FAQ

When mats are placed on the terrain the impact force of heavy equipment is reduced as the mats work to displace the weight of equipment and provide a solid foundation to move equipment over ground, water, or hazards. The spacing of the boards on 2-ply timber mat designs allows grass and vegetation to grow while the mats are in place.

You will want to consider a wide range of jobsite specs before choosing the best type of ground protection for your project.  Things to consider:

• BUDGET. Our mats come in a range of pricing to meet your project budget requirements.
• EQUIPMENT ON YOUR SITE. Take an inventory of all the equipment on your site. How much ground coverage matting will the project require for the equipment to safely access and navigate within a jobsite?  Weight of the equipment will also be a factor in determining the best mat design to utilize.
• SIZE OF AREA TO COVER. We can provide experts to perform a jobsite walkdown to define  the ground coverage area that requires matting and assist in selecting the most appropriate  configuration from a range of mat sizes to affectively cover the area.
• EQUIPMENT TRACTION REQUIREMENTS.  Project managers will need to take into consideration the type of equipment that will be utilized when defining traction requirements.  Tracked equipment, like skid steers, will need less traction than equipment with wheels. Weather conditions such as mud, rain, ice, and snow will also need to be considered when determining the appropriate mat design to enable the best traction solution for the equipment.   Mats come in a variety of textures to meet your safety demands.
• WEIGHT REQUIRMENTS.  Depending on the selected configuration the weight of a single mat can be between 800 to 1,500 pounds. The ease of mobility and mat configuration (stand alone or locking) depends on the project’s specific demands.  
• ENVIRONMENTAL.  Composite mats may be preferable to timber mats in or around wetlands or other environmentally sensitive areas.  Composite mats will not rot or degrade, which is ideally suited for long-term installations with minimal environmental impact. 

DI provides a full range of access ground protection mat rentals. Please call us today to find out our cost-effective rental options. We can schedule, deliver, and install rental mats. When you no longer need the mats for your project, we retrieve them and can also provide full ground restoration when the project is complete. Though our business model is focused  renting mats we do sell mats as well.

Access mats are a temporary solution to get your manpower, vehicles, and equipment deployed to challenging areas within the job site. The mats protect the ground from vehicle and machinery damage, keeping your manpower safe and equipment on stable surfaces when traversing in and around bodies of water, muddy sites, storm surge, or remote areas. DI deploys experienced crews to deliver and install matted roads, and retrieval services once your project is complete.  We also provide restoration services to the area where the mats were placed if desired. Stone roads provide a more permanent access,  thus altering the ground where they were constructed. Stone roads can add additional  construction time and job costs due to the level of removal and restoration work required at the conclusion of the project. With DI’s full range of ground protection mats, we can have the mats installed timely so your manpower and equipment can be put straight to work. The mats are a temporary and efficient solution that create minimal disruption to the ground surface in the work area. Have a Project Manager contact us, and we will assign an experienced team members to assist in a  site review, as well as the planning, delivery, installation, and  removal of the mats when the project is complete. This is one less undertaking for your project manager to contend with so they may focus on other critical responsibilities and keep your projects on time and on budget.

Whether you should use a composite mat or a timber mat depends on a number of considerations, such as whether the ground is located in wetlands, typically wet or dry; the type and weight of equipment that will traverse the ground over the mats, whether the vehicles have rubber tires; the length of the project and environmental considerations.   Whether a timber mat or a composite mat is appropriate for your utility jobsite, construction site or special event is a function of balancing those and other factors, including cost.  A Diverse Infrastructure ground protection and access expert can assist you in making the determination as to the right mat for your job.

As with the type of mat, the quantity of mats is a function of whether you choose a timber or composite mat, the size of the mats, the environmental conditions at your jobsite,  the type and weight of construction equipment, vehicles and trucks that will use the mats to access the jobsite, and the total area to be protected. Our sales engineers will determine the appropriate number of mats for your project.

There is a time and place for timber mats.  Timber mats are less expensive than composite mats, but wood mats will rot and degrade over time. Composite mats require a significantly greater investment, but they will never deteriorate and can last indefinitely. So, in the long run, composite mats could prove to be less costly than timber mats.  Moreover, in environmentally sensitive areas such as wetlands, may customers require composite mats due to environmental considerations.