Floor mats are not magical

Sorry to have to be the one to break it to you. They're just bits of carpet, rubber, and some recycled materials. They do some wonderful things, in terms of keeping your floors clean, creating a visual impact to visitors, and ensuring your employees are comfortable. I mean, aside from the legendary flying carpet and the proverbial rug that can make any problem disappear by sweeping said problem under it, they're just floor mats. No, it's not magic, it's just good housekeeping, right?

We encountered a few instances, however, that made us think that maybe some people do believe differently, that they were sold some magical artifact under the appearance of solution-dyed berber. I'm being a little cynical here, and I guess the best practice is to discuss any concern or consideration respectably and patiently, which I do, but then the phone call disconnects. And I have to think.

What were they expecting?

Floor mats can reach maximum saturation.

We were discussing the best mats to place at a condo. The customer wanted to keep the dirt and moisture from being tracked through the halls, and I suggested a scraper mat outside and a scraper/wiper inside. That's usually where we start, as it divides the work and yields cleaner floors than simply opting for one or the other.

In the end, the customer chose a scraper/wiper for the outside. A scraper/wiper has carpet or fiber molded onto a bi-level rubber backing, which is a fancy way of saying it can both scrape, and wipe.

The reason we suggest a scraper outside is because it has no fiber, just scraping surfaces formed from firm rubber. It doesn't absorb any water, but does a heck of a job scraping dirt and otherwise from feet, getting ready for the scraper/wiper.

In all honesty, I wasn't too worried. A scraper/wiper outside is better than no mat, and it can mitigate the mess that the elements can create after a rain or snow...

I got a phone call a few days after the mat was delivered. The voice on the other end said, "The mat looks great, but the water pools in it when it rains." I was silent until he spoke again. "Is there anything you can do about that?"

Hating having unsatisfied customers, I searched for the words that when put together would convey "yes, I could help." But I didn't have any.

Flatly, I just told him that the carpet component in the mat would try to accept that water but, in the midst of even a steady rain, there's no way it could hold it all. This condition, I said, illustrates why we recommend at least two mats, with one being inside.

Ultimately, he understood, but sometimes people like to ask just to make sure, but no, a floor mat cannot out-absorb and dissipate the water from a rain storm.

Floor mats collect dirt, they don't eradicate it.

We heard from a customer who had not contacted us in years. It was nice to reconnect, and we did business on replacing a few berber entrance mats in his grocery store.

Then he asked about the drop-through mat in the entryway. You know, the ones that have replaceable carpet strips with an open-weave, vinyl grid-rib design. Sure, those.

The beauty of this product is that when the carpet strips get worn out and dirty, they can be removed and replaced with brand-new ones, effectively resetting the age of the mat.

At least, as far as the carpet strips go.

Seven more more years had passed since installation. This high-traffic grocery store welcomed throngs of customers day after day, in the sometimes brutal Chicago weather conditions. The mat did its level best to keep the floors clean, and it succeeded, however, as the years passed, the efficiency diminished. Its storage room for dirt had reached capacity, and you can't remove dirt from shoes and put it somewhere if there's nowhere to put it.

We suggested that replacing the carpet strips was only half of the job. Actually, it probably accounted for about a tenth of the time and labor that would be involved.

These mats need an overhaul as often as you can afford to do it. Depending on the traffic and weather, and your resources and scheduling restrictions, the vinyl grid below should be cleaned every few months or at least every year.

The grids can be removed and power-washed when replacing carpet, and at least running a vacuum over it while you do your floors is a good idea. This will keep the space clean and ready to collect more dirt.

After seven years, those little pockets might as well as have been filled with concrete, and the contractor who did the work removed several five-gallon buckets of sediment.

So no, the dirt doesn't magically disappear just because it isn't on the shoe anymore.

Floor matting is not the same as flooring.

Floor mats serve a great many purposes, from keeping your building clean, to giving your long-standing employees a comfortable surface to work on, to reinforce your brand, and to protect floors. They can extend the life of an expensive installation at a fraction of the cost, as replacing floor mats every few years is much less than replacing installed flooring.

But we're talking protection, not concealing a damaged floor.

We were asked if we had a mat that could cover the floor pictured below:

"Yeah, we could cover that," I said. "But what do you want the result to be?"

What I had to explain to the customer was that this type of application would not be the best choice in terms of the longevity of the mats usefulness. It would wear noticeably where the tiles were broken and uneven, the employees would still contend with an uncomfortable floor to stand on, and I couldn't even speak to the failure to satisfy whatever codes he was trying to comply with, as it was a food-service stand.

Even a heavy duty mat would show signs of strain early on, and even a thick rubber flow-through kitchen mat wouldn't help the appearance or sanitation.

So the final secret is that no, floor mats don't magically repair holes in floors or damaged flooring material.

Even as we wait for technology to develop a floor mat that may be able to hold up better in some of these conditions, they are not now, nor will they ever be, magical.