Key Questions to Ask When Ordering Ground Protection Mats

Apr. 28, 2025

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6 Questions to Ask When Choosing Mats for Ground Protection

When building a work site plan, key factors include safety, efficiency, quality of equipment and budget. As you consider ground protection solutions for your construction or industrial work site, start with the following six questions to choose the correct product for your needs.

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1. Should I choose wood or composite access mats?

You need a safe, stable, flexible and durable foundation to get your work done on time while protecting crews and equipment in all conditions and climates. Composite mats are engineered to provide that access.

Composite construction mats better protect workers and equipment, improve ROI and safeguard the environment at any job site. Consider the following benefits.

2. What are the ground conditions for the project?

Determine the surface you will build on: soil, mud, saturated, rocky, grassy, sandy, sloped, etc.

Composite mats conform more easily to uneven surfaces and can be joined with pins to build consistent work and access surfaces. The overlapping flanges and locking pins reduce gaps and breaks that lead to excessive wear and tear, damage to equipment and injury to workers.

Questions about the soil condition of your site, the bearing capacity of the sub-grade, the load and traffic requirements and duration of the project will all impact the number of mats and the configuration of your road or work site. These issues are best addressed by geoengineers or project managers prior to installation.

3. What is the application?

Is it a work platform or access road? Once you've determined the application, plan your starting point — Point A — and your ending point — Point B. What are you using the road or platform for?

Factors can include:

Changing terrain or sub-grade conditions for a longer temporary roadway
Expected daily traffic on the matting
Duration of project
Need for passing or turn lanes
Work site land restoration requirements

Create a site plan. Consult field training guides or an expert adviser about preferred layouts and order of mat placement for best performance for your conditions.

Consider whether you need heavy-duty, medium-duty or light-duty composite matting for the best return on investment. Signature experts have years of experience to advise on the best product for your project.

4. What equipment is involved?

What trucks and heavy equipment will be operating on the installed roads or platforms during the same hours of operation? Will you need passing or turn lanes?

What is your heaviest piece of equipment?

Always ask for the performance specs and recommended load limits before choosing ground protection to keep your personnel and equipment safe.

For example, the largest and heaviest telescoping cranes have specific safety requirements for ground protection.

5. Are there any requirements or site regulations regarding cross-contamination of chemicals, toxins or invasive plants, stormwater runoff or other restrictions?

Environmental regulations in some states or for sensitive sites often require composite matting to ensure that no invasive species or cross-contamination of site-related waste or debris reach the ground.

Research any restrictions for the area you're working in and ensure you understand the requirements for your project before setting up.

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Composite mats can be pressure washed before or after removal, reused and transported to new work sites without fear of cross-contamination. Wood mats absorb water and contaminants and cannot be easily or effectively cleaned.

If toxic liquids are present that should not reach the ground, use a waterproof protective layer or geotextile first before placing mats on-site.

6. Do you plan to re-use the ground protection for another project or transport it to another location?

If yes, understand the reusability and ROI benefits of high-quality composite matting compared with wood matting that can save you time and money over the course of the project and subsequent projects.

Composite mats are consistent in quality, don’t rot, split or lose strength when wet. They are lighter in weight and require fewer trucks to move.

Companies can transport more composite mats than wood mats on each truck, reducing shipping, labor and fuel costs and saving valuable time in tight operations schedules.

Because composite mats limit damage to the work site, crews also spend less time on cleanup repairing rutting or soil compaction issues on affected property.

Ground Protection Mats Buyers Guide - Greatmats

Ground protection mats are a key piece of equipment for construction companies to have on hand. Whether you need to protect a lawn from heavy equipment traveling across it or you are creating a temporary road at the build site where you don’t want to turn the road into mud, these mats deliver the protection you need.

With 4x8 feet of coverage per mat, the AlturnaMats Ground Protection Mats from Greatmats can create a large walking area or a temporary roadway at a residential site or at a construction site. Each mat measures 1/2 inches in thickness and can support loads up to 120 tons.

At a coverage size of 3x8 feet, the VersaMats Diamond Foot Mats from Greatmats have a non-traditional size for those who need to create a custom-sized temp roadway. Each of these mats withstands a load of up to 120 tons and carries a limited lifetime warranty.

For those who need smaller protection mats to enhance portability, the Black Ground Protection Mats from Greatmats measure only 2x8 feet in size. This saves quite a bit of weight versus the typical 4x8 foot mat. These smaller mats still can support up to 120 tons of load and still offer cleats to enhance traction for foot or vehicular traffic.

Large 4x8 foot protective mats can be difficult to carry in and out of place, but the Liberty Ground Protection Mats include hand holes that simplify moving the mats and stacking them for transport. These 1/2-inch thick mats include a textured surface pattern to improve traction and can support loads up to 80 tons.

When you need to leave the yard protection mats in place for a few days, using the Clear Ground Protection Mats from Greatmats is a smart idea. These mats use a transparent plastic design that allows some sunlight to reach the grass underneath, helping the grass remain viable during days of extended usage of the mats.

Lisk Landscape Innovations makes use of heavy equipment to eliminate standing water in the yard or basement for customers. The New Jersey business selected clear plastic protection mats from Greatmats that allow sunlight to reach the grass. These mats protect the lawns of customers as employees move the equipment back and forth on a project that could take a few days.

When working in tight conditions in residential areas to trim or remove trees, Whispering Tree Service in Virginia needed a way to protect the beautiful lawns and landscaping of their customers. The service researched its options before selecting our ground mats, which offered both smooth surfaces and cleat surfaces for extra traction, meeting different use cases the business faced.

For Industrial By Products LLC, dealing with the spring thaw in Minnesota left the company with difficult working conditions when trying to move large trucks over soft ground for weeks in the early spring. By deploying Greatmats’ protective mats, though, the company was able to create temporary roadways that could support loads up to 120 tons that allowed them to work successfully at any time of the year.

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