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Dear Safety conscious readers
Welcome to the
first of six newsletters from Floor Safe.
Over the next six weeks I
will be advising you on how to reduce slip injury in the work
place and ways to avoid the mad claims being put forward
by what I call 'Ambulance chasers'. Each week I will be
focusing on different floor surfaces and the type of applications
that can be used to make them safer.
Slippage
on wet floors can take a fraction of a
second, while the consequences could last a lifetime. Broken bones
and litigation are some of the possible outcomes. Reducing the risk
of slip injury is a critical safety aspect to be considered.
Duty of
Care.
Over the last 3 years I
have visited hundreds of businesses in the UK to advise on
ways to reduce slip injury. From Blue chip to fish and chip
businesses, there is a duty of care needed to provide a
safe working environment for your staff and the visiting
public.
This
week we focus on tiled floors.
Without doubt the biggest
cause of slip injury is wet tiled floors. Not only
can they be lethal when wet but, because they are so hard the
injuries can be very serious.
Often people get confused
about what can be done to increase the safety of the tiles. Well,
there are only three things you can do:
1.
Replace the floor
2.
Apply a transparent coating like a resin
with micro bead
3.
Chemically treat the tiles.
But the first thing you
should do is find out if the tiles are fit for purpose. To do that
look at the second picture down - it's called the BS7976 Pendulum
and this piece of equipment is not only most recognised by the
HSE but is the one used in a UK court of law. Just because someone
has slipped over don't presume your floor is unsafe. 30% of the
floors I tested last year passed (met 36+ PTV) in the
wet and required no further action.
What if
you've have had them tested and they failed?
Apart from replacing the
floor which is the most expensive but also the long-term solution
you could add a clear coating /resin on to the floor.
Although this system can
last quite a long time I have often found them hard to clean and
within a few days in a busy area the floor looks a mess. A
manager of a supermarket once said to me "If the floor looks a
mess, the store looks a mess"
The upside is, yes they
can reduce slip injury but have you ever tried cleaning
sandpaper? I would recommend these coatings more for back of house
or warehouses / factory environments.
The other alternative is
chemically etching systems. I have found this application to
work very well and there is a place for this type of system.
The upside is the application is very quick and the floor can
put back to use immediately so this means, no down time and
sometimes the aestetics of the tile doesn't change. But,
beware the etch is so microscopic if you don't clean it correctly
the slip resistance can disappear in a matter of weeks.
To
Summarise:
If you have a problem
with a tiled area:
1.
Have pendulum test carried out
2.
If you need to have a system applied ask the
contractor about both systems and the pro's and cons.
3.
Don't be fooled that the floor wont change
it probably will. Ask for a trial area to be done and tested before
you proceed
Kind Regards
Glenn MacLaughlan
Director
0845 643 1317 / 07899
757403
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