We’ve all heard the old adage, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” The Tile Council of North America (TCNA), who reportedly is “in partnership” with at least one of America’s largest tile manufacturers, spent almost two decades promoting the misinformation that the ASTM C1028 static coefficient of friction (SCOF) […]
Archive | Slip and fall prevention
RSS feed for this sectionADA 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 […]
Cleaning Anti-Slip Floors
After installing a tile or other type of flooring that has great slip resistance, or after applying an anti-slip floor coating with great slip resistance on top of a slippery floor (like SparkleTuff™ Anti-Slip Floor Coating), you’ll find that dragging a dirty mop across the floor may no longer be sufficient to get the floor […]
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 […]
Safety Direct America Calibrates Pendulum Skid Testers from Far and Wide
Like any scientific or engineering instrument, the pendulum skid tester (also sometimes called the British pendulum or pendulum slip tester) should be calibrated at least once annually. Safety Direct America, a subsidiary of Sotter Engineering Corporation, is the leading calibrator of pendulum skid testers in the Americas. We calibrate the pendulum using the latest British […]
Your Questions About SparkleTuff™ Transparent Anti-Slip Floor Coating
Since Safety Direct America introduced its popular transparent anti-slip floor coating, SparkleTuff™, in September of 2016, we’ve fielded questions from thousands of prospective customers. Here are the most popular ones. 1. Will it adhere to my flooring (epoxy, vinyl, wood, tile, marble, granite, glass, etc.)? Yes. We have yet to find a flooring type that […]
Outdoor Test Shows Cleanability of SparkleTuff™ Transparent Anti-Slip Floor Coating
In order to demonstrate the cleanability of transparent SparkleTuff™ (“Sparkle-tough”) Anti-Slip floor coating, we placed seven contaminants on the surface of a porcelain tile coated with SparkleTuff™, as shown in Fig. 1. They are, clockwise from top left, black coffee (a long patch): cabernet sauvignon red wine; yellow mustard; mud from amended adobe (clay) soil; […]
Flooring for Dementia-Friendly Environments
Several million Americans are suffering from dementia for which there is as yet no known prevention or cure. For people living with dementia, a slip, trip or fall can seriously impede their physical health as well as their confidence and mobility. Flooring has an important role in creating a safe environment. The Dementia Services Development […]
Detailed Information on Our Abrasive Anti-Slip Tapes
Occasionally a customer asks what the “grit size” is for our self-adhesive Safety Grip abrasive anti-slip tapes. The numbers are mostly irrelevant for reasons discussed below, but here they are together with their wet Pendulum Test Values (PTV): Standard Safety Grip is roughly equivalent to 60 grit abrasive paper: wet PTV = 71 (using TRL […]