Anti-slip flooring resistance R11

Transparent anti-slip floor coating makes wood parquet slip and fall resistant.

The EIB in Luxembourg has over 2700 employees. In 2008, the East Building with ten floors was opened. The new administration building is 180 meters long, comprises 10 floors and is covered with a glass shell. A main cafeteria and a central restaurant are available to employees throughout the administrative complex, both the new and the existing building.

The spacious restaurant area in the new building is furnished with wooden floorboards. The individual food and beverage stations and the dining area are distributed throughout the expansive floor level. However, slip-and-fall accidents were occurring in the cafeteria, so a solution was sought for the slippery flooring. GriP Safety Coatings had already coated the corridor including the ramp in front of the main cafeteria on another floor with GriP anti-slip a year earlier. After the slip accidents in the restaurant, GriP Safety Coatings was contacted. 410 m² were coated by GriP Luxembourg within one and a half weekend days with GriP Antislip floor slip resistance class R11. Since then, slip resistance is guaranteed for all employees and the risk of falls is eliminated.

Slip resistance: floor covering in canteens

In canteens, a wide range of activities take place, from preparing the inventory, filling and serving the food and drinks to clearing and cleaning the stations. In addition, thousands of employees walk through the canteen every day to select food and beverages, consume them at the tables and return the used dishes to the collection points. During these processes, the floors are constantly exposed to soiling from food and to spills. Especially on walkways, there is also contamination mostly from footwear.
Floors in such areas must therefore be safe to walk on, easy to clean, and have sufficient load-bearing capacity for the expected traffic demands.

Slip resistance means that the flooring is non-slip and flat and that there are no tripping hazards. To ensure safe foot traffic, the floor covering must also have sufficient load-bearing capacity, e.g. for trolleys or mobile transport containers. In addition, the flooring must be resistant to occurring chemical compounds, such as edible fatty acids or cleaning agents.

Usually, national standards for floor coverings in recreation rooms, company canteens, dining rooms, guest rooms, including service and serving aisles specify slip resistance class R9 with an acceptance angle of 6 - 10°. In coffee and tea kitchens, on the other hand, R10 slip resistance with an angle of inclination of 11 - 19° is often required.

The angle of acceptance or angle of inclination α is a measure of the slip resistance of the flooring. This is the angle at which the test person starts to slip. For a floor covering with e.g. slip resistance R9, a person starts to slip on the floor covering at an angle of inclination of 6-10 degrees. At higher rating groups (also called slip resistance classes) the angle of inclination increases and so does the slip resistance: