Quick answer: Entrance matting saves cleaning hours by stopping soil and water at the door, before it spreads across floors your team has to vacuum, mop or scrub. You can estimate the effect for your own building with three inputs: daily footfall, how much of that soil your mats hold back, and how long your team takes to clean the floor past the mats. This guide gives a worksheet you fill in with your own figures. It does not promise a saving, because every building, season and cleaning specification is different.
Rawlins has supplied cleaning equipment, chemicals and matting to UK businesses since 1981. This guide is for facilities managers, cleaning contractors and site leads who need to explain why mat length and mat cleaning belong in the cleaning budget. For how to clean the mats themselves, see our entrance mat machine guide.
Where tracked-in soil ends up
Dirt that walks in on shoes and wheels does not stay at the door. Grit and water are carried across the reception, into corridors and lifts, and onto the hard floors and carpets that cleaning teams look after every day.
COBA Flooring's guide to what barrier matting is quotes three figures that are useful for a business case. It says a single person can walk in at least 0.58g of dirt per day, rising to ten times that in wet weather. It reports that removing 1kg of dirt once it is inside a building can cost around £500. And it gives a general rule that it takes 5 to 6 footsteps for a barrier mat to properly clean and dry a shoe. These are COBA's figures, and COBA itself presents the cost figure as "reported", so treat them as a starting point, not a measurement of your site.
The safety side matters too. HSE's guidance on preventing slips and trips at work (INDG225) lists entrance matting among the ways to stop floors getting wet and contaminated. Fewer wet footprints past the door means less reactive mopping and fewer wet-floor signs as well as fewer hours.
A worked example with your own numbers
Use the worksheet below. Fill in the "your figure" column from your own records: visitor counts or door counters, your cleaning specification, and timesheets or a timed trial. Leave the COBA figures as they are unless you have your own measurements.
| Line | What to enter | Where it comes from | Your figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | People entering per day | Door counter, visitor log or security estimate | |
| B | Dirt per person per day (dry) | COBA: at least 0.58g | 0.58g |
| C | Wet-weather multiplier | COBA: up to 10 times; use 1 for dry days | |
| D | Soil arriving at the door per day | A × B × C | |
| E | Footsteps your matting gives in the walking line | Pace out the mat run; COBA's rule of thumb is 5 to 6 | |
| F | Minutes per day cleaning floors beyond the mats | Your specification or a timed trial | |
| G | Minutes per day cleaning the mats | Your specification or a timed trial | |
| H | Hourly labour rate | Your payroll or contract rate |
How to read it. Line D tells you how much soil is arriving, so you can see why the problem grows on wet days. Line E tells you whether your mats can realistically catch it: if people only take two steps on matting before reaching a hard floor, most of that soil carries on past the mat. Lines F and G are where the hours sit. The comparison that matters is F plus G before a change against F plus G after it, measured the same way.
Illustrative inputs only. Say a reception sees 400 people a day (line A). On a dry day, COBA's figure gives 400 × 0.58g, or about 232g of soil arriving (line D). On a very wet day, using COBA's multiplier of ten, that becomes about 2.3kg. These are not measurements from any Rawlins customer; they simply show why the same entrance can feel fine in summer and overwhelm the cleaning rota in winter. Put in your own footfall to see your range.
What changes the result
Mat length in the walking line
The single biggest factor you control is how many steps people take on matting. A short mat in front of a busy door does little, however clean it is. Measure along the route people actually walk, not the size printed on the label. A combination of an outdoor scraper and an indoor wiper mat gives a longer run: Brush Hog outdoor entrance matting has a nylon scraper face and, according to its product page, can be used on its own or with an indoor entrance mat to form an entrance matting system.
Mat cleaning frequency
A full mat stops working. Once the lower level of a bi-level mat is loaded with grit and water, the next people through carry it onwards. The WaterHog range uses a bi-level design: the Rawlins product pages describe dirt and water falling to the lower level of the mat, where it is held below shoe level. That only helps if the mat is vacuumed and periodically deep-cleaned. Raise mat cleaning in line G on wet days rather than letting line F absorb the difference.
Weather and season
Run the worksheet twice: once for a typical dry week and once for a wet week. Our wet-weather reception plan covers spare mats, rota changes and signage for the wet-week version.
Machine time vs labour
Line F is usually split between vacuuming, mopping and machine scrubbing. When you measure it, record which method is used, because the method affects the time as much as the soil does.
- Vacuuming mats and carpets. An upright with a brush roll lifts grit out of the mat surface. The SEBO Automatic XP20, a brand Rawlins sells, adjusts its height automatically to the floor type, according to its product page.
- Scrubbing hard floors. Where a site already runs a medium or large scrubber dryer, the MotorScrubber FORCE is an accessory that uses the scrubber dryer's power, clean water and suction for smaller spaces such as stairs and toilet cubicles. Its product page describes it as an alternative to mopping.
- Mopping. In HSE's supermarket entrance case study, the entrance mats were not large enough for the water coming in. Staff switched from mopping, which left the floor wet, to a wet vac, which left it dry, and extra matting was added in wet weather.
Time each task for a week before and after any change to matting or mat cleaning. A fair comparison uses the same method, the same areas and similar weather.
Putting the case to a client or budget holder
Keep the case short and honest. Show line D for dry and wet weeks, show the mat run in footsteps against COBA's 5 to 6 step rule, and show your measured F and G before and after. Quote COBA's figures with their source, and say plainly which numbers are measured on site and which are third-party. A business case built on your own timesheets is more persuasive than any headline figure.
Frequently asked questions
Does entrance matting really reduce cleaning costs?
It can, by stopping soil and water before they spread across interior floors. COBA reports that removing dirt once it is inside a building is expensive. The only reliable answer for your site is to time cleaning before and after a change.
How much dirt do people bring into a building?
COBA says at least 0.58g per person per day, rising to ten times that in wet weather. Multiply by your own footfall to get a range for your entrance.
How long should entrance matting be?
COBA's rule of thumb is enough matting to cover 5 to 6 footsteps, with longer runs for busy or very wet entrances. Pace out the walking line to check your own.
Should mat cleaning be included in the cleaning specification?
Yes. Mats that are not vacuumed and deep-cleaned fill up and stop trapping soil, which moves the work onto the floors beyond them. Give mat cleaning its own line in the specification and increase it in wet weather.
Need help with your entrance matting and cleaning kit?
We can help you match entrance matting and cleaning machines to your footfall and cleaning routine. Call 0121 351 4444, email werner@rawlins.co.uk or use our contact page. You can also browse the WaterHog range.
