A few weeks ago, I noticed that my rental water heater was leaking.  I dug around to find a service number on my contract and gave them a call.

While I had the contract out, I looked at what I was paying and nearly fell of my chair. I realized that for the monthly fee I had been paying for the last decade, I could have bought 4 brand new water heaters.  Even if I calculated in the occasional service call, I would have saved thousands of dollars on equipment and service calls.

At our office, we get a lot of phone calls and inquiries from facility managers who are experiencing the same shock and frustration regarding their mat rental contracts and are now looking for alternative solutions.

Rental mats are convenient, no question.  The nice guy shows up every couple of weeks and takes away the dirty mats, replacing it with a nice clean one.  Seems like a great program…until you do the math.

Rental mats come with some serious drawbacks:

• On average, the rental program will cost about 5 times more than purchasing your mats
• Poor quality – rental mats are designed to be washed over and over, not designed to absorb moisture and dirt. This means, they’re not effective.  If they’re not effective, you’re wasting money.
• You will need extra matting in bad weather, costing more money to rent additional mats.
• Rental mats that have been washed many times start to develop waves in them, which becomes a serious trip hazard, and causes them to move around on the floor.
• You’re probably already cleaning them yourself; If a new mat is delivered and you have a couple days of bad weather, you must clean/vacuum/extract them yourself until they show up again to give you a new one.
• One size doesn’t fit all – rental mat sizes are limited, so you will often have overlapping or gaps in your coverage, exposing your floor or creating slip or trip hazards.

Like the water heater, rentals seem like a good idea at first, but in the long run, they are less effective, less safe, and much more expensive than owing properly designed and fitted mats that work with your specific needs.  Installed custom mats properly protect your facility and your people, look and work better, and save you money.