Frontrunner Entry Entrance Matting – 14mm Open-Grid PVC Barrier Mat, R11 Slip Rated, 6 Colours | Rolls & Matwell Modules

The 14mm open grid that stops it at the door

Around 80% of the dirt inside a building walks in through the front door — and most of it lands within the first few strides. Everything downstream of that, from the cleaning contract to the worn entrance flooring to the slip claim on a wet lobby floor, is a consequence of what the doorway did or did not catch.

Frontrunner Entry is the mat that catches it, and it is the grade most UK specifiers settle on. Two layers of flexible PVC: raised bars carrying a dense diamond-cut tread that scrapes shoes and wheels clean, sitting over continuous open channels that swallow the grit and the water and hold them below the walking surface until the mat is lifted.

14mm deep. R11 slip rated, V10 drainage, wheel-and-heel proof. Six colours. Rolls to cut on site, or pre-cut modules that drop straight into a standard matwell.

How the grid actually works

1. Scrape	The top of every bar carries a diamond-cut serrated tread. It works on the sole of a shoe the way a boot scraper does — mechanically, on every footfall, whether the person means to wipe their feet or not.
2. Trap	What comes off drops through the open channels between the bars and lands on the lower layer, below the level anyone walks on. It cannot be picked back up by the next pair of shoes.
3. Drain	Rain, snowmelt and pool water go the same way. The walking surface stays clear of standing water, which is the whole point of the V10 rating.

That third stage is what separates an open grid from a carpet-type barrier mat. A carpet mat holds water in the pile and eventually gives it back. This one puts it underneath and keeps it there.

Where it earns its keep

Setting	What it is doing
Office and corporate receptions	Recessed in a matwell across the full door width, taking the rain off umbrellas and shoes before it reaches a polished stone or timber floor. Flush, so nothing to trip on and nothing for a cleaner's machine to catch.
Supermarkets and retail	Trolley castors cross it without deflecting. Takes the car park grit that otherwise ends up ground into the aisle flooring for the rest of the day.
Hospitals and health centres	Laid flush, wheelchair and bed castors track straight across. The grid is non-porous, so it washes down rather than holding soil.
Schools and colleges	Two hundred pairs of wet shoes in four minutes, twice a day. Mud goes into the channels instead of down the corridor. Available in holly green and Oxford blue where the entrance has a house colour.
Airports and transport	Long runs inside automatic doors. Suitcase wheels roll over the bars cleanly, and the mat takes continuous traffic in both directions without curling.
Leisure centres and pools	Barefoot-friendly drainage on the dry side of the changing rooms, where the floor is wet and the slip risk is real.
Factory and warehouse personnel doors	Stones and mud off site boots before they reach a resin floor. Specify yellow where the threshold itself needs to be visible.

Colours

All six are the same mat — same tread, same height, same performance. Use the colour selector above to see each one in place.

• Black and dark grey — the commercial default, and between them the majority of what we ship. Both hide soiling between cleans and sit quietly against most floor finishes.
• Dark brown — warmer, for stone, timber and heritage entrances where black reads as too stark.
• Holly green and Oxford blue — for entrances that are part of a brand or a house scheme. Common in schools, leisure centres and civic buildings.
• Yellow — high visibility, for industrial personnel doors and anywhere the threshold needs to be seen as well as walked on.

Rolls or modules?

Rolls 10m × 0.6m · 10m × 0.91m · 5m × 1.2m	For a full entrance width or a long run through a lobby. Cut to length on site with a sharp hooked knife against a straight edge — no special tools, no hot work. Best value per square metre.
Modules 0.8 × 1.2m · 1.0 × 1.5m · 1.1 × 2.0m	Pre-cut rectangles for a standard matwell or a single doorway. Drop in and done — no cutting, no offcuts, no waste to dispose of.

If your matwell matches one of the module sizes, take the module. If it does not, a roll cut to fit will almost always work out cheaper than a bespoke size.

How long should the mat be?

• One stride is not a barrier mat. A person clears a 1m mat in two footfalls — one per foot. Most of what was on the soles is still on the soles.
• 1.5m is the practical minimum. Three footfalls per foot, and you start taking the loose grit.
• 3m takes most of it. Six footfalls per foot. This is the length that changes the cleaning bill.
• Full door width, every time. People walk round a narrow mat, not over it — and the ones who walk round it are the ones carrying the water.
• Leave it liftable. Everything the mat traps only leaves the building when someone lifts it and sweeps underneath. Design the installation so that is a one-person job.

Recessed or surface-laid?

Recessed is the best result. The mat sits in a matwell and finishes flush with the floor: no trip edge, no lip for a trolley wheel, and the full 14mm working for you. Where the well is shallower than 14mm — typically one formed over existing tile or carpet — Frontrunner Entry is also made in a low-profile 10.5mm build. Tell us the well depth and we will specify the right one.

Surface-laid works too. Lay the mat straight onto the finished floor and frame the exposed edges with ramped PVC edging (60mm or 100mm) or an aluminium perimeter section, so the transition is walked over rather than tripped on. All of that is on our matting accessories page.

Technical specification

Material	Flexible polyvinyl chloride (PVC), two-layer open-grid construction
Surface	Diamond-cut tread — raised bars carrying dense moulded studs over a close-mesh open grid
Height	14mm standard · 10.5mm low profile
Weight	10.5 kg/m² standard · 8.7 kg/m² low profile
Slip resistance	DIN 51130: R11 · ASTM E303 dry/wet 77–97 / 58–71
Drainage	DIN 51130: V10 — water and grit pass through the grid and are held below the walking surface
Fire performance	EN ISO 13501-1:2007 Bfl-s1 · ASTM E648 Class 1
Traffic	Wheel-and-heel proof — trolleys, wheelchairs, suitcase castors, stiletto heels and pallet trucks all cross without catching
Temperature range	−23°C to +60°C
Chemical resistance	Resistant to most acids, alkalis and oils. Full chemical resistance schedule available on request
UV	UV-resistant PVC formulation
Roll sizes	10m × 0.6m · 10m × 0.91m · 5m × 1.2m
Module sizes	0.8 × 1.2m · 1.0 × 1.5m · 1.1 × 2.0m
Colours	Black, dark grey, dark brown, holly green, Oxford blue, yellow
Installation	Recessed in a matwell or surface-laid with edging. Cuts on site; contours to uneven and slightly uneven substrates
Environmental	100% recyclable. Contains no substances on the SVHC candidate list under REACH

Need this as a specification clause for a tender or an NBS schedule? Tell us the building type and the door width and we will send the data over in the format you need.

Installation notes

• Cutting. A sharp hooked trimming knife and a long aluminium straight edge. Cut from the underside along a channel line and the edge comes out square.
• Matwell depth. Match the well to the mat — 14mm for the standard build, 10.5mm for the low profile. A well deeper than the mat leaves a lip at the perimeter.
• Allow for movement. Like all thermoplastics the sheet moves a little with temperature — allow up to 2% and leave a small perimeter gap rather than butting it hard into the frame, particularly on a south-facing glazed entrance that gets direct sun.
• Joining runs. Wide entrances are made up from several widths. Connector clips and snap track hold adjacent pieces in line and stop the joint opening under trolley traffic.
• Lay direction. Run the bars across the line of travel so every stride crosses several bars, not along it.

Cleaning

Vacuum the surface as part of the normal round. Every few weeks — weekly through a wet winter — lift or roll the mat back, sweep or vacuum the grit out of the well beneath, and hose or wash the mat itself. The PVC is non-porous, so nothing soaks in and it goes back down dry.

The pile of grit sitting under the mat is not a fault; it is the product doing its job. The schedule that removes it is what keeps the mat working.

Common questions

How long should the mat be?
1.5m is the practical minimum, 3m is where it genuinely stops most of what walks in. Always the full width of the doorway.

My matwell is shallower than 14mm.
Take the low-profile 10.5mm build. Send us the well depth and we will specify it and price it.

I have no matwell at all.
Lay it on the surface and frame it with ramped PVC edging, or move to the 6.5mm surface-laid SB grade on our full entrance matting system page.

Will trolleys, wheelchairs and heels cross it?
Yes — it is rated wheel-and-heel proof. Small castors and stiletto tips bridge the bars rather than dropping into the channels.

Can I cut it to fit?
Yes. Rolls cut on site with a sharp knife. Modules arrive pre-cut, so if your well matches a standard size there is nothing to do.

People arrive genuinely muddy — is there something more aggressive?
Yes. The Brush and Brush Wide grades add nylon 6.6 bristle strips between the bars to scrub the sides of boots as well as the soles. Both are on the full system page.

What if the real problem is water rather than grit?
Run Entry at the outside to take the grit and follow it with the carpet-insert Plus grade to take the moisture. Scrape first, absorb second.

Which colour do most people take?
Dark grey, then black. The other four are for when the entrance has to match something.

Related

• Full entrance matting system — all seven grades side by side, including the brush, carpet-insert and 6.5mm surface-laid builds
• Matting accessories — ramped PVC edging, aluminium frames, connector clips, snap track and floor hooks

Not sure what you need?

Send us the door width, whether there is a matwell and how deep it is, whether the entrance is covered or exposed, and what people are walking in off — paving, grass, a car park or a building site. We will specify the size, the colour and whether a roll or a module works out better, and price it the same day.