Welcome doormats have been a staple placed outside of homes to ensure that guests are greeted as they approach a residential unit. Placing a doormat outside the front door allows guest to be properly welcomed into a home, and at the same time provide a surface to rid shoes of dirt, mud, and gravel. Outdoor welcome mats are the barrier between the outside world and the house, they are constantly undergoing various different outdoor factors that can cause damage to its surface and structure. Constant weather constraints can factor into the damage that a doormat can face. Moisture plays a huge role in causing mildew to form around the surface, and UV rays provide the perfect environment for a doormat to fade and crack. Outdoor welcome mats have been crafted to face these harsh conditions because of the materials that have been used to make them. Materials such as coir and reclaimed rubber have been proven to help withstand contact with various different types of weather such as rain and sunny days.

Weather is a constant contact that outdoor welcome doormats face, which can cause various different issues with their structure and surface. Both rainy and sunny days can cause lasting damage that will not ensure the longevity of a doormat. Rain has been proven to provide growth and sustenance to many things on this planet, but rain has also been proven to provide lasting damaging effects on many different surfaces such as outdoor welcome mats. Extreme levels of water can cause the formation of mold and mildew on certain materials such as ceiling tiles, cardboard, wallpaper, carpets, drywall, fabric, plants, foods, insulation, decaying leaves and other organic materials (https://www.fema.gov/pdf/rebuild/recover/fema_mold_brochure_english.pdf).

Microbial byproducts such as mildew/mold can have harmful and lasting effects on an individual’s health, which can cause welcome doormats made of weak materials to become hosts for these microscopic visitors during rainy weather. Not only does moisture allow biological issues to surface, but it can also cause physical damage as well. Rain has been known to cause certain surfaces to become slippery, making for conditions that could lead to physical injury. Moisture is also known to breakdown certain types of materials such as hemlock, pine, maple, aspen, alder, elm, birch, buckeye, poplar and beech (https://www.nachi.org/wood-decay.htm). Moisture gets into these materials and slowly allows microbial colonies to infiltrate and breakdown the substance.

Moisture is not the only weather factor that can effect outdoor welcome mats made from delicate materials, but UV rays have been shown to cause damage as well. In certain materials prolonged exposure to UV rays can cause discoloration and cracking. “For instance, poly(vinyl chloride), PVC, window frame exposed to sunlight undergoes discoloration, chalking, loss of impact strength, and a reduction in tensile properties as well as a host of other chemical changes” (http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/ozone/docs/UNEP98/UNEP98p62.html). Discoloration and fading of welcome doormats are aesthetically displeasing because these products are meant to be visual additions to a home. This kind of affect/damage can ruin the visual appeal of an entryway. Weather has been the main culprit in breaking down surfaces and structures of welcome doormats made of brittle materials. But coir has been proven time and time again to withstand the elements for a lot longer than many other materials out there.

Weather is a big factor when choosing the right material for the type of outdoor welcome mat for your home. For outdoor use, coir fibers have been proven to withstand many different types of weather contact and constraints. Coir is a natural fiber that is extracted from the outer husk of a coconut. It is a material that is generally used in welcome doormats, floor mats, and mattresses. Coir is the thick, rough, fibrous material that can be found between the hard shell of the coconut, and the outer coat. It is generally brown in its color and rough in texture. Being very moisture resistant, coir can be exposed to very high levels of moisture without being effected. Coir can dry away/ absorb water at fast rates, which makes it the perfect material for welcome doormats. It is the ideal surface to make sure mildew and mold, stay away, because coir is not the type of material that is suitable for microbial byproducts to infest. For this reason, outdoor welcome mats can last long periods of time, because the material itself can absorb moisture at very quickly. Not only is coir a fast drying material it is also easy to clean, tough/durable, and flame-retardant, making it a great material for doormats. In many outdoor welcome mats, coir is also used in conjunction with materials like reclaimed rubber.

Many times coir doormats are made in conjunction with reclaimed rubber. The bottom of welcome doormats is typically made of a rubber that is resilient to many different types of conditions. Most of the time this rubber type of material derives from reclaimed rubber. The reason reclaimed rubber is a great material used in outdoor welcome mats, is because it inherited one crucial trait from its parent tires: outdoor weather resistance. Tires are consistently exposed to different types of elements including, moisture and UV rays, allowing them to function for such long periods of time. This same principle applies to reclaimed rubber because the traits inherited from the tires directly transferred over to the newly treated rubber. Reclaimed rubber, just like coir is very moisture resistant and does not allow microbial infestation to affect the structure of the material, making it ideal for outdoor welcome mats. Unlike other materials reclaimed rubber is very UV resistant, meaning that it would not fade or crack right away when exposed to sunlight. Just like coir reclaimed rubber is a very durable material that makes it ideal to work in tandem with coir.

Outdoor welcome mats are put through harsh conditions when it comes to moisture and UV rays. But the ability to use coir and reclaimed rubber in their production provide welcome doormats to have a longer lifespan. Coir is a material that is naturally quick to dry and tough, making it easy to integrate this material in doormats. Coir is easy to clean, durable, and resistant to many different weather conditions. Reclaimed rubber adopted all of its traits from the tires it was fashioned from, providing these mats with the same moisture and UV resilience the tires possessed. Both of these materials working together allows for the best use of materials to face the outdoors. Because of both coir and reclaimed rubber, welcome doormats can survive the outdoors and withstand the constant damage that the weather may cause.