If after slip resistance testing you find that your floor is safe, you can further enhance this safety by including some of the tips listed here in your business.
- Use appropriate shoes – ask all your employees to wear shoes that have high friction soles, preferably rubber. If they are working in an environment that may have water or slippery liquids, rubber-soled shoes can help them prevent slips.
- Grind or etch concrete that is smooth – although concrete is not normally slippery, a floor with very smooth concrete should be ground, or chemically etched.
- Post warnings – If a floor has a high risk of being slippery, always post warnings where people can clearly see them. Always post a “Wet Floor’ warning when the floors are being cleaned.
- Post notices when a new floor is installed – new floor have a higher risk of being slippery, when other factors come into play. On-site slip resistance tests can give you a better idea of this risk. However, you can let people know that the floors are new and they should be careful.
- Use chemicals and other agents to treat floors that become slippery when wet – there are chemicals, and other agents that are great for floors that are slippery. Some paints have been manufactured such that they are not slippery even when wet. There are also coatings that are designed just for this purpose. If you have floors that could be slippery when wet, this is what you should do.
- Potentially slippery areas should be supervised – you can have some employees asking people to be careful in areas that could e slippery under certain conditions. This is especially crucial if there has been rain or snow. This is just a precautionary measure and not one that would happen on a normal day.
- Use traps to keep mud and rain out – make sure that your entrance has some sort of grilled floor, which will trap mud or water from the shoes of people visiting the premises. The grilled entrance could also have a notice asking visitor to wipe their shoes before they enter the premises.
- Use abrasive tapes and coatings – where there seems to be a real risk of slippage, abrasive tapes and coatings can be used to remedy this.
- Use non-trip rugs and mats in susceptible areas – you can used fixed mats and rugs in areas that could present a high risk of slipping. This will ensure that nobody falls, even if the area is not being monitored.
These are just some of the remedies that you can use to make your floors safe, even if pendulum slip testing has indicated that the floors are safe. There are factors that can quickly alter the nature of your floor, and taking these precautions considerably reduces the risk. Talk to our slip testing experts and get information on how they can make your floors even safer, despite having a low risk result.
Our slip testing clients from across The UK are consistently happy with the pendulum slip resistance service that we provide. We carried out over 150 slip tests in London alone in 2016. Although our head office is located in London, our slip resistance engineers are located throughout The UK, from Cornwall to Aberdeen.
If you have any questions about slip resistance testing then you can contact us using our slip testing online contact form and we will be happy to help – we are technical experts in pendulum slip testing.