Entrance mats can make a great deal of difference to your business. The right mat can be a great way of adding a touch of style and professionalism to your space, accenting your foyer/entrance aesthetics but, most importantly, it must help to keep the rest of your premises clean and dry by wicking away moisture and dirt from the soles of shoes.
Choosing the right entrance mat for your business can sometimes seem a little daunting – there’s so many options and variables – so read on for our quick guide.
Table of Contents
What makes a good entrance mat?
Any entrance mat, whether for home or business use, should do a couple of basic jobs. First, it should clean and dry the shoes of people walking over it – absorbing rain and brushing/retaining dirt, debris and mud. Second, it should provide a safe, slip-free surface for people treading on it. It’s the additional features that make a mat ‘good’. These might include the way the mat looks, how comfortable it is to stand on and how easy it is to keep clean and well maintained.
The three areas
You can look at your business entrance as split into three areas – the ground directly outside your premises, the floor immediately after the threshold, and a tertiary zone further in. Budget permitting, the best option from a health and safety perspective is to have matting in all three areas: rubber or nitrile on the outside, a heavy-duty door-mat just inside to scrape and brush the bulk of water and dirt away, and a softer, more absorbent material further in to capture the last of the damp and dust. This is not always feasible, though, as the cost of purchasing or leasing three mats and then maintaining and cleaning three different materials can be prohibitive.
As a result, most businesses will opt for just one mat, positioned in the area just inside the threshold. In this case, you’ll want matting material that combines features from all three areas – a good, non-slip surface with great drying and brushing/cleaning features.
Door types
A key factor in determining what kind of mat you get is the type of entrance your building has. There are three main types of door used in business environments: push/pull, revolving and sliding. Your mat will need to fit the kind of door you have, paying close attention to the amount of clearance available (you can’t get a super-deep pile like a coir mat if you have a very close-fitting door) and the shape of the doorway.
Matting materials
There is a broad range of materials used for different kinds of entrance mats, but the most popular are:
Coir, or coconut matting, which provides best-in-class drying and cleaning. It’s a seriously tough material with a deep, fibrous pile that you often see in high traffic areas – country pubs, for example – and older buildings.
Nylon is the low-pile alternative to coir. It’s very good at moisture control and resists staining, making it great for very high-traffic spots like shopping centre entrances, hotel lobbies and airports. Businesses tend to use nylon over coir as it is a lot easier to keep clean – you can sweep or vacuum a low pile nylon mat much, much quicker than you can a dense and tangled coir mat.
Polypropylene mats are great at dealing with dust and dry debris, though they’re less good with moisture. You’ll see these mats a lot in retail and office settings, as they are a cheaper alternative to nylon or coir.
Rubber/nitrile matting is typically used externally as it doesn’t suffer from UV or rain damage. Rubber is particularly good at draining away rain water if the matting is designed well (plenty of perforations or a gridded finish, for example). This kind of mat is designed to provide a slip-free surface rather than to clean or dry the sole of the shoe.
Microfibre matting is the modern alternative to cotton – it absorbs moisture and traps dirt very well, and dries out in a third of the time that a cotton mat would. A bonus for this type of mat is that you can get them in plenty of colour and shape combinations to match your aesthetic.
Fit
Having an entrance mat that doesn’t fit the doorway renders it less effective and can also make the entrance to your business look unprofessional and messy. Your mat should be at least as wide as your doorway and have enough length to allow people to comfortably take at least one step with each foot at a regular pace. If you have a revolving door, you’ll want a mat that curves with your doorway.
Matwell mats are a particularly good option for high-traffic areas. This matting sits in a recess (or ‘well’, hence the name) forming a walkable surface that sits flush with the adjacent flooring.
Aesthetics
It might seem obvious, but lighter colours tend to show dirt and moisture a lot more clearly than darker ones. That can be managed by cleaning and replacing your matting more frequently, but it’s a big investment of time and money – the vast majority of businesses will benefit more from a darker colour. Some companies will make you a mat with your business logo on it, which can really make an impression on visitors and customers.
The underside
It’s very easy to focus all your attention on the upper surface of your mat – after all that’s what people see and stand on. The underside is just as important though, as it needs to ‘stick’ to the floor or it will slide around and become more of a hazard than a help. Make sure your mat has a grip-surface on the underside, and if you are using a matwell mat, make sure that it is properly and securely fitted.
