There’s a myth that tile manufacturers (especially manufacturers that sell tiny tiles) want you to believe, but it’s just a myth. There’s no science or proof behind the statement that more grout lines makes a floor safer. More grout lines doesn’t actually add any slip resistance to a floor with tiny slippery tiles on it, […]
Archive | Floor slip resistance safety standards
RSS feed for this sectionNew Australian Study Shows Sotter Engineering (Safety Direct America) is World’s Top Pendulum Floor Slip Resistance Testing Laboratory
A few years ago Sotter Engineering Corporation’s Safety Direct America (SDA) floor slip resistance testing laboratory participated in a global interlaboratory program that showed SDA to be one of the world’s three most accurate labs in use of the pendulum floor slip resistance tester. The pendulum is a national standard for pedestrian floor and tile […]
SCOF Testing Never Has Been and Never Will Be Relevant To Assessing Floor Slip Resistance
Floor coefficient of friction (COF) testing is the measuring of the slip resistance of a flooring surface. The static coefficient of friction (SCOF) is the force required to start an object moving relative to the surface, divided by the weight of the object on the floor. It is a measure of the resistance to sliding […]
The Importance of Reliable Floor Slip Resistance Testing
Floor slip resistance testing is an essential process for ensuring safety in public spaces, workplaces, and homes. It helps to identify the level of slip resistance (or COF) of a floor surface, which is crucial in preventing injuries resulting from avoidable slips and falls. The most common floor slip resistance testing technique around the world […]
How to Get The Slip and Fall “Expert” Witness Testimony from an English XL VIT and Brungraber Mark IIIB User Thrown Out of Court
Slip and fall “expert” witnesses in the United States typically use either the English XL Variable Incidence Tribometer (VIT) or the Brungraber Mark IIIB, which is incredibly frightening considering that neither of these two instruments have a published, peer-reviewed test method in any country on earth, and both (the English XL and Brungraber Mark II, […]
ASTM E303-22 Revolutionizes Floor Slip Resistance Testing in the USA
Floor slip resistance tests in the USA have historically been written by the members of the ASTM F13 committee. Comprised mostly of expert “liars for hire” that exclusively work for slip and fall attorneys, and representatives of the flooring industry, these tests have been based on either no science, or very little shady science. The […]
ADA Slip Resistance Requirements
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that floors accessible to disabled persons be “slip-resistant”, but does not define what that means. Apparently it’s up to property owners and the courts to decide. But there is a reliable way of assessing slip resistance that is recognized the world over to help comply with ADA slip […]
Can a Floor be Too Slip Resistant?
As floor slip resistance testing experts with decades of experience, we’re sometimes asked if a floor can be too slip resistant, usually by someone who is trying to sell a flooring that is likely too slippery for a particular application. The answer, put simply, is no. There is no such thing as a floor that’s […]
Pool Deck Slip Standard would Create Jobs for Lawyers and Emergency Room Doctors
A swimming pool deck slip resistance standard is proposed that if adopted will cause hundreds of millions of dollars of misspent investment; lead to thousands of slip and fall accidents, many with life-changing injuries; cost hundreds of millions in medical bills and other losses; and lead to far too many premature deaths due to injuries […]
2022 Revised ANSI A326.3 Has Five Situation-Specific DCOF Minimums — And Crucial Caveats
In February of 2022, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) issued a revised version of their “Test Method for Measuring Dynamic Coefficient of Friction of Hard Surface Flooring Materials.” The test method is called ANSI A326.3, and it sets a very low bar for DCOF in various flooring areas. Slip and fall accidents will likely […]