If you manage a building in Florida, hurricane season facility prep is not something you do once and check off a list. It is a 6-month state of readiness that runs from June 1 through November 30 — and during those months, your building’s entrances, floors, and matting program will be tested in ways that no amount of normal daily traffic can replicate.
We are not here to tell you how to board up your windows or stock emergency supplies. FEMA handles that, and they are better at it than we are. What we are here to tell you is what happens to your floors, your entrances, and your liability exposure when a tropical storm or hurricane dumps 5 to 15 inches of rain on your property in 24 hours — and what you can do right now to minimize the damage, getting entrances ready for the rainy season.
Because here is the thing nobody tells you about hurricanes and commercial buildings: the storm itself lasts 12 to 36 hours. The water damage to your floors, the slip-and-fall risk during cleanup, and the insurance headaches that follow can last months. Your hurricane season facility prep for matting and floor protection is what determines whether you are back to normal in a week or dealing with consequences until Christmas.
The time to prepare is right now — before a storm has a name, a cone, and your building in its path. Once a hurricane warning is issued, you are reacting instead of preparing, and everything costs more and takes longer.
Walk every entrance in your facility and evaluate each mat against the replacement warning signs we outlined in our maintenance guide. Specifically look for curled edges that become trip hazards when wet, flattened fibers that can no longer absorb water, backing that is cracked or deteriorating, and mats that are undersized for the entrance they serve.
A mat that is barely holding on during normal operations will fail completely during hurricane conditions. If you have been putting off mat replacements, a hurricane will make that decision for you — and it will be more expensive, more dangerous, and more disruptive when it does.
Replace any marginal mats now, while lead times are normal and you can choose exactly what you want. After a storm hits, every facility manager in Florida is calling for replacement mats at the same time, and supply gets tight fast.
Normal entrance matting follows the 15-foot rule — 15 feet of mat coverage from door to interior floor. For hurricane season, more is better. The volume of water that enters a building during and after a major storm overwhelms standard mat configurations.
If your main entrance currently has a 4×6 WaterHog, consider adding a second mat behind it or upgrading to a 4×8 or 6×10. The additional coverage gives you more water capture capacity before your lobby floor becomes a wading pool. Our 3-Zone Entrance Matting System is designed for exactly this kind of heavy-moisture scenario — the three-mat sequence captures progressively finer contaminants and distributes the moisture load across multiple mats instead of overwhelming one.
For a deeper dive on sizing and placement for Florida’s wet conditions, see our rainy season entrance mats guide. Everything in that guide applies to hurricane season, amplified significantly.
This is the single most important hurricane season facility prep action for your matting program. During and after a storm, your entrance mats will saturate. A saturated mat is not just useless — it is dangerous. It becomes a heavy, waterlogged trip hazard that can actually make your floor wetter by allowing pooled water to spread beyond the mat edges.
Having a backup set of entrance mats allows you to rotate saturated mats out and dry ones in during the worst conditions. You do not need a full duplicate set for every entrance — focus on your highest-traffic doors. For most facilities, 2 to 4 backup mats will cover the rotation needs during a major rain event.
The math is straightforward. A set of 4 backup WaterHog mats costs roughly $400 to $600. A single slip-and-fall claim during post-storm cleanup costs $20,000 to $50,000. If you need help making the case to your building owner, our ROI Calculator can help you build the business case, and our slip-and-fall prevention guide covers the liability angle in detail.
When a hurricane warning is issued, your outdoor scraper mats become projectiles. A SuperScrape mat weighs 20 to 40 pounds depending on size — but sustained hurricane winds can still lift, shift, or slam them into doors, walls, and vehicles.
Before the storm arrives, bring outdoor mats inside or secure them. Stack them in a dry interior space where they will not be exposed to wind or flying debris. After the storm passes, inspect them for damage before placing them back. Rubber mats are tough, but a direct hit from windblown debris can crack or gouge the surface.
This is the step most facility managers skip, and it is the one that matters most for insurance purposes. Before hurricane season starts — and again before a specific storm approaches — photograph every entrance, every mat, and every floor surface in your building.
If you have floor damage after a storm, your insurance claim will go much smoother if you can show the pre-storm condition of those same floors. If your mats prevented damage (which they will), you have documentation that your matting program worked. Either way, the photos help you.
Date-stamp the photos and store them somewhere that will not be destroyed by the storm itself — cloud storage, email them to yourself, or keep them on a phone that you take with you during evacuation.
Depending on the storm category and your facility type, you may or may not be present during the hurricane itself. If your building is occupied during a tropical storm or Category 1 hurricane (common for hospitals, emergency operations centers, and essential facilities), here is what to manage.
Check entrance mats every 2 to 4 hours during active rain. When a mat is saturated — you can tell because water is pooling on the surface instead of being absorbed — swap it for a dry backup. Stand the saturated mat upright in a service area to drain.
If water is getting past your entrance mats and reaching your lobby floor, deploy temporary floor protection. Absorbent mats, towels, or even rolled-up Berber Roll Goods can serve as temporary water barriers. The goal is to keep as much water as possible on matting and off your finished floor surfaces.
If you cannot keep the floor dry — and during a major storm, you probably cannot — mark wet areas with wet floor signs and restrict access where possible. Your slip-and-fall liability does not pause during a hurricane. If someone slips on your wet lobby floor during a storm, the legal standard is the same as any other day: did you take reasonable measures to maintain a safe walking surface? Wet floor signs, entrance mats, and documented maintenance during the storm demonstrate reasonable care.
The storm is over. The power is back on. Now the real work begins — and your floors are more vulnerable in the 48 hours after a hurricane than they were during the storm itself.
After a hurricane, everyone returns to the building at once. Employees, tenants, contractors, insurance adjusters, restoration crews, utility workers — all of them walking through standing water, mud, debris, and who knows what else the storm deposited on your property. Your entrance mats are about to handle 3 to 5 times their normal daily traffic load, and every person walking in is bringing significantly more moisture and contaminants than a typical day.
This is when backup mats and oversized entrance coverage pay for themselves. If you prepared, your mats handle the surge. If you did not, your lobby floor takes the hit — and refinishing a water-damaged lobby costs $2 to $4 per square foot. For a 2,000 square foot lobby, that is $4,000 to $8,000.
After conditions are safe, inspect every mat in your facility:
Outdoor mats: Check for wind damage, debris impact, and displacement. Rubber mats can be repositioned immediately if they are undamaged.
Indoor mats: Check for saturation, contamination (storm water carries debris, chemicals, and sewage in flood conditions), and displacement. Saturated mats should be extracted or hosed off and dried completely before returning to service.
Floor surfaces: Walk every entrance area and inspect the floor under and around each mat for water damage, staining, or warping. Check the edges of the mat placement area especially — water often seeps under mats during heavy conditions and damages floor finishes along the perimeter.
Storm water is not clean water. It carries sediment, road chemicals, lawn treatment chemicals, and potentially sewage if sewer systems were overwhelmed. Any mat that was exposed to floodwater should be deep cleaned at a minimum — commercial laundering for mats with nitrile backing, or heavy extraction and disinfection for standard rubber-backed mats.
If a mat was submerged in standing floodwater for an extended period (more than a few hours), consider replacing it. Flood-contaminated mats can harbor bacteria and mold deep in the backing material that cleaning cannot reach. The cost of replacement is significantly less than the health risk of putting a contaminated mat back into service. See our commercial mat cleaning and care guide for the complete cleaning protocol.
Healthcare facilities face the most critical hurricane prep requirements because they cannot evacuate — they must remain operational during the storm. Entrance matting at every access point must be oversized, backup mats must be staged at every entrance, and cleaning supplies must be accessible without leaving the building. ED entrances will see the highest traffic during and after the storm.
Hotels face a unique challenge: guests who did not evacuate are in the building during the storm, and displaced residents may arrive seeking shelter after the storm. Lobby traffic spikes dramatically in the post-storm period. Oversized entrance mats and backup rotation are essential for maintaining guest safety and lobby appearance.
Schools may be used as emergency shelters during hurricanes, which means entrances designed for student traffic suddenly handle hundreds of community members bringing in water, mud, pets, and supplies. Mat programs designed for normal school operations are completely inadequate for shelter conditions. Stage extra mats at every entrance before storm season.
Restaurants that reopen quickly after a storm face a rush of customers from a community with limited dining options. Kitchen floors that were clean before the storm may have been contaminated by floodwater. Anti-fatigue and drainage mats in the kitchen should be deep cleaned or replaced before reopening food service.
Warehouse facilities face loading dock flooding, forklift contamination from driving through storm debris, and potential product damage from water intrusion. Entrance mats at pedestrian doors and dock entries need to be inspected and replaced if contaminated by floodwater.
Office buildings typically have the advantage of being unoccupied during the storm, which means no foot traffic damage during the worst conditions. The risk is in the re-entry period. Coordinate with building management to have clean, dry entrance mats in place before tenants return. A wet, unmatted lobby on re-entry day sets a bad tone and creates immediate slip-and-fall risk with hundreds of people arriving simultaneously.
According to the National Hurricane Center, the average insured loss from a Florida hurricane runs into billions statewide. Your building’s share of that depends on your preparation. For floor and entrance protection specifically, the numbers look like this:
Lobby floor refinishing after water damage: $2 to $4 per square foot. A 2,000 sq ft lobby = $4,000 to $8,000.
Carpet replacement in flooded areas: $3 to $8 per square foot installed.
Single slip-and-fall claim during post-storm cleanup: $20,000 to $50,000 average.
Insurance premium increase after a preventable claim: potentially thousands per year for multiple years.
Complete entrance matting program for a mid-size commercial building: $1,500 to $3,000 including backup mats.
The matting investment is a rounding error compared to the cost of not having it when the storm hits.
Hurricane season starts June 1. If you are reading this before a storm is in the forecast, you have time to prepare properly. If you are reading this with a tropical system in the Gulf, you need to act today.
Request a free quote and tell us about your building — entrance count, door widths, facility type, and whether you need backup mats for storm rotation. We will recommend the right products, properly sized for hurricane conditions, with pricing within 1 business day.
For multi-building operations, we offer volume pricing with staggered delivery across your portfolio.
Call us at 954-751-9800. We are based in Deerfield Beach, Florida — right here in hurricane country with you. We know what these storms do to buildings because we deal with the same ones. And unlike the storm, we will still be here tomorrow.
