Do Your Educational Facility’s Entryways Get an A+ for Cleanliness?
If you run an educational facility or institution, thousands of people will exit and enter your doorways daily — often bringing nature’s bounty with them by accident.
From dried-up leaves to mud, people end up tracking lots of unwelcome guests into your space. Fortunately, the proper type of entryway matting can help achieve your goal of creating a healthier educational environment — without losing sleep over messy footprints and water-soaked carpets.
Entryway Matting Gets a Passing Mark
Entryway matting is specialized floor covering that can block up to 80% of debris and moisture. When properly installed, the entryway mat’s rough surface grabs unwanted particles from shoes. As a result, not only will you have less soil ground into your floors, but grime and germs will also be left at the doorway (instead of making their way into classrooms, communal areas, and offices).
How important is it to reduce the amount of dirt and bacteria brought into your educational institution by foot traffic? From a healthcare standpoint, it’s imperative. When indoor air quality drops, people can become sick: Their allergies flare up, and they’re more susceptible to contracting airborne illnesses. It also impacts productivity. When the air smells funny or makes breathing a challenge, people are less motivated to do their work or even show up.
In addition to poor indoor air quality, excess moisture like snow, sleet, and rain can cause mold and mildew — which can have adverse effects on people who travel in and out of your building. It’s just smart to avoid and prevent the spread of viruses and bacteria. Kids are notorious for picking up objects off the floor. Because of this, they’re at higher risk of contracting illnesses like the flu or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — better known as MRCA. A cleaner floor lowers the chances of an expensive, scary outbreak.
Need more reason to focus your thoughts on entryway mats? Consider the ROI. Stones and sand can cause scratch marks on expensive floors and destroy the integrity and appearance of carpet fibers. Consequently, if your entrances aren’t set up to reduce incoming debris, you may wind up replacing floors long before you should. Why not get 10 years (or more) from your carpets instead of having to remodel before your budget can handle the cost?
Without a doubt, entryway matting can halt unwanted “visitors.”
Green Cleaning Keeps Entryway Mats Functioning
Even when it’s working at its best, though, entryway matting is destined for a filthy future. No matter what kind of matting you choose — from classic mats to installed tiles — it’ll get dirty. Thus, you need an airtight maintenance schedule to keep it from making a bad impression. At MilliCare , we’re prepared to help by offering customized Care Plans created specifically for every zone of your building, including your entryways.
Our treatment teams take special care to lift stains, odors, debris, and moisture from entryway matting. The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED standards suggest entryway systems (e.g., rollout mats, permanently installed grates, etc.) be at least 10 feet long — in the primary direction of travel — to pick up dirt and particulates that enter a building through high-traffic doorways.
We tend to think of every entryway as a series of three zones (typically at least 15 feet combined). The first zone is just outside the entrance, while the second and third are inside the entrance. The second zone is where large pieces of dirt and soil are pulled from footwear, like a breezeway or revolving door. Zone three is right after zone two, and it’s where residual moisture becomes trapped.
The way we clean and protect your entryway zones will depend on the type of matting you’ve installed. Regardless, all of MilliCare ’s entryway mat cleaning treatments use products and tools that are effective and environmentally friendly. In fact, our dry-based cleaning processes use 99.5% less water than alternative methods, leaving you with a low utility bill and a clean entryway.
If you haven’t chosen entryway mats for your educational facility, MilliCare can help you select the best kind for your needs. We can even assist in recommending ones that release low VOC emissions. And if you already have entryway mats, we can certainly work with you to keep them looking and performing their best — kind of like your student population.
Contact our team today at 833-403-6200 to start the conversation.