When it comes to commercial and industrial flooring there are a lot of things to keep in mind. These locations center on business, which means that there are different rules and applications that the flooring option have to adhere to which are specific to that establishment. For example, in commercial locations—the flooring should be aesthetically appealing with a professional touch, all while offering protection to employees and customers. For an industrial setting, while aesthetics can still be important they’re secondary to employee safety, subfloor security, and equipment, material, and product protection. Both options will also be required to be long lasting and easy to maintain, in other words they have to be highly functional.

Industrial rubber mats have all of these benefits and more! An individual work bench mat can offer anti-fatigue resistance to employees while also protecting expensive equipment. On the other hand, an all-encompassing rubberized industrial floor cover can protect a subsurface, which is highly important when renting or leasing a building. In such cases the tenant of the building will tend to be responsible for any damage that the flooring structure sustains.

• Protection for People
  The protection of customers and employees is the most important aspect of any industrial or commercial flooring option, and for good reason. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), says that slips, trips, and falls cause 15 percent of accidental deaths—a number that is second only to those deaths that occur as a result of automobile accident. In the U.S. alone, there are over 540,000 slip, trip, and fall injuries that require hospital care every year, of which nearly 50 percent (of workplace) accidents are attribute directly to the sort of flooring structure that is used. Industrial rubber mats offer excellent protection qualities that are perfectly suited for the abrasive conditions of these heavy-duty environments. Here are three major safety benefits offered by rubber surfacing:

  • Slip Resistance
    Commercial and industrial flooring can and often will be exposed to excessive moisture. For example, consider food service locations; produce preparation factories, and really any place that has to clean its floors with a mop and water! Employing richly textured matting is a great way to add traction and grip to areas that see excessive moisture—thereby helping to prevent potential slip-and-fall accidents.

  • Trip Resistance
    Deryl Burch, author of Estimating Excavation, describes traction as, “the maximum frictional force that can be produced between surfaces without slipping.” Therefore, traction should not be confused with slip-resistance in the conventional sense, although it does play a major part in preventing falls due to the presence of moisture. Industrial rubber mats have a naturally high coefficient of friction, which is always present, and which is the source of the added grip that will help keep people on their feet regardless of whether a surface is wet or dry. This is a great quality to have in any foot-traffic areas where people are liable to trip and stumble.

  • Anti Fatigue
    A supple and elastic mat can offer an immediate performance boost—in the same way that eyeglasses can instantly help your vision, so too can the supportive surface of a rubberized work bench mat improve your comfort allowing you to be more efficient and effective. An industrial floor cover can come in a variety of gauges, all of which will directly affect the supportive qualities of the flooring option. The thicker a rubber surface is the suppler and more elastic it will feel underfoot. But even a thin sheet of rubber is better than the cold and hard surface of concrete!

• Protection for Subfloors
  Second to the protection of people is the protection of rented as well as owned building structures. After all, it makes sense to keep the structure that houses your business in good condition, seeing as that will directly correlate to the management and success of any business. In the long run, having an industrial floor cover that protects the subsurface of a building, specifically one that employs a concrete floor, is a wise decision. The cost of resurfacing a damaged concrete floor that is still structurally sound can range from $1-$3 per square foot, and that doesn’t include the cost of labor should you decide to have the resurfacing done by professionals. However, if the concrete is no longer structurally sound—complete replacement can range anywhere from $3-$12 per square foot.

• Protection for Equipment, Materials, and Products
  There’s probably nothing as frustrating to a business owner as downtime when a valuable piece of equipment breaks down. Overall, industries can lose a lot of money due to broken equipment, and poorly handled products and materials. A work bench mat, strategically placed at the foot of workstations can help prevent some of these losses by providing a supple barrier between hard subfloors and any items that are dropped—such as tools, materials, and finished products.

• Durability
  Rubber, in its natural form, was recognized to be a remarkably functional material by people as far back as 1600 BCE. With modern science and through a process called vulcanization, natural rubber is strengthened. Later it was discovered that the introduction of additives during the vulcanization process resulted in the creation of highly resilient synthetic options. Rubber, as we know it today, is the result of a fantastic natural resource and human ingenuity! And while a rubber surface may not last forever, it is designed to withstand abrasive conditions, thereby keeping your original flooring structures from having to take the brunt of such harsh treatments.

• DIY Installation
  A rubberized industrial floor cover can come in a variety of styles—from roll out runners, to interlocking tiles, and of course individual pieces like a work bench mat. Installation of these products is relatively easy and requires little to no technical knowledge. When you’re looking for commercial and industrial flooring options, ease of instillation may not be ranked very highly on your list—least of all when compared to things like safety and durability. Being so easy to set up and remove is an added benefit of using industrial rubber mats that simply cannot be overlooked. When your mats begin to show sings of wear and tear they’ll be easy to replace, and if you want to move your flooring around this option does very well as a reusable surface. Less time consuming and expensive than conventional flooring options, rubber surfacing is very simply the best choice for industrial applications.