How to maintain timber mats to keep them in good condition

Good quality timber mats will give you years and even decades of service life, with only some simple maintenance needed to keep them safe from avoidable damage.

Here’s our five-point guide to how to maintain timber mats to keep them in good condition for many years to come.

 

1. Know your type of timber mat

Different timber mat species have different service lifetimes, so make sure you know how long you can expect your timber mats to stay in peak condition.

Tropical hardwoods with the highest durability ratings can last for decades, whereas some of our European hardwood mats are rated for closer to 5-10 years.

 

2. How to keep timber mats clean

Timber mats are designed for outdoor use, so it is generally not a problem if they occasionally get wet or muddy, but you should avoid prolonged exposure to wet and dirty conditions.

Because of this, once you have finished using them on a job, you should clean any surface dirt and then allow the timber to dry out before storing them in a dry place – ideally somewhere indoors – until the next job.

 

3. Avoid damaged edges

The edges of timber ground mats are more exposed to damage, so try to keep vehicles in the middle of your temporary roadway or working platform whenever possible.

You can protect the edges of timber mats even more by using access ramps at the entry and exit point and ensuring adjacent mats are laid fully flush to one another and joined together using the designated connecting points where these are provided.

 

4. Replace damaged timber mats

When damage occurs, replace damaged timber mats at the first opportunity. This takes the damaged mats out of circulation so that you are always using safe and stable temporary roadways and crane platforms.

We have plenty of good quality timber mats for hire, so if you find you are facing an unexpected need to replace damaged timber mats from your own stock, it could be a fast and economic option to hire some as a temporary solution.

 

5. Hire or buy?

As well as timber mats for hire, we have a varied range of responsibly sourced timber mats for sale, with different characteristics to suit different needs.

If you have a job coming up and don’t have the right kind of ground protection mats, for example if you are using heavier crane vehicles than usual, give us a call and we can recommend the right timber mats for sale at the present time, which you will then have close to hand for future work whenever you need them.