The invisible number
Walk across a hotel lobby on the English Riviera on a wet morning, or a care-home corridor in Exeter, and you are trusting something you cannot see — the grip between shoe and floor. Slip resistance is invisible, and it changes as floors wear and cleaning routines shift. The Health and Safety Executive is clear on the stakes: slips and trips are the most common cause of major injury in UK workplaces. The reassuring part is that grip can be measured precisely — and we are independent and accredited to do exactly that.
The pendulum
The instrument that settles the question is 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. It is the method the HSE prefers, and it works in the wet, where most slips happen. We test wet and dry, in three directions.
| PTV result | Slip risk |
|---|---|
| 0–24 | High |
| 25–35 | Moderate |
| 36 + | Low |
36 or above is the recognised low-risk threshold.
The surface itself
Where floors get contaminated — a kitchen, a dairy, a wash-down area — a second measure matters: surface roughness, or Rz, taken in microns. A floor needs enough microscopic texture to break through grease and water and still grip a shoe. Used alongside the pendulum, it shows how a floor is changing over time. We are accredited for both.
| Surface roughness (Rz) | Slip risk |
|---|---|
| Below 10 | High |
| 10–20 | Moderate |
| Above 20 | Low |
Measured in microns; below 20 should be managed.
Whose duty it is
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 Care Quality Commission expects slip risk to be actively managed. A measured PTV is what turns ‘we clean regularly’ into evidence an insurer, the HSE or the CQC will accept.
Independent & accredited
A test is only worth as much as the people behind it. This service is delivered by Surface Performance — an entirely independent laboratory with no connection to any flooring manufacturer, treatment company or equipment maker, and no commission from anyone. We test floors; we do not sell them, so nothing nudges the number. It is the same accredited work trusted on sites from Amazon and Gatwick to British Airways and the cruise line TUI, and our environmentally controlled laboratory tests over 300 flooring products a year.
By the numbers
Most common cause of major workplace injury — slips and trips.Source: HSE
Estimated annual cost to UK employers.Industry estimate
Estimated cut in claim risk with regular testing.Industry estimate
Across Devon
From Exeter and the Exe out across Dartmoor, down to the English Riviera and over to Plymouth and the north Devon coast — the EX, PL (Plymouth) and TQ postcode areas, and nationwide beyond.