The most effective way to prevent slip, trip and fall accidents

With heavy rain fall across Australia over the last recent weeks people have been led to realise the need of having effective matting options on hand to prevent accidents in public spaces. As water is tracked into the building, managers have proven that having a cleaner on site constantly mopping the area dry is causing neglect to other areas of the building and cleanliness overall is being overlooked. The most effective way of trapping this moisture at the door is to ensure that the correct mat is placed in the entrance of your building and us finding the right mat that allows you, our customer,  to get on with what matters in your business which is far from attending to claims that will come from slip, trip and fall accidents. Recently I had the opportunity to visit many sites around Australia which lead me to write this article. From this excursion which  started from our headquarters in Melbourne and then working with our other branches in the states and territories we found that in many cases (not all – thankfully) the mat was either incorrectly specified or the size of the mat was almost allowing pedestrians to step over the mat removing little or no moisture. What we found was that where the correct mat was in place, slip trip and fall accidents were at zero per cent and maintenance and cleaning costs were a lot lower covering by far the initial outlay of the matting. Factors that play an important role in the effectiveness of a moisture absorbing mat included the material, a tight needle punch carpet although is very durable and appears thick will not hold as much moisture as a twist or cut pile mat. A rubber dam border on all sides of the mat is essential for containing moisture as it is no point having the trapped moisture from leaking back onto the floor. Not all Wet Weather mats need to stay out all the time, we recommend that these are only installed into position during wet periods, however it is very important that they are allowed to dry completely prior to storage, this prevents mould or bacteria growing on the carpet surface. Nitrile rubber backing has proven itself over many years to be the best for returning to its flat state preventing trip hazards when the mats are just unrolled, as this material does not have a memory like PVC which tends to ripple causing a potential hazard right in your door way.