In the three months before May 2022, an average of 45,000 people went to major A&E departments in England every day – 16 million attendances throughout the year.

And, with this in mind, it is important to keep all those recovering, visiting, or working in a hospital safe from hazards such as slips and trips.

In fact, with hospitals being very-busy places, the floors are exposed to all types of contaminants.

As such, maintaining a high level of slip resistance is key to patient and staff safety – and this is where specifying appropriately-graded slip-resistant flooring can make a significant difference.

When looking at specifying safety flooring, it is useful to understand the testing methods used to grade the products to help identify the correct solution.

Testing, testing

First up is the Pendulum Test, recommended by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to assess the slip resistance of floor surfaces.

A pendulum test is conducted by a swinging arm that sweeps over a flooring surface. One side of this arm is a rubber slider, which strikes and passes along the floor from a predetermined distance. Once the arm strikes the floor, friction will cause it to slow down and it will therefore not swing as far. Where the arm finishes following the swing will indicate a value with a pointer and this is your pendulum test value (PTV).

The test can assess slip resistance in both dry and contaminated conditions and measures the coefficient of friction of a floor surface to provide a slip potential classification.

It is a common misconception that R10 floor coverings are extremely slip resistant, with some people believing that the scale starts at R1, when in fact it does not

The UK Slip Resistance Group and HSE guidelines demonstrate that a PTV of 0-24 indicates high slip potential; a PTV of 24-35 signifies moderate slip potential; and a PTV of 36 or higher is classified as low slip risk.

There is also the ‘Ramp Test’, mainly referred to as the ‘R rating’.

The way this test is conducted is by strapping a test subject – who is linked up to a safety harness – onto a ramp which is lubricated with oil. The angle of the ramp is then raised, and the tester will take small steps backwards and forwards in boots until they slip. A computerised readout will determine the R rating based on the angle at which the slip occurred, or when the tester begins to feel unsafe, which starts at R9 as a minimum standard and increases to the maximum of R13.

Installation challenges

It is a common misconception that R10 floor coverings are extremely slip resistant, with some people believing that the scale starts at R1, when in fact it does not.

Ramp test values are also based on ex-factory testing and do not take into account changes in slip resistant properties that could occur during the working life of the floor covering. 

DIN51130 ramp test values should not, therefore, be considered in isolation, but rather alongside the PTV as well.

Hospitals are not environments that can afford to have entire wards shut down for weeks on end, so where possible a fast installation should be an area of consideration

As well as considering the safety performance of the flooring solution, it is also important to think about its installation.

When it comes to healthcare environments, contractors and facility managers have a very-small window of time to perform refurbishments or maintenance. Indeed, hospitals are not environments that can afford to have entire wards shut down for weeks on end, so where possible a fast installation should be an area of consideration.

With this in mind, floor coverings that offer a fast and efficient installation process can prove invaluable.

The development of adhesive-free floor coverings offers the perfect solution to this issue.

Providing quick and easy installation, these products can be fitted over the weekend, overnight, or even while premises are in use.

And, due to the fact that there are no adhesives in use, there is no setting or drying time, meaning that the flooring can be walked on immediately after fitting.