Is your floor safe? According to the CDC, over one million Americans suffer from slips, trips, and falls per year. The number of these falls that result in serious injury or intense legal pursuits is staggering. It is just as important to protect your business as it is to protect the public and slip resistance testing of flooring is one way to do so.
Reliable Testing
We rely on state-of-the-art equipment to measure the slip resistance of flooring at any stage. Ask yourself how you fit into this with these questions below:
Are you a general contractor, building or business owner?
Then you need this service! To avoid accidents from slip and falls, it is your responsibility to ensure that your flooring is slip resistant in foreseeable conditions. Unfortunately, construction and maintenance codes are silent on what that means; our standardized testing services provide an accurate and reliable way to confirm your floors provide adequate slip resistance.
Why should I acquire this service?
We understand how much responsibility goes into constructing a building or owning a business and what is at stake. Whether you are inheriting an already installed flooring system or deciding on a new one altogether, assessing risks of a slip and fall can allow you to make informed decisions about your flooring including inspection, cleaning and maintenance and can even decrease insurance premiums. While the most important reason is to make your facility safer by having the knowledge to act and avoid slip and falls, this testing will also support you when defending a claim.
When should this testing be done?
This testing can be done at any time. If installing a new floor system, it is a good idea to measure the DCOF of the floor prior to installation. While the flooring may specify an elevated slip resistance, we have often found manufacture specified data to be inaccurate, therefore, having desired flooring tested to confirm the slip resistance is a wise precautionary measure.
Testing can be conducted on either interior or exterior surfaces depending on your needs. We provide forensic services if testing is required in response to a claim.
What can I expect?
We use the state-of-the-art BOT-3000E Tribometer to assess dynamic coefficient of friction of a floor. This machine measures the amount of force required to slide a rubber sensor across flooring which translates to slip resistance. The resulting report will summarize the obtained values and provide a narrative explanation of their comparison to industry standards.
Where do I start?
Contact us today for a complimentary specification review! We will finalize the details for affordable testing completed by trained technicians.
Slip Resistance Threshold
No hard surfaced floor is 100% slip proof, but ANSI A326.3 American National Standard Test Method for Measuring Dynamic Coefficient of Friction of Hard Surface Flooring Materials provides the standard for the acceptable levels of slip resistance when the floor is either dry, wet, cleaned, or dirty. It is important that the installed flooring meets this standard so that accidents can be avoided. Generally, Dynamic Coefficient of Friction (DCOF) considers values above 0.42 to be acceptable for use in the tested condition, but there are always other contributing factors to consider, like aggressive contaminants that may be expected in a specific area.
Putting the Safety Back in Flooring
Dealing with a slip and fall claim takes up not just years and money, but also your peace of mind. Perhaps your business is a restaurant with increased exposure to spills, or you are a jewelry business off a highway exit experiencing heavy inclement weather. Understanding the risk factors to your business, such as how your flooring stands up against tracked rainwater or food spills, allows you to better prepare against any claims that may arise. We will help identify cleaning protocols and housekeeping risks so that you can protect yourself against potential claims.
Slip resistance testing is just one part of the Walkway Safety Auditing process where we identify slip, trip, and fall hazards, provide analysis and recommendations on cleaning protocols and assess the need for tools like walk off matting to assist in avoiding walkway safety issues.
Contact us for a complimentary specification review via phone at 856-437-7900 or through the contact form below!
As always, Test Moore, Slip Less.
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