A guide to designing
an entrance for your
building
About the Authors
Founded in the United States, C/S has been a global manufacturer and supplier of
a range of specialist building products for over 60 years.
Operating through 22 offices world wide, with key manufacturing locations or sales
offices in most European countries. Employing more than 2000 people around the
world C/S have the skills and the knowledge to help you with your building.
With years of building protection
experience under our collective belts,
we’ve distilled our knowledge into this
compact guide to designing an
entrance for your building.
In addition to our experience, we’ve
also included recommendations from
the Health & Safety Executive (HSE)
as well as details of current legislation
applicable to entrances and entrance
flooring systems.
So lets get started...
Contents
Page
Facts & Figures 4-5
Self Closing Doors 6
Rotating Doors 7
Secondary Entrances 8
Canopies 9
Entrance Mats 10
Positioning Entrance Mats 11
Supplementary Mats 12
Summary 13
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mm of Rainfaill p/a
Facts & Figures
Scotland
wales
ireland
england
High levels of rainfall lead to an
increased risk of slipping accidents
within UK buildings. It is therefore
essential that the proper measures
are in place at the entrance to
prevent this from happening.
Slipping accidents count for 1 in 3
major injuries within the UK.
50%
50% of all reported accidents to
members of the public are slipping
accidents, this ebook will go some
way to show how this number can
be reduced with properly designed
entrances.
£133 million
cost to the
NHS every year
All statistics sourced from Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Online.
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Self Closing Doors
Well designed entrances often have self closing
doors, helping to keep inclement weather out,
protecting entrance mats and floor surfaces, and
reducing the amount of building heat loss.
It is also worth noting that under floor
heating and heat curtains over doorways can often
speed up the drying time of wet mats and floors,
and can contribute to a well designed entrance.
Care must be taken to ensure automatic doors
aren’t too sensitive, being triggered by passers-by
and potentially allowing rain to be blown-in on busy
days.
Rotating Doors
Rotating doors force pedestrians to take
several footsteps on the entrance matting
within the door. This provides an opportunity to
remove water from shoes on wet days, and
reduces the amount of water tracked into the
building.
Some rotating doors can be a problem for
people carrying bags and deliveries, wheelchair
users and people with mobility problems, so it
is important to ensure that secondary doors are
installed for alternative access. (See next page
for more info)
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Secondary Entrances
Secondary entrances often aren’t self closing
and frequently have inadequate entrance
matting, which leads to water getting into the
building, causing a slip hazard.
Secondary entrances should be designed to
effectively stop water getting into the building,
using effective entrance matting and some of
the other design methods mentioned in this
ebook.
Canopies
Canopies can play a key role in protecting building entrances from inclement weather, reducing the
ingress of water.
When designing a good canopy you should
consider:
• The height - If it’s too high rain or snow may be
blown under it towards the doors
• The size - It needs to extend far enough away from
the building to provinde an effective rain shadow for
the entrance
• The orientation - It should provide effective shelter
from prevailing winds.
Canopies have an important function, preventing water getting into the building. When making a
design statement out of a canopy, remember, it still
needs to perform its original function
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Entrance Mats
Entrance mats are one of the main barriers
preventing dirt and water from being walked in
and getting onto the floor of a building.
Entrance mats are often primarily installed to
protect the surface finish of the floor.
To prevent slips, entrance mats need to be
good at removing water from shoes.
It takes several footfalls with each foot to
effectively dry a pedestrin’s shoes. On average
C/S recommends 8-10 footfalls, roughly 6
metres of entrance matting. Wet footprints
beyond the matting are a warning sign, and
indicate that the mat is either not long enough,
not absorbent enough or can’t cope with the
amount of foot traffic.
Effective entrance mats should:
be good at retaining water
be quick drying
be fungal and bacteria resistant
cope with push chairs & rolling loads
be regularly cleaned
be kept in good condition
It is also important that there is a clear colour
contrast between the entrance mat and the
surround
Positioning Entrance Mats
Positioning matting as close to the entrance as possible
helps to reduce the chance of a slip and immediately
tackles shoe born dirt and water.
If an entrance mat is positioned correctly, everyone that
enters the building should step directly onto the mat and
should walk across it for several paces, before stepping
onto the entrance floor.
To prevent trips, entrance mats should ideally be fixed,
or sited in a mat-well. This allows the mat to be flush
with the floor and prevents mats from creeping.
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Supplementary Mats
There are times when supplementary matting
will be used to stop water getting onto a floor,
for example, at secondary doorways or beyond
entrance matting that is proving ineffective.
Supplementary matting needs to have the same
good features as fixed matting, and should not
move when stepped on. It is important that they
don’t lose their shape, curl or ruck as they can
create a slip risk.
When using supplementary matting, position it
up against the original fixed matting,
ensuring there are no gaps. If used as a standalone mat at an entrance, position it as close
to the doorway as possible, again ensuring no
gaps and that it is fixed securely using an
adhesive or tackifier.
It is important to note that loose mats or “throw
down” mats can introduce a range of
hazards, and can create a barrier to entry which
is against DDA compliance so C/S
recommends fixing any supplementary matting
using an adhesive of tackifier.
Supplementary matting should be considered
a temporary fix, it is recommended to improve
the entrance design at the first opportunity.
To Summarise
• Water tracked into a building can cause a slip hazard. By
considering slips at the design stage you can prevent accidents
and the need for expensive modifications later
• As floors at entrances are likely to get wet, specify flooring that
has a low slip risk when wet.
• Effective entrance matting, canopies & rotating doors can all help
to minimise the amount of water brought into a building
• For mats to remove water from shoes, they need to be
absorbent, long enough for a pedestrian to walk on them for
several steps, and be kept in good condition.
• Under floor heating and heat curtains over doorways can speed
up the drying time of wet mats and floors.
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