The report is the product
When you buy slip testing, the visit is not the product. The report is. It is what you will hand to an insurer at renewal, produce after an incident, give to a contractor pricing rectification, and compare against next year's results. A report that cannot do those jobs makes the whole exercise close to worthless, no matter how carefully the pendulum was swung.
What a defensible slip test report must contain
If a report is missing any of the following, its usefulness drops sharply. A defensible report states:
- The test method and standard. For existing floors in Australia, testing should be conducted in accordance with AS 4663:2013, and the report should say so, including whether the wet pendulum or dry floor friction method was used at each location.
- The equipment and its calibration status. Which instrument was used and when it was last calibrated. Readings from an instrument in an unknown state are just numbers.
- The slider type. Pendulum results depend on the rubber slider used. The report should record it, because results from different sliders are not interchangeable.
- The number of readings. How many swings and readings were taken at each location, and how the reported value was derived from them. A single pass is not a test.
- Exact locations. Not "foyer" but where in the foyer, precisely enough that a retest next year can measure the same spot. Without this, trend data is impossible.
- The conditions. Whether the surface was tested wet or dry, its condition at the time, and anything unusual, such as recent cleaning or contamination.
- The classification for each result. The British Pendulum Number and the P classification it maps to, or the coefficient of friction and its D classification.
- Interpretation against HB 198:2014. Each result compared with the recommended minimum classification for that location type, with a plain statement of whether it meets the guidance and what that means.
The common failure mode: a table of numbers
The most common weak report is easy to picture, because so many facility managers have one in a drawer. A technician visited, tested some locations, and emailed a PDF containing a table of pendulum numbers. Somewhere near the back is a boilerplate copy of the classification table. There is no comparison against HB 198:2014, no statement of which results are a problem, no priorities and no recommendations.
That report leaves every important judgement to you. Is P3 acceptable at your entry? It depends on the location type, and the report does not say. Which of the six marginal results matters most? Not stated. What should you do about the ramp? Silence. The testing may have been done perfectly, but you have paid for measurements, not answers, and if a claim ever arrives you will be arguing about what the numbers meant with nothing in writing to support you.
Questions to ask any provider before you book
Five questions separate serious providers from the rest. Ask them before you book, and be wary of vague answers:
- What standard do you test to? The answer for existing floors should be AS 4663:2013, without hesitation.
- How is your equipment calibrated? You want to hear about a calibration schedule, records, and verification checks before testing, not just "it's calibrated".
- How many readings do you take per location? The provider should describe a documented procedure with a defined number of swings and readings, not leave it to the technician's mood.
- Will you explain what the results mean? Every result should be interpreted against HB 198:2014 for its location type, in plain English, with priorities. If interpretation costs extra or is not offered, keep looking.
- Can you retest after rectification? A failed result should end with a documented improvement, not a dangling finding. Retesting is how the loop closes.
None of these questions is unreasonable, and a good provider will answer all five happily. For a broader look at the selection process, see our guide to choosing a slip testing provider.
Reading the report you already have
If you are holding a report now and wondering which kind it is, run it against the checklist above. Our guide on how to read a slip test report walks through the numbers themselves, and if it still does not make sense, send it to us and we will give you a straight explanation of what it says, whether or not the testing was ours.
How we hold ourselves to this
This checklist is not abstract for us; it describes our own reports. Testing is conducted in accordance with AS 4663:2013 on calibrated equipment with verification checks before testing, following documented procedures, and every result is recorded with its location, conditions and classification, interpreted against HB 198:2014 and reviewed before release. The full detail is on our testing methodology page.
And because one good report still only describes one day, our Floor Safety Compliance Program repeats the same methodology on a schedule, building the register and trend history that a single test never can.