Sustainable Slip Resistance

The widely accepted principle of safety by design, as well as U.S. laws and building codes, require that flooring be slip-resistant over its life cycle — not just at the time of installation.

Over 150 safety criteria have been adopted in Germany and Australia for specific situations — swimming pool decks, commercial kitchens, restrooms, etc.

The stakes are even higher for hotels and cruise ships, which are occupied virtually nonstop with guests who will not tolerate the noise involved in changing out hard flooring.

The slip resistance ratings are based on humans walking an oily or wet flooring sample in standard footwear and/or bare feet on a laboratory variable-angle ramp the repeatability of which was extensively documented.

The ramp test can't be used to assess safety of the flooring on site under the ambient conditions.

The United Kingdom has since 1971 had well-established slip resistance standards based on a portable test method, the pendulum.

[7] It was validated for pedestrian traction in 1971, together with its safety standards, in the UK over a period of 25 years by 3500 real-world public walking area tests and site accident records.

The 500-cycle result in the laboratory has been found by in situ pendulum tests to be roughly equivalent to 6–12 months of wear in customer areas at a busy McDonald's Restaurant.

In some cases, analogous to the variable-angle ramp test-related standards mentioned above, the SSR safety standards are situation-specific[10][11] rather than “one size fits all.” Thus a minimum pre-abrasion wet PTV of 35 might be required for hotel or hospital bathroom floors; a minimum of 45 (hard rubber slider) for stair nosings that get wet in use; and 54 (hard slider) for commercial kitchens and steep outdoor ramps.