When you’re running a restaurant, having your floors covered with drainage mats or rubber surfacing is an absolute must. As an owner you have hungry customers visiting your venue throughout the day to give their taste buds a treat. You also employ staff members who are working hard to provide it for them. Whether you’re serving up gourmet steaks or fast food, you have a responsibility to both staff and customers to make sure they’re safe in your establishment. The best way to do so is using drainage mats.

Restaurant bosses have endless responsibilities to tend to. From hiring and firing to building a menu and handling health inspections – not to mention everything else in between – they have their hands full. But perhaps the greatest stress they might face is a lawsuit, from a customer or an employee. Any accident in a restaurant could end in court, with a costly case of liability for the owner if they are found responsible. So why leave anything to chance? It’s true that there are countless potential hazards in a restaurant, but using drainage mats in strategic positions can do wonders for a venue’s safety status.

A drainage mat is a rubber mat with holes covering its surface area. The holes are designed to allow liquids such as water, grease and oil to filter away from the surface of the mat. This means that drainage mats do not allow standing fluids to gather or spread. The applications of such mats are wide-ranging, especially in the fast-paced environment of a restaurant, where there might be plenty of liquids flying around. For the restaurant owner not only looking to the comfort of their employees, but also looking to avoid any potential legal trouble, they are the perfect addition.

The use of drainage mats to prevent slippage in restaurants is a formal suggestion by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and when you are aware of the slip and fall statistics in bars and eateries, it’s easy to see why. A series of eye-opening facts and figures were collated from insurance companies, government agencies and independent watchdogs for the book Falls Aren’t Funny: America’s Multi-Billion Dollar Slip-and-Fall Crisis. It cites figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in labelling slips and falls the leading cause of restaurant accidents. It also quotes C.N.A. Insurance in saying nearly 60% of all general liability claims in the food service are a result of slip and fall accidents, with plaintiffs winning 51% of claims, while the average cost of defending a slip and fall lawsuit is $50,000, according to the National Floor Safety Institute. It is impossible to say whether the use of drainage mats would prevent every accident, but it is a simple and easily-implemented solution to reduce liability, and goes a long way toward keeping restaurants free of hazards.

There are several places within a restaurant that this can be extremely useful, or even vital. The obvious location is in the kitchen. If you don’t want your chefs and servers slipping on a slick surface and taking you to court, it is vital to have mats for the kitchen. A rubber kitchen mat will have the added benefit of providing extra comfort for the chefs who are on their feet for long shifts – avoiding another potential lawsuit. As well as draining liquids away from the surface area of the mat, the holes in a drainage mat can catch small pieces of debris, including food fragments, and keep them from creating a trip or slip hazard in the kitchen.

But benefits are not limited to the kitchen. For example, a drainage mat would also be of great use in front of a self-service fountain drinks machine, where drinks and ice are likely to splatter the floor and create a slipping hazard. Utilizing a drainage mat would keep that area of flooring clear, and prevent any liability issues. Another potential position could be a restroom, where water might spill onto the floor and regular tiling could become slippery. Drainage mats can be of great benefit wherever there is a possibility of standing water or other liquids building up to create a hazard. In addition, drainage mats can be easily moved and cleaned, making them low maintenance.

For restauranteurs, any decision they make has to be weighed against the ultimate costs and benefits. Some may believe that drainage mats are not vital additions to their venue floors. But the bottom line is that a lawsuit can be a costly and needless expense. In many cases, it could be avoided by making use of drainage mats to keep the floors dry, and customers and employees safe.