May Cleaning Tip:
By Mike Schaffer - President, Tornado Industries

Matting Systems Prevent Soil Build-Up

Janitorial work can be a lot like how some of us take care of our health. We treat the problem once we get sick, but often don’t take steps, or enough steps, to prevent the problem in the first place.

In the professional cleaning industry, we have ways to help our customers prevent soil buildup in their facilities, and very often these are not implemented. A good example is matting systems, or as they are called now, high-performance matting systems.

Just consider:

• It is estimated that as much as 80 percent of the soil brought into a facility is tracked in on the feet of building occupants, users, and visitors.
• Up to 24 pounds of dirt can be tracked in by just 1,000 people coming through a building entrance over a 20-day work period.
• Without an effective matting system, approximately 1,500 people walking into a school facility can damage or remove nearly half of a floor’s finish.
• ISSA estimates the cost to remove just one pound of dirt after it is tracked throughout a building can exceed $500.

Many facilities think about matting only when we experience adverse weather conditions. However, matting should be part of a year-round strategy to help keep soil out and our customers' facilities clean.

And for facilities seeking LEED certification or that have incorporated Green cleaning, having an effective matting system in place is mandatory. If you are a jansan distributor or a building service contractor, it is wise to educate your customers on the value of matting.

Matting at Work

High-performance matting is a higher-quality matting system that not only captures soils but traps them, preventing them from being “walked in” a facility. Some high-performance mats are made with a bilevel construction. Soils, dust, and contaminants are removed from shoes and then filter down, below the mat's surface, so that they are trapped and prevented from entering the facility.

The length of the mat is important as are the types of mats. Many experts, including advocates of Green cleaning, suggest the following:

• A scraper mat is placed directly outside key entries to scrape off larger particulates and contaminants. The scraper mat should be about five feet long and is the first line of defense, removing moisture from the bottom of shoes and capturing as much as 50 percent of all soils.

• This is followed by scraper/wiper mats, also five feet long, which continue the moisture/soil removing process and are placed directly inside a facility or in the vestibule area between two sets of doors.

• The final five feet of matting is the wiper mat, which further helps dry shoe bottoms, making sure that the first step onto the hard-surface floor is sure and safe.

Working together, the three systems not only keep facilities cleaner, but they help enhance safety and protect indoor environmental quality along with the health of our customers.

Maintenance

Matting systems must be properly maintained in order for them to work their best and protect the indoor environment. Because they prevent contaminant from entering a facility, the mats can become fairly heavily soiled themselves. In fact, microbiologist Dr. Charles Gerba says vacuum cleaners become “meals on wheels” as a result of all the contaminants they collect vacuuming when cleaning mats and carpets.

To prevent these “meals on wheels” from affecting your health, always use HEPA-filtered vacuum to vacuum mats, similar to a number of vacuums manufactured by Tornado. This assures that the contaminants are collected and not released into the air, harming the user, the building occupants, and the environment.