to be tough enough to handle a potentially large footfall while capturing dirt and moisture from footwear as the wearer walks across the mat – and contain it so it’s not spread throughout your building.
Therefore, we can see how an entrance mat makes a building look better, smell better, saves on cleaning jobs and resources as well as even improving air quality by capturing contaminants and dust on entry. And let’s not forget how much all of this will save you on your building’s cleaning costs too.
When deciding what kind of mat is suitable for which location, assistance is available from leading commercial mat suppliers, such as phs’ floorcare division and our entrance matting experts Syncros. Not only can we supply and deliver a huge range of specialist industrial matting, we can also provide regular servicing and cleaning. This takes the onus of mat maintenance away from you, so you can be assured that your mats are doing the job they’re meant to and continue to look good and perform effectively day after day, no matter what your staff and visitors throw at them.
A commercial mat for all seasons
As if this wasn’t enough, commercial mats continue to offer more benefits. They are both versatile and multifunctional. As well as providing the key features of dirt management and creating a great first impression for both staff and customers entering your building, matting can also help with other workplace situations – averting potential inconveniences, mitigating against unsafe conditions and creating a positive impact for building users.
- Stopping dirt before the door – we’ve already talked about how cut-to-size dirt trappers can guard your building from street dirt, rainwater and grime. However, you can enhance your entranceway cleanliness even further through rubber outdoor mats and heavy duty door mats outside your building which can stop a good deal of dirt even reaching the front door in the first place. Used in conjunction with quality brush matting, you’ll find that daily floorcare is much more manageable, even in cold and wet months.
- Soothing back and leg pain – being on your feet for long periods of time can cause aching muscles, not to mention poor morale. However, you can help combat this through comfort mats. Anti-fatigue matting offers cushioning and ergonomic properties to transform the experience of an employee who has to be on their feet for long periods of time. These mats minimises leg fatigue and even reduces noise at work for the ultimate in safety, comfort and protection.
- Preventing tumbles – slips, trip and falls, one of the most common causes of workplace accidents, can be guarded against by the use of a shock-absorbing mat or a non-slip mat for kitchens, washrooms and other areas where spillages can make floors slippery. It’s not just an entrance way that can become wet as a matter of course; so can kitchen areas and canteens due to spillages or splashes from sinks as well as washrooms around both sinks and hand dryers.
- Providing a warm welcome – as well as their practical functions, commercial mats keep your building looking good and give the impression of a well-presented premises where the business owners take pride in their operations. Branded logo mats can communicate your corporate image and a feeling that the organisation is confident of the way it supplies its product or service. With so many colours, textures, shapes and sizes available, you can truly design a bespoke mat which will both serve its purpose and suit your business.
- Sharing information – Branded mats can also be used as message mats; welcoming visitors, reminding staff or customers of required or recommended actions, promoting offers or providing directions.
- Mitigating mess – absorbent mats are needed to soak up water and spillages in lots of different areas. For example, vending mats can capture drinking water or hot beverage splashes, and washroom hand dryer mats absorb drops of water which fall as users dry their hands. Keeping liquids off the floor helps reduce cleaning time and the risk of slipping.
- Keeping staff and visitors safe – messaging mats with text, images or arrows as well or simply different coloured standard mats can indicate different zones within your building. This may be used to designate departments, denote access, PPE requirements, or to help direct a one-way system for COVID or crowd management. With a range of options available, you can be innovative with your mats whether it’s to communicate with your staff or customers or simply by adding flair to your building.
- Cleaning up the ocean – As if all the benefits above weren’t enough, the ECONYL range of mats offered by phs and Syncros also help to tackle ocean plastic pollution. They are made of discarded fishing nets which are rescued from the ocean and transformed into a regenerated nylon which is both durable and makes a positive impact on our oceans, helping to protect marine life.
There are plenty more reasons why you might need to install any one of a number of different commercial mats. Whether that be entrance mats, anti-fatigue mats, rubber outdoor mats, industrial rubber matting or brush matting, there’s always the right mat for the right place.
Get in touch with phs to make sure that you’re realising all of the tangible benefits you can from the simple but mighty floormat.
