The World of Hospitality Issue 29 2018 | Page 42

Have you ever said... “ I don’t need to worry about slips because I have an anti-slip floor? Why are textured or profiled surfaces a potentially hidden slip safety hazard? Probably the single biggest misconception we see over the The only way to really be certain if you have a slip-resistant floor is to test it. Don’t assume. years in the slip safety industry is the misunderstanding about textured or profiled surfaces. If the architectural specification and building operator communities could improve just one aspect of design and implementation in order to make safer environments it must be to not presume that a surface with some sort of texture on it is an anti-slip surface. Christian Harris MD of Slip Safety Services said “The fact that a surface has a texture or profile does not necessarily mean that it provides good slip-resistance”. It is always important to remember that slip-resistance is caused by the interaction between the heel and the floor. Different surface profiles, therefore, will give you different Pendulum used to test your floors Slip Risk results (interestingly there is crossover with the safety shoe industry where different tread patterns are more Now, we’ve not even touched on maintenance here, useful than other at providing friction). A rounded edge, for which is another topic in itself. But if you start with a slip- example, will give you a different level of friction to a spiky resistance surface then you have a chance of maintaining edge, and a different level of friction to a square edge. safety. If you start with a poor surface that you mistakenly think has good slip-resistance, it’s only a matter of time Consider these textured surfaces. Each may look “anti-slip” until you suffer from accidents. to the uninitiated eye, but each will give very different slip- resistance: Take advantage now of the exclusive reader offer from Slip Safey Safety Services quote WOH1 to claim your FREE Pendulum Slip test.