It is amazing how often both large and small swimming pool decks are installed with no thought to wet slip resistance until falls, sometimes catastrophic, begin to happen. By the time the first serious slip injury happens, the flooring vendor has usually cashed his check and is unconcerned about the problem. Wet bare feet have […]
Archive | Floor slip resistance safety standards
RSS feed for this sectionDCOF Rating for Floors
The latest American slip test for floors is the DCOF rating test method specified in ANSI A326.3. Although this test is a much better test than the now-withdrawn ASTM C1028 that was previously included in the International Building Code, the new test method comes with a great deal of “disclaimers”, including the warning that a […]
Putting Together an Injury and Illness Prevention Program
You’ve read the statistics and you’ve seen the benefits. Now it’s time to assemble an OSHA-compliant Injury and Illness Prevention Plan (or IIPP) and put it in place in your business to help keep your employees safe and healthy. So, how do you go about writing and adopting one company-wide? Safety Direct America is here […]
A Caveat about Dal-Tile’s Situation-Specific Minimum DCOF AcuTest Values
This blog has previously praised Dal-Tile for recognizing that “one size fits all” does not work when it comes to slip resistance standards (or bikinis, for that matter). For instance, Dal-Tile has recommended a minimum ANSI A137.1 DCOF AcuTest wet dynamic coefficient of friction of 0.60 for swimming pool decks, public showers, and locker rooms. […]
Cobblestones in San Juan PR: America’s Largest Slip Hazard?
As if San Juan and the rest of Puerto Rico didn’t have enough economic and hurricane-damage problems, some of the streets of San Juan are paved with blue 18th-century cobblestones that are very slippery when wet. In November 2017, a cruise passenger from the mainland USA fell and broke his arm (despite being warned about […]
Why We Offer a “Recommended Tile Slip Test Package”
When our clients ask for an ANSI/NFSI A137.1 test we often recommend that they order a pendulum test as well. The pair of floor slip resistance tests is popular, and we offer a discounted price of $477.00 (for lab testing) when they are ordered together. The reason has to do with the A137.1 standard — […]
Dal-Tile Recommends Situation-Specific Minimum DCOF AcuTest Values
We have pointed out before that the ANSI A137.1 “DCOF AcuTest” and ANSI A326.3 minimum recommended wet dynamic coefficient of friction (DCOF rating) for level wet indoor areas of 0.42 is “one size fits all” and does not consider the use of the flooring — upstairs elevator lobby, commercial kitchen, pool deck, etc. The traction […]
America Gets Another Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Slip Resistance Guideline
Wet, bare feet are soft and essentially treadless, and on a slippery hard floor can be treacherous — leading to falls that sometimes cause permanent brain damage or worse. It’s crucial to provide slip-resistant surfaces at swimming pools where people (some of them sober) will be walking, playing or running (even against the rules) with […]
Pendulum: The Most Widely Used Slip Resistance Test Worldwide
The pendulum skid tester, known in the U.S. as the “British pendulum” although it was invented at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards, is the most widely used floor slip resistance tester worldwide for measuring the slip resistance of pedestrian surfaces (DCOF rating). It is a national floor slip test standard in at least 50 […]
ANSI Issuing Another Standard Slip Test Method for Flooring Materials
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is issuing a new test method, with minimum dynamic coefficient of friction (DCOF rating), for slip resistance of hard flooring materials, wet or dry, laboratory or field testing. No minimum DCOF is provided for exterior applications. The BOT-3000E digital tribometer is used for the testing. The Secretariat for the […]