Most commercial building engineers and facility managers know how important quality, high-performance entry matting can be to the overall health and air quality of their buildings. But in order for matting to do its job effectively, it needs to be maintained!
Here's ten top tips to make your entry matting perform better and last even longer:
Unroll that mat ASAP! Mats that have just arrived have typically been rolled up for shipping, and (if it's fall or...
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Summertime is a great time for cleaning professionals and building managers to review their current cleaning regime. The summer months usually bring gentler weather and less foot traffic with people on summer vacation, giving building managers a chance to test out new cleaning techniques before the fall and winter wetness arrives. To help keep your commercial building - and its occupants - healthy, here's eight quick tips to make the job easier.
Keep your floors in...
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In addition to chemicals and equipment, matting is essential for preventing slips, trips and falls in commercial facilities.
A proper mat program should start at each entrance to the building, not just the front lobby. Mats placed there can dress up the lobby, but they will also help keep dirt, water and foreign debris from getting tracked into the facility. The more contaminants that get trapped at each outdoor entrance, the less risk there is for slip-and-fall...
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Did you know that the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI) have combined their expertise to formally define safety regulations with respect to commercial entrance matting? To help make the regulations easier to meet, they have also developed standards to simplify processes for facility managers. This ANSI/NFSI B101.6-2012 “Standard Guide For Commercial Entrance Matting In Reducing Slips, Trips And Falls” can be broken down into three areas:
Purpose
Scope
Application
The purpose of the...
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It's always a good idea to have entrance matting at your building's portals, but are your mats truly working as hard as they should be for you? Here's seven points on which you should be evaluating your current entrance matting situation to make sure that you're getting the best bang for your buck.
Placement. Entrance matting needs to be placed in the right areas of a building to be effective. The most obvious spot is the...
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Commercial property managers have a responsibility to ensure that their buildings are kept clean and safe, both for staff and for the general public. Did you know that there actually are formal standards governing the use of entrance matting for commercial properties?
Section 6 of the ANSI/NFSI B101.6-2012 “Standard Guide For Commercial Entrance Matting In Reducing Slips, Trips And Falls” emphasizes that it is the property manager’s responsibility to not just select the right type of entrance matting for...
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Most property managers know that floor matting should be placed at building entrances, but did you know that there are other kinds of mats for other areas in your building? Different mats serve different purposes, and there are more areas in your building that need matting besides your front door!
Here's a few spots in your commercial facility or industrial building that you may have overlooked when considering your matting needs:
Guide visitors to your building with...
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Did you know that there are formal, codified standards for entrance matting for commercial buildings? And that the building engineer and/or property management company is responsible for the selection and deployment of adequate entrance matting to meet these standards?
Section 6 of the ANSI/NFSI B101.6-2012 “Standard Guide For Commercial Entrance Matting In Reducing Slips, Trips And Falls” emphasizes that it is the facility manager’s responsibility to choose the proper type of entrance matting, and also to have sufficient entrance...
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Did you know that your entryway matting can contribute up to 2 points towards your building's LEED certification?
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) requirements are standard practices for purchasing and designing with environmentally friendly materials for a building. Points are used to measure how "green" a building is in specific areas of design and construction. The sum of all these points determine the scale of LEED Certification in a building.
To qualify for one of the...
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If you're responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of a commercial property, you already know that there's more to entrance matting than the average person thinks! There's a wide variety of different entrance matting products and styles, each with its own performance envelope, intended use, and construction style. Here's a list of ten matting terms that every professional property manager should know:
Wiper/Dryer: Wiper mats (or dryer mats) are textile mats for indoor use only. They're...
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Did you know that American National Standards Institute (ANSI) B101 Committee on Slip, Trip and Fall Prevention has an official document describing walkway safety standards for commercial buildings?
The ANSI/NFSI B101.6-2012 "Standard Guide For Commercial Entrance Matting In Reducing Slips, Trips And Falls" provides criteria for the selection, installation, inspection, care and maintenance of entrance mats and runners in commercial facilities. The goal of these standards is to reduce slip and fall accidents, tripping hazards, and other...
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Slip and fall accidents are a serious problem for building operators that have publicly-accessible areas. We've all been out shopping on a rainy day and have seen those yellow cones warning us of a wet floor, but is that enough to satisfy a building operator's duty to floor safety?
There's a yellow warning cone, but can you spot what's missing that would have prevented this customer's slip and fall accident?
That's right - there's no entrance matting! It's easy...
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