Keeping Your Floors Clean & Safe

Did you know that when you walk into a building, up to 7g of dirt can be carried in on the soles of your shoes, and in wet weather, this amount increases dramatically. Effective entrance barrier matting systems are therefore essential to remove foot borne dirt and help to stop it being carried through your building.

Top tips for protecting your flooring

The best approach is an integrated solution combining a barrier matting installation with a regular floor-cleaning schedule.

Matting

• Ensure your matting is of an adequate size, with at least the first six indoor footsteps taken on matting, with the full width of the doors covered
• Use a proper commercial matting solution for the workplace, small coir or cotton mats may work at home but they won't cope with the volume of traffic in the workplace!
• It may sound obvious, but ensure your barrier mats are correctly sited where the outdoors meets the indoors, and not placed some distance into the building!
• Look at how dirt is entering the building - is it just foot borne, or are open doors allowing dirt to blow in?
• Can the amount of dirt being tracked in be reduced by improving the outdoor environment, e.g. repairing potholes or changing the surfacing of pathways
• Consider the type of dirt being walked in - oil or grease from a workshop requires a different matting solution to general pavement dirt
• If mud or grit are problematic, a two part mat system works best with a heavy-duty outdoor scraper mat followed by an indoor barrier mat
• All barrier mats will fill up with dirt, and if the dirt isn't removed it will get tracked into the building. Therefore all mats should be regularly and thoroughly cleaned to ensure they're always working to protect your entrance flooring. Serviced matting ensures your mats are regularly deep cleaned which is why they offer greater floor protection than non-serviced matting solutions

Cleaning

• Different areas of your flooring will need a different floor cleaning schedule, for example stain removal should be tackled daily, whilst walkway areas should be cleaned quarterly, and non-walkway office areas annually
• If you have hard flooring, ensure the correct cleaning solution is used, as the wrong chemicals can damage the surface, leaving it dull and making it look dirtier than it is
• Carpeted floors need frequent vaccuming with rotating brush system to remove as much trapped dirt as possible, suction only vacuum cleaners remove far less soiling
• A correct flooring maintenance programme ensures a clean & professional site image as well as prolonging the life expectancy of your flooring