INTERIORS Hit the deck
Tom Rollo of Polyflor examines the growing number of safety flooring options available to architects
M
any years ago, an architect interested in safety flooring was faced with a simple choice, it was available in any colour as long as it was grey! With function not form being all important, safety flooring tended to be laid in traditional commercial areas where spillages would occur.
Fast forward 20 years or so and the vinyl safety flooring world we now see today is much more sophisticated and a significantly different animal. Safety flooring is now a combination of both style and substance, with warmer, brighter and more contemporary designs available which are far removed from the institutional, clinical look of old.
Having evolved substantially to meet market demands and trends in our health and safety conscious culture, the use of safety vinyl has extended from back of house to showcase areas where it is more visible to the public and central to interior design concepts. Traditional safety floors often include dark aggregate to provide friction which is very visible, whereas the carborundum-free particles used in modern ranges are similar to the tone of the floor’s base colour and therefore give the look of smooth vinyl but with the performance of a safety floor.
Thanks to the technological advances from flooring manufacturers, safety flooring with virtually invisible particles and sustainable wet slip resistance has become a major consideration for architects wanting to create a wow factor. Built-in safety has become a client expectation rather than just a wish on their checklist. Architects have a duty of care to ensure that a suitable safety flooring is selected for areas where there are risks of spillages and surface water. Therefore it is always important to check that the product manufacturer can support slip resistance test method claims in accordance with HSE & UK Slip Resistance Group Guidelines. In terms of safety floor credentials, all products specified to provide slip resistance
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ADF MARCH 2018
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