Stepping onto a saturated, improperly sized doormat while entering your home is an excellent way to ruin your day. Slips and falls on rainy days at entryways can result in injury and embarrassment. However, a properly sized doormat at double doors keeps your floors clean while safely welcoming you and your guests. When purchasing your new doormat, be sure to get one specifically made for a dual entrance. Our guide covers the ideal dimensions based on door size, specialized options for heavy traffic flow, and tips on materials and upkeep for enhanced floor protection.
Doormats 101
What do doormats do?
Doormats provide essential functions for any home entryway. As you walk in from the outdoors, an indoor doormat absorbs moisture, mud, and debris. This helps prevent weather elements, grass clippings, oil drips from cars, and other outdoor substances from getting tracked inside. Without a doormat to wipe feet, all those things would get embedded into your indoor carpeting and flooring.
A properly placed doormat also makes your entryway safer by catching wetness that could otherwise pool into slippery puddles just past your doors. Doormats give you a designated spot to rub your shoes before welcoming guests further into your home. Finally, a stylish, clean mat at the exterior doors sets the tone for hospitality.
Benefits of using an appropriately sized doormat
Choosing the right sized doormat for high foot traffic locations like double doors provides better floor protection, increased cleanliness, and improved safety. Standard sized 2×3 feet mats saturate quickly and fail to adequately clean bottoms of shoes in rainy or snowy conditions. Plus, they easily shift from people repeatedly stepping partially off them. Larger mats withstand more volume, remain firmly in place, and keep the entry tidy longer.
Double Doors Create Unique Needs
Issue with standard-sized mats
Typical store-bought mats don’t work well for double doors since they assume only one person will use the mat at once. Trying to share a small space leads to awkward door entry dance moves with guests bumping into each other. Once saturated from precipitation or melting snow, excess moisture overflows off tiny mats into the nearby floor space.
Additionally, groups entering together step onto the mat unevenly with partial shoe coverage. This pushes narrow mats askew, creating a tripping hazard. Muddy footprints inevitably end up on portions of the floor just beyond undersized doormats.
Advantages of bigger doormats
Wider and larger doormats designed for dual doors solve these problems. With sufficient surface area, two people can wipe feet simultaneously without uncomfortable crowding or jousting for position. The expanded size also handles increased volume before becoming saturated. It takes longer for the same intensity of foot traffic to overwhelm the doormat when there is more material to absorb moisture.
Greater dimensions provide full coverage beyond people’s shoe sizes as well. Even errant footing lands squarely on the mat instead of flooring. Added length and width mean the mat stays firmly planted in position despite heavy use. Attaching it to the floor prevents migration, keeping it where it belongs.
Measurements to Size Properly
Width guidelines
For double doorways up to six feet across, choose an entrance mat spanning five to six feet wide. Allow around two feet of depth from there, with some variation possible based on aesthetics and shape.
A good guideline is selecting a doormat about 80% as wide as the full double door entrance. This provides adequate wiping room for two adults while maintaining a sense of balance visually. If you go much wider, the mat starts to look disproportionately large relative to the doors. Any narrower fails to cover enough space for multiple visitors entering simultaneously.
Length recommendations
Two to three feet offers ample length for people to take a couple of full steps on the mat and wipe shoes thoroughly before clearing space for the next person. Focus more attention on getting the right width over optimal length. For length, most standard sizes available will suffice to get the job done.
Other considerations
With the ideal 5′ x 3′ dimensions recommended above, the total surface area ends up around 15-20 square feet. Remember to factor in design aesthetics too when finalizing size and proportions relative to your existing decor.
Consider border or pattern thickness when deciding on proportions as well. A doormat with a wide external border looks smaller overall than the same interior dimensions with a thin border or no border.
Material and Safety Tips
Best materials for durability
Choosing a durable material able to withstand heavy foot traffic and moisture is essential for high functioning doormats. Look for tightly woven synthetic fibers or coconut coir doormats, both inherently resistant to deterioration from dirt and dampness.
For high capacity needs, rubber offers similar resilience against damage while providing exceptional scraping on shoe soles. Rubber mats feature grippy pebbled textures, sturdy construction, and heavier weight helping them lay flat and remain firmly planted.
Other synthetic constructions like nylon make reasonably durable options as well. But stay away from bargain cotton varieties more prone to mildew and quicker breakdown.
Additional recommendations
Beyond material, prioritize non-slip rubber backing to keep the mat from sliding around on smooth flooring surfaces. Look for manufacturer labels indicating “non-skid.” Without a grippy underside, attach the mat with double sided tape strips or adhesive dots. For the most secure hold, drill the mat into the floor using screw or nail points along the edges and through corner holes.
While properly sized for capacity, increased foot traffic still brings grime in faster. Regularly shaking out, spot cleaning as needed, and deep cleaning the mat every few months enhances longevity. For exterior use, check for fading after prolonged sun exposure. Bring mats indoors seasonally depending on climate and when overly worn or damaged, replace with fresh ones meeting the right specifications.
Investing in a suitably sized doormat lays the foundation for an optimally functioning entryway. Standard mat sizes fall painfully short for gracefully accommodating pairs of visitors passing through double doors simultaneously. They overflow with moisture quickly while shifting around unevenly, unable to contain debris properly.
For twin entryways, appropriately wider and longer doormats prevent slips and falls by absorbing more volume without saturation issues. Dual doors demand the enhanced capacity of five to six-foot widths and 15-20 square feet of surface area in total for ideal coverage. Well-constructed of durable, gripping materials, oversized mats also remain firmly planted in position despite heavy traffic.
Welcoming guests and protecting interior floors from the elements starts with getting appropriately sized double door doormats. For houses with side-by-side entrances, one generously stretched mat suits better than trying to match a pair of insufficient individual ones. Just be sure to mind length, width, materials, backing, and care tips when selecting your perfect fit.
