The Mat Buyer's Guide

1. The mat backing: Why the right back makes the right mat.

2. The Mat Task: Scraping, wiping, or both?

3. The Entrance: Should my mat be placed indoors or outdoors?

4. The Industrial Mat: Kitchens, Factories, Garages and More.

5. How Anti-Fatigue Mats save you time and money!

6. Custom Art Mats: Branding with Custom Design.

7. Custom Artwork Mats: Printing vs. Inlaying

8. Cleaning your Mats: It's this easy.

The Mat Task: Scraping, Wiping or Both?

These two tasks, scraping and wiping, provide different results in different situations. Scraping mats outside the entrance of a grocery store help remove dirt and soil from the shoes of shoppers. A scraping mat for a factory, helps workers keep their shoes or boots clean while they perform their daily tasks. Scraping mats are very coarse and besides removing dirt, are able to hold large amounts of moisture or let moisture drain through the mat away from the traffic area. Wiping mats provide the finishing job. They are less coarse than scraping mats and are designed to trap dust and water from leaking onto the floor and damaging it. Wiping mats are typically used indoor as part of an indoor/outdoor system or as an indoor only for low-traffic areas.

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The Entrance: Should my mat be placed indoors or outdoors??

Scraping and wiping mats are each designed for a specific task. Scraping mats are made from a very coarse material. Besides removing dirt, are able to hold and drain large amounts of moisture through the mat and away from the traffic area. Scraping mats outside an entrance help remove dirt and soil from shoes, keeping the interior of your establishment cleaner and reducing interior clean-up. Scraping mats have a Nitrile or SBR rubber top, which are slip resistant and great for outdoor use.

Inside your establishment, a wiping mat will provide the finishing job. Wiping mats are less coarse than scraping mats, and have a quick-drying, synthetic fiber top. These mats are designed to trap dust and water from leaking and damaging your floor. Because these mats maintain the quality of your floors, wiping mats are typically used as part of an indoor/outdoor system, or simply as an indoor mat for low-traffic areas. Try our WaterHog™ DiamondCord for superior scraping and wiping performance, all in one mat.

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The Industrial Mat: Kitchens, Factories, Garages and more.

Industrial mats provide added comfort for you and your workforce with the added benefits of slip resistance and dirt and moisture management. Here are some things to consider when choosing a mat for your business:

#1. If the area acquires liquid and has adequate drainage, choose a flow-through mat that will provide slip resistance without filling with water.

#2. If you are working around oils, greases or in high temperature areas, make sure the mat backing or mat construction uses Nitrile rubber. Most of our industrial mats are built with Nitrile rubber.

#3. If your work area is carpeted, you need to use the gripper backing for loop style carpeting. If the carpeting is cut pile, we recommend use of the Magna Grip underlay for gripper backed mats.

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How Anti-Fatigue mats save you time and money.

We all want our employees to be more productive without sacrificing the safety of our work environment. This is where anti-fatigue matting fits in: lost productivity due to back strain, foot stress and general fatigue combined with slip-and-fall accidents cause roughly $1 billion in lost productivity in the United States alone.

Don't fall victim to this trend.

Anti-fatigue mats can be found in almost any facility where people work today. From industrial operations to retail shops, many jobs require employees to stand for extended periods in specific locations. Any employee who is required to stand for extended periods will grow fatigued and distracted from standing on difficult working surfaces, such as tile or concrete.

Here’s how to improve fatigue-prone work areas:

1. Observe where your employees spend most of their time during the day. Are they standing in a single area, moving from area to area or using a defined path for their daily work? If they are standing in a single area, a standard sized anti-fatigue mat will do the trick. Figure the size of the area and determine how big the mat needs to be. If your employees are moving from area to area, several mats may be needed to cover these destinations. If there is a specific path that is used readily, a rolled mat or linked-mat system will benefit the most. These systems allow you to cover large areas affordably and with easy cleaning and maintenance.

2. Different areas require different traction needs. What are the traction needs of your workspace? Areas that have a low instance of wet floors can use a standard anti-fatigue mat that uses the natural properties of the rubber to prevent slip-and-fall injuries. Wet areas may require a mat with more traction. These surfaces can be treated with a sandpaper-like coating that ensures maximum slip prevention.

If the area has sufficient drainage, a flow-through mat will allow moisture to filter below the mat and into the drainage system. If drainage is not available, use a mat with liquid-capturing properties to prevent spilling around the mat area, which can damage floors and cause additional slip hazards.

3. Does the area require special attention for danger or hazards? In some industrial settings, work areas require special attention as work can be hazardous due to machinery or chemical usage. OSHA safety borders are available for many mat options. At WaterHog Mats, we provide a custom and stock options to suit your every need.

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Custom Art Mats: Branding with Custom Design

Custom artwork mats are a great way to reinforce your company brand and image. Used both indoors and outdoors, custom artwork mats come in many standard sizes and offer dozens of color options. Artwork mats require artwork that can be reproduced in large sizes. For this reason, artwork files from programs like Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw and formats like EPS are best for resizing and placing artwork on a mat. Keep in mind the following guidelines when uploading your artwork:

1. You can upload two versions of your logo for use in our program. A low-resolution image for onscreen viewing and a high-resolution file (Like EPS or Adobe Illustrator) for the production of your mat(s).

2. Use EPS, TIF, JPG, BMP formats of your artwork or native program files for the high-resolution version. If you have it, EPS or vector artwork files are preferred.

3. If a proof is needed, we will return it within 48 hours of your artwork submission. The first proof is free along with one correction. Additional corrections are billed at $20 apiece.

4. Use the special instructions area to tell us additional information about your order needs. This can speed the ordering process up significantly.

5. Make sure you use a valid email address for your order so that information such as proof and order status can get to you quickly.

If you still have questions on submitting your artwork, email us. We'll respond back within two hours during normal business hours.

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Custom Artwork Mats: Printing vs. Inlaying

We have two processes for creating custom designed mats: printing and inlaying. Through a state-of-the-art production process, we are able to create mats in a similar way that you print to a printer. This special dyeing process allows extremely quick turnaround times (less than four days for small quantities) and fantastic color and stain resistance with our Perma-Dye plus StainStopper dyeing. The inlay process actually cuts our solution dyed materials so that they fit together like a puzzle. This allows us to take our WaterHog™ mat and create a custom design, just for you. These mats are a preferred choice for outside entrances or high-traffic areas.

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Cleaning your mats: It's this easy.

Cleaning your mat is as easy as using a dry vacuum or wet/dry cleaner. Our custom-printed mats respond best to a dry or wet vacuum process and do not need harsh cleaning products: you can simply hose them off. Our standard mats can be cleaned in a variety of ways, from upright vacuum or carpet cleaners to industrial laundry machines. Most mats will clean well with a simple hosing and drying. See our easy cleaning chart for all of our mats.

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