Engineered? What are Foote-Mats™ made of? The Foote-Mats™ system uses a durable, soft-flex rubber base combined with disposable top sheets. The base is made with "stay-put" pegs to hold each fresh new top sheet in place. The Foote-Mat™ top sheet is made of four layers, each with its own job. The top layer is a tough, apertured material and it practically snaps drops of moisture out of mid-air. The black color hides drips and stains. The second layer is a super-absorbent material that also eliminates odor causing bacteria. The third layer blocks all moisture from getting down to the restroom floor. And the fourth layer is a scrim material that keeps everything held together tightly while adding a nice, fabric feel to the product. As you can see, Foote-Mats™ aren’t just paper towels! They’re engineered!

What makes Foote-Mats™ different from the rest?

Foote-Mats™ offer a simple, innovative system to eliminate drips, stains, and odors! The absorbent Foote-Mats™ top sheet retains moisture, is cost-efficient, and is easily disposable. The principal competition for Foote-Mats™ are large, bulky trays with plastic grids over white diaper material that shows all drips and stains. Moreover, these trays are hard to dispose of, don’t adhere well to bathroom floors, can’t be private labeled with your company’s logo, and cost more than three times as much as Foote-Mats™. Click here to download a comparison chart.

Will I be able to mop less frequently when I use Foote-Mats™?

Yes, if you’re currently mopping once every two days (say, in an office environment), you can modify that schedule to once every three days or even once a week. This can reduce the time required to close down your restroom and lessen slip-and-fall hazards. You can even mop over the Foote-Mats™ with a damp mop to remove dusty footprints or to refresh.

Remember, by preventing urine from reaching the bathroom floor you are also preventing the spread of urine throughout the bathroom by the feet of bathroom users. The majority of the mess and odor in the bathroom will be eliminated.

How do I ensure that our Foote-Mats™ stay in place?

Foote-Mats™ have a durable, soft-flex rubber base with two pegs in the back two corners that are adhered to the bathroom floor with double-stick foam tape. These pegs prevent Foote-Mats™ from moving around the floor when stepped on, accidentally kicked, or mopped over.

It is very important to install the Foote-Mats™ rubber mat only on clean and dry bathroom floors under urinals. The location on the floor for the two floor pegs must be cleaned with alcohol or glass cleaner and allowed to dry before putting the base into position. It is best to steer clear of grout lines or uneven floor surfaces for good peg adhesion. Refer to the installation video for proper positioning under the urinal.

Coming soon – we will be offering industrial strength pegs for high-traffic restrooms.

What if the pegs come off of the floor?

There have been times when curiosity about the product has prompted people to pull, tug or kick the product quite violently and thus cause the two rear pegs to come off of the floor. Hopefully you will find that this destructive behavior goes away once the novelty of the installed Foote-Mats™ product wears off.

One reason that the pegs might pull from the floor prematurely is improper installation. It is very important to install the Foote-Mats™ rubber base mat only on clean and dry bathroom floors under urinals. The location on the floor for the two floor pegs must be cleaned with alcohol or glass cleaner and allowed to dry before putting the base into position. It is best to steer clear of grout lines or uneven floor surfaces for good peg adhesion. Refer to the installation video for proper positioning under the urinal.

Finally, if your Foote-Mats™ are located in high-traffic restrooms, you may need to purchase our heavy duty pegs to ensure that the product stays in place. These pegs have a much larger surface area for adhering to the floor and stay put about five times (5x) as well as our standard pegs. These pegs should be available after July 1. To order, click here.

How long do Foote-Mats™ last? Can one make them last longer?

Foote-Mats™ generally last up to two weeks (14 days) in office installations. We recommend changing-out Foote-Mats™ according to the following schedule:

Recommended Frequency of Change	Type of Facility	Uses per Day
Every day	Airport, rest areas	More than 300
Every 3 days	Bar, fast food restaurant	Up to 300
Every 5 days	Full service restaurant	Up to 200
Every 7 days (1 week)	Retail store	Up to 100
Every 14 days (2 weeks)	Office	Up to 50

If you find that Foote-Mats™ are dirty or dusty from shoeprints, they can be "cleaned up" by spraying them with a water mist or whatever spray-type surface cleaner you are currently using. This washes the dirt down into the Mat where it’s invisible to the restroom user.

If you want to add a clean scent to your Foote-Mats™, just spray them with a spray-type surface cleaner and the cleaning spray is absorbed into the Mats in just seconds.

Simply spray to refresh	10 seconds later!

Do Foote-Mats™ control odors?

Independent lab tests showed that Foote-Mats™ kill odor-causing bacteria by design. This inherent property of the materials used in the construction of the mat simply offers no viable environment in which the bacteria can reproduce and thus cause odors.

If Foote-Mats™ are stepped on will the user get urine on his shoes?

No. The top layer of Foote-Mats™ is specially engineered to pull the moisture away from the surface into the center of the Mat without letting it come back up. Once the moisture reaches the absorbent layer it is spread out and quickly dries up.

What should I do if our logo chip comes loose or knocks out easily?

To keep the Foote-Mats™ logo chip firmly in place, remove the chip and place some hot melt glue, silicone caulk, or other adhesive inside of the chip well. You can now reinsert the chip, making sure that you snap it securely in place.

Will drops of urine sit on top of Foote-Mats™?

No. The Foote-Mats™ are designed so that the moment moisture hits the top layer it is instantly absorbed. It’s incredible to see.

How do I install my new Foote-Mats™?

Refer to the installation video for proper positioning of the base mat under the urinal as well as the installation of Foote-Mats top sheets.

If Foote-Mats™ are completely soaked will they leak through to the bathroom floor?

No. Below the layer of absorbent material in the Foote-Mats™ top sheet are an impermeable barrier of plastic to stop urine (even in instances of extreme saturation) from reaching the floor.

How do I eliminate drips that flow down the urinal?

To eliminate the problem of drips flowing down the front of the urinal to a low point that is too near the wall and missing the Foote-Mats™, apply a silicon bead at an inconspicuous area as shown in the installation diagram in figure 3 or on the installation video.

Won’t stained Foote-Mats™ be just as unsightly as a stained bathroom floor?

Foote-Mats™ and their bases are made in black to hide the nasty stains associated with urine. Not only does the bathroom user have a more sanitary experience, but the grout on your restroom floors is also being protected from the urine.

How do I prevent moisture under Foote-Mats™?

When placing the rubber base mat into position, it is best to ensure that the floor under the mat is completely dry. Coming soon – we will have sheets available that you can place under Foote-Mats™ to help absorb moisture.

Is black the only color Foote-Mats™ are available in?

Yes. Black not only conceals the unsightly stains but it also provides users with a clean, upscale look. These mats are beautiful!

Can I get my company’s logo put on the Mats?

Companies are able to customize the Foote-Mats™ base with corporate logos.

Do you offer Foote-Mats™ for regular toilets?

At this time Foote-Mats™ are only available for urinals. In the future, however, we will offer Mats for normal toilets or commodes.

How much urine can Foote-Mats™ hold?

Urine normally comes into contact with Foote-Mats™, of course, in small drips over long periods of time and the wicking properties of our absorbent Mats makes quick work of drying out urine - certainly much faster than it would dry out just sitting on a tile floor! However, if Foote-Mats™ were to be saturated with 220 drips in a 6"x6" area, they would be completely dry in approximately 7 hours assuming 72° temperature and 45% humidity. This amount represents a sustained rate of 30 drips per hour that the Mat can handle without becoming saturated in this small area of a much larger mat. That’s a lot of urine!

Is there any research available on the value of restroom cleanliness?

Yes. Research shows that a clean restroom is CRITICAL to customer satisfaction!

• According to the 2001 Cleaning Maintenance and Management in-house survey, "the number one building maintenance complaint is dirty, stinking restrooms." (Kaivac Cleaning Systems)
• 85% of senior citizens said a dirty restroom would have a negative impact on a restaurant experience. 80% of women said a dirty restroom would cause them to question a restaurant’s food-handling practices.
• The 2003 Procter and Gamble Contract Cleaning Benchmarking Survey Report showed that restroom cleanliness issues account for over 33% of all types of customer complaints.
• A recent Hilton Hotel customer survey ranked bathroom cleanliness as more important than perceived safety and hotel service.
• The Maritz Poll found that 80% of Americans rate interior cleanliness as their number one concern when selecting a fast-food restaurant.
• 78% of people surveyed agreed that a clean restaurant restroom is a strong indicator of a clean kitchen (from Franchise Times Magazine, May 2004).
• Cleanliness was the top consideration for returning to a particular restroom in one survey, with 85 percent citing it as the chief reason. In a related question, 73 percent selected this as their most important concern about public restrooms (from BSCAI Services Magazine, April 2006).
• The International Facility Management Association (IFMA) surveys its members every year to determine the top 10 office complaints and says that “dirty restrooms” are a top 3 complaint amongst employees every year the study has been conducted.
• The 2004 Pioneer Eclipse In-House Cleaning Operations Benchmarking Survey Report once again pinpointed bathroom cleanliness as the target of most complaints by building occupants.

How much do Foote-Mats™ cost?

Foote-Mats™ cost only pennies per day!

Your daily cost from using Foote-Mats™ can be calculated as follows:

$1.49	–	average retail price of single Foote-Mat™ top sheet
÷ 14	–	four weeks (typical life of Foote-Mat™ in office environment)
10.6¢	–	cost per day per urinal

But it gets better! Of course using Foote-Mats™ saves costs associated with mopping and cleaning labor, cleaning chemicals, grout replacement, carpet cleaning, losing business due to dirty bathrooms, etc.

But how does one determine these costs? We used a big, fat formula and found out that Foote-Mats™ can save you money (not cost you!) but there are guesses and assumptions involved: is $8 per hour for labor the right wage? 10 minutes per restroom cleaning? How should we account for higher employee retention and fewer workman’s compensation claims? Is 25¢ in chemicals per mopping a good number? How about needing less odor control, or fewer carpet cleanings outside of the men’s restrooms, or happier customers because the bathroom is not closed down so much?

It’s complicated!

The bottom line, however, is not complicated:  for just pennies per day (much less, once the savings are figured in), you can make your customers, co-workers, and cleaning staff happier and healthier!