Up to 80% of the dirt inside a commercial building arrives on the soles of shoes.
A properly specified entrance matting system stops most of it at the door, cutting interior cleaning costs, protecting floor finishes and reducing slip risk.
Aim for at least three metres of matting, ideally arranged in zones, and keep it cleaned daily so it carries on working.
Walk into most commercial buildings on a wet morning and you will find the same scene: grit and water trailed across the lobby floor, a cleaner following behind with a mop, and a wet floor sign propped up to do the work an entrance mat should already be doing.
Research consistently shows that 70% to 80% of all dirt, dust and moisture inside a building enters through its doors on people’s footwear.
That dirt does more than look untidy.
Abrasive grit gradually grinds away floor finishes, fine dust settles into carpets and air handling systems, and rainwater on hard flooring is one of the most common causes of workplace slip injuries in the UK.
In this guide, you will find how entrance matting actually works, how much you need, what UK regulations require, and whether renting or buying makes better financial sense.
By the end, you will be able to assess whether your own entrances are doing their job.
Why Do Entrance Mats Matter in a Commercial Building?
Entrance mats are not a cosmetic touch. They are the first stage of your cleaning regime, and the cheapest one.
Industry data from the International Sanitary Supply Association suggests that removing around 450 grams of dirt once it has spread through a building can cost several hundred pounds in labour, equipment and chemicals, with estimates ranging from roughly £400 to over £900 depending on the site.
Stopping that dirt at the threshold costs a fraction of the amount.
Protecting floor finishes
Grit acts like sandpaper under foot traffic.
Within the first couple of metres of an unprotected entrance, a large share of a hard floor’s protective finish can be ground away after only a few thousand visitors. That accelerates the cycle of strip-and-seal work, polishing and eventual floor replacement, all of which cost far more than matting.
Air quality and hygiene
Mats also trap fine dust before it becomes airborne. Less dust circulating indoors means fewer allergens, cleaner surfaces between visits and a healthier environment for staff.
For organisations with ESG commitments, reducing the chemicals, water and energy needed for interior cleaning is a measurable win, and it starts at the front door.
How Much Entrance Matting Do You Actually Need?
This is where most buildings can fall short.
A single doormat-sized mat inside the door achieves little, because it never gets enough contact time with the shoe.
What you ideally need is a series of separate mats.
The step-length problem
The average adult step is around 78 centimetres. On a three-metre run of matting, a person walking at normal pace makes only about four steps in contact with the surface.
Industry guidance consistently finds that only a small share of soil is captured in the first metre of matting, which is why the sector promotes a minimum of 4.5 metres at busy entrances, an approach often referred to as the rule of 15 feet.
At that length, five to six full footfalls give the mat enough contact time to capture most tracked-in soil and moisture.
Matching length to footfall
In practice, the right length depends on traffic.
Guidance based on Health and Safety Laboratory research, carried out with the Entrance Flooring Systems Association, points to three to four metres for low-traffic entrances of under 80 people per hour, six to seven metres at around 400 people per hour, and eight to ten metres where footfall exceeds 800 people per hour.
Buildings pursuing BREEAM, LEED or WELL certification will also find that a minimum of three metres of permanent entryway matting is expected to support indoor air quality credits.
What Is a Three-Zone Entrance Matting System?
No single mat does every job well, so effective entrances use zones, each with a material suited to its task.
How the three zones work
Zone one sits outside or immediately at the threshold. Rubber or nitrile scraper mats with raised profiles strip off coarse mud, gravel and grit before it crosses the door. These materials resist weathering and crushing but absorb almost no water.
The second zone sits in the lobby or vestibule and combines scraping with wiping. Coarse synthetic fibres such as polypropylene remove finer grit while beginning to draw moisture from shoe treads.
Fully inside the building, zone three takes over.
Absorbent nylon or microfibre wiper mats capture remaining fine dust and dry the sole completely. Nylon recovers well from crushing and dries quickly, which makes it the standard choice for high-traffic interiors.
Recycled options such as regenerated nylon now match the durability of virgin fibre, which helps if sustainability sits in your procurement criteria.
A word about coir
One material to avoid indoors is coir. It scrapes well but degrades when wet and creates rolling resistance for wheelchairs, which is why it falls foul of accessibility guidance in commercial entrances.
What Do UK Regulations Require for Entrance Matting?
Entrance matting is also a legal matter, not just an operational one.
Slips, trips and the duty of care
Under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957, you owe visitors and staff a duty of care to protect them from foreseeable hazards, and rainwater on a polished lobby floor is about as foreseeable as hazards get.
HSE figures show slips, trips and falls on the same level accounted for 30% of non-fatal workplace injuries in 2024/25, around 204,000 injuries, and tracked-in water on hard flooring is a leading cause.
A correctly sized, well-maintained matting system is one of the simplest defences you can document.
Building regulations and British Standards
Approved Document M requires that lobby floor surfaces do not impede wheelchair users, and that any matwell mat sits flush with the surrounding floor so it cannot become a trip hazard.
BS 7953:1999 and BS 8300-2:2018 add detail on selection and installation, including the principle that matting should be long enough to contact both feet of a pedestrian and a full rotation of a wheelchair wheel, which means a recommended minimum of 2.1 metres in the direction of travel.
Should You Rent or Buy Entrance Mats?
Rental exchange services supply mats and swap them for freshly laundered replacements on a fixed cycle, often fortnightly.
The appeal is convenience: soiled mats disappear and clean ones arrive without your team lifting a finger. The drawbacks are cost and choice. Renting one mat for four to five months can cost as much as buying it outright, and rental ranges are usually limited to standard wiper-only mats that cannot do the scraping work of zones one and two.
Buying gives you a multi-zone system properly designed around your entrance and footfall, with payback often achieved within the first year through reduced interior cleaning.
The trade-off is that your cleaning team, in-house or contracted, takes on the maintenance. For most medium and large commercial sites, a purchased system maintained under a planned cleaning contract works out cheaper and performs better.
How Often Should Entrance Mats Be Cleaned?
A saturated mat stops cleaning shoes and starts redistributing dirt instead, and a waterlogged one becomes a slip hazard in its own right.
Good maintenance is what keeps the system effective.
In dry weather, mats at busy entrances need vacuuming twice a day, usually morning and mid-afternoon.
In wet weather, they need wet vacuum extraction through the day to remove the water they have absorbed, plus periodic deep extraction cleaning to restore the pile.
In our experience, entrance matting is the part of the site most often neglected, and it is usually one of the first things our contract managers check when we begin cleaning a new site.
How Alliance Cleaning Looks After Your Entrance Matting
We don’t supply entrance matting, so our role is to clean and maintain the matting you already have on-site, as part of your regular cleaning contract.
Vacuuming at the frequency your footfall demands, wet extraction during poor weather, and periodic deep cleaning to restore absorbency.
All carried out by our own trained teams rather than handed off to a separate supplier.
Every Alliance Cleaning contract manager looks after fewer sites than most in the industry, so entrance matting gets checked at every visit instead of being noticed only when it fails.
If you would like entrance mat care built into your cleaning specification, contact Alliance Cleaning on 01992 700073 or [email protected].
Conclusion
Entrance matting is preventive cleaning in its most literal form: every kilogram of dirt stopped at the door is dirt nobody has to remove from carpets, hard floors and air systems later.
Get three things right and the system pays for itself. Specify enough length for your footfall, use zones so each mat does one job well, and clean the mats daily so they keep absorbing rather than shedding.
A sensible next step is a simple entrance audit. Measure your current matting runs, count peak-hour footfall, and compare against the guidance above. If your matting falls short, the gap is costing you money on every rainy day.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should an entrance mat be in a commercial building?
As a working rule, allow three metres for quieter entrances, six or seven metres at around 400 people per hour, and up to ten metres at the busiest doors. British Standards recommend a minimum of 2.1 metres in the direction of travel so both feet and a full wheelchair wheel rotation make contact with the mat.
How much dirt do entrance mats actually stop?
A well-specified system of around 4.5 metres can capture up to 85% of tracked-in soil and moisture before it enters the building. By contrast, only around 30% of soil is trapped in the first metre of matting, which is why short single mats perform poorly at commercial entrances.
What is a three-zone entrance matting system?
It splits the job into stages: an exterior scraper mat removes coarse mud and grit, a vestibule scraper-wiper mat captures finer particles and starts absorbing water, and an interior wiper mat dries the shoe and traps fine dust. Each zone uses a material suited to its specific task.
Why is coir matting not recommended for commercial entrances?
Coir creates high rolling resistance for wheelchairs, which conflicts with the accessibility requirements of Approved Document M. It also degrades under constant moisture and compresses with heavy use, so its scraping performance falls away quickly in busy entrances. Rubber scraper mats and synthetic fibres are better suited to commercial use.
Do entrance mats reduce cleaning costs?
Yes, substantially. Stopping dirt at the door is far cheaper than extracting it from carpets and hard floors once it has spread. Estimates vary depending on what is measured: cleaning chemical use has been estimated to fall by around 30%, while some industry sources put total interior cleaning cost reductions as high as 60% to 70% with a properly specified multi-zone system, often paying for itself within a year.
How often should commercial entrance mats be cleaned?
Vacuum mats at busy entrances twice daily in dry conditions, morning and mid-afternoon. During wet weather, use wet vacuum extraction several times a day to remove absorbed water. Schedule periodic deep extraction cleaning to lift embedded grit and restore the pile so the mat continues to absorb as designed.
What material is best for indoor entrance mats?
Nylon is the standard choice for interior wiper zones because it absorbs moisture well, dries quickly and recovers from crushing under heavy footfall. Microfibre absorbs even more water but flattens under sustained heavy traffic. Regenerated nylon offers comparable durability with a stronger sustainability profile.
