Why having a good cleaning regime can have a negative effect on the safety of your floors.

Often when visiting a client’s premises or speaking with them on the phone regarding the concern they have over the floor feeling slippery or they have had a slip, the next step would be to carry out a site assessment / slip test and try to ascertain what is causing the floor to feel slippery. Most concerns are when the floor is wet so that is what I am mainly focused on. If the surface is a very smooth tile, it’s definitely going to be high risk in the wet and control measures needs to be managed but, over the last 10 years tiling manufacturers have created slip resistant tiles that look smooth but have a micro profile that makes them low risk in both wet and dry conditions. The research and development it must have taken to produce an aesthetically pleasing, easy to clean tile that meets the HSE guidelines of low risk when wet is no mean feet and hats off to them. But recently I have been out to test some of these tile types and after a year or so the slip resistance has started to fall back to a level that could cause a slip issue. First thing to do is look at the cleaning, but what if the cleaning is superb the cleaning products are suitable, and the method is being adhered to - so why are the tiles starting to fail and then I look in the cleaning cupboard and see a scrubber dryer / rotary machine.

The scrubber dryer or rotary machine is a superb way to maintain any type of floor but it’s the pads on the bottom that are having a negative effect on a loss of slip resistance to the tiles. Because the profile is so microscopic if you were to keep using these abbrasive pads daily you will eventually buff/polish the profile and create a smooth surface. Footfall will eventually do this too, but it would take many many years but unfortunately the incorrect pad will accelerate the process greatly and leave you with a smooth slippery tile a lot quicker. So, this is easily rectified from the start - I recommend using a soft bristled brush attachment or a machine that oscillates like a Rotawash machine. The brush will get into the profile to maintain the slip resistance and won’t buff the tile smooth which could create a slip hazard – Hope this helps.