Proper Floor Matting is an Investment in Health and Safety

Most of us have heard of LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification. Created by the US Green Building Council, it was initially designed to help building owners better understand what is necessary to make their facilities healthier, safer, and more environmentally friendly.

To earn LEED certification, a facility must earn a set number of points, referred to as credits. In an earlier blog, Ways to Select Floor Mats Based on Foot Traffic, we mentioned that 24 pounds of soil can be walked into a facility over a 20-day period just by 1,000 people walking in each day. This is a substantial amount of dust, dirt, moisture, and contaminants, which can become airborne and pollute the indoor air quality. When this happens the health, morale, and productivity of building users can be negatively impacted.

To help prevent this, LEED offers some options, key among them is the following:

"Install permanent entryway systems at least 10 feet (3 meters) long in the primary direction of travel to capture dirt and particulates entering the building at regularly used exterior entrances. Acceptable entryway systems include permanently installed grates, grills, slotted systems that allow for cleaning underneath, rollout mats, and other materials manufactured as entryway systems with equivalent or better performance. Maintain all on a weekly basis."

This tells us that mats are an investment. Not only does an effective matting system help keep soil, moisture, and contaminants outside a facility, reducing their impact on the indoor environment, they help keep the people inside healthy. Crown Matting Technologies offers many cost effective matting solutions to keep your facility clean and promote a healthy environment.

However, mats have proven themselves to be an investment in many other ways as well.

For instance, in 2012, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI) released walkway safety guidelines to help reduce slips, trips, and falls in facilities. Referred to as ANSI/NFSI B101.6, the standard advises cleaning contractors and facility managers on how to select, install, inspect, clean, and care for entrance mats and runners in commercial facilities. 

In order for mats to prove their value, they must be a high-performance matting solution such as ThermoGrip a high-performance, anti-microbial matting, offered by Crown.  While rental mats can help reduce the number of soils that enter a facility and help minimize slips, trips, and falls, they are no match for the effectiveness of ThermoGrip.  Click here to read about why rental mats are not a good solution for your business.

 A Crown Matting Technologies Matting Specialist can guide you in the process of choosing the most effective matting for your building.  Contact Crown Matting Technologies at 800-628-5463 or send us an email.