Slip testing across Tyne & Wear

You can’t tell by looking, and a floor that feels fine dry can be dangerous wet. Slip resistance is invisible and it changes as floors wear and cleaning routines shift. The only way to know is to measure it — which is exactly what we do, independently and to standard.

With the pendulum. A weighted arm swings a calibrated rubber slider across the floor to reproduce a slipping heel, and records a Pendulum Test Value — the PTV — wet and dry, in three directions. It’s the method the HSE prefers.

36 or above is the recognised low-risk threshold.

Those get a second measure: surface roughness, or Rz, in microns. A floor needs enough microscopic texture to break through grease and water and still grip a shoe. We’re accredited for both, and use them together where it matters.

Measured in microns; below 20 should be managed.

Yes — in effect. Under the Health and Safety at Work Act and the Workplace Regulations every employer and occupier must keep floors safe so far as is reasonably practicable, and assess the risk. In care settings the CQC expects slip risk to be actively managed. A measured PTV is the evidence an insurer, the HSE or the CQC will accept.

Independent. Surface Performance has no connection to any flooring manufacturer, treatment company or equipment maker, and takes no commission — we test floors, we don’t sell them, so nothing nudges the number. It’s the same accredited lab trusted on sites from Amazon and Gatwick to British Airways and TUI, and it tests over 300 flooring products a year.

A UKAS-accredited report: a PTV (and Rz where relevant) for every area you asked about, a plain low / moderate / high verdict, and independent recommendations on anything that falls short. Evidence you can hand to an insurer, the HSE or the CQC.

The whole conurbation, both sides of the river — Newcastle and Gateshead, Sunderland, the coast and Washington — the NE and SR postcodes, and nationwide beyond. See coverage →