Believe it or not, there’s an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) that published a document in 2012 called the “Standard Guide For Commercial Entrance Matting in Reducing Slips, Trips and Falls.” It’s referred to as ANSI/NFSI B101.6-2012.
For $50 you can buy a copy and study it, but we’re going to tell you what the main points are right here.
- You need entrance mats.
This is something we say all the time, but we say it because it’s true. Entrance mats significantly cut down on slip, trip, and fall accidents. There’s no argument there.
- You need to put appropriate mats in appropriate places.
This means that outside the entrance, you should be putting down scraper mats or recessed mats with grills that remove a substantial portion of dirt, water, and debris before stepping foot in the inside mat, for example. Kitchens needs kitchen mats. You get the idea.
- Mats need to be in good repair.
Mats that are worn with torn or rippled edges are not helping you—they may make the problem worse. Mats need to be clean and in good repair. That means you need enough mats so that you can pull and wash dirty mats and immediately have a clean one to put in its place.
- It’s the business owner’s responsibility to identify areas prone to slip, trip, and fall accidents and put mats down accordingly.
This means you should be aware of where water pools, for instance. And you should be keeping records of accidents so you can see patterns. For example, do you have a plant wall, and every time the plants get manually watered there is water on the floor in one spot? Then you need a mat there. Or do you have showers and a locker room and have wet areas in front of the lockers? Then you need mats there designed for wet areas like that.
- You need adequate matting.
This means you need not just the right mat, but the right size mats and the right number of mats depending on your situation.
Each business has different requirements based on the flooring, the traffic, the weather, and the type of traffic, too. Lots of kids wearing sneakers is not the same thing as lots of luggage carts rolling back and forth all day with hundreds of pounds of luggage.
We can help you determine what you need for matting because it’s not an exact science. Mats should never be overlapping, and sometimes you may need to choose between one large mat or two smaller ones. Make your business safer today and talk to us.
Do you have other questions? It’s easy to contact us, and we’re happy to help you. You can always call us at (877) 333-1018 or email us at sales@eaglemat.com for more information or if you aren’t sure what you need.
