Walkways that look fine and are not

Warehouses, plants and logistics sites share a pattern: hard wheels, contaminants and wet processes change the floor after handover. Slip resistance is a property of the surface as it exists today, not as it left the factory. Foot traffic and forklift traffic polish texture off concrete. Dust in warehouses, oils and product residue, and moisture at wash-down points all change contamination. A sealer applied for appearance or dustproofing can take a broomed slab below guidance in a single afternoon.

Under WHS legislation, a person conducting a business or undertaking must manage the risk of slips, trips and falls so far as is reasonably practicable. In most jurisdictions that is the harmonised WHS Act; Victoria imposes equivalent duties on employers and those with management or control of a workplace under its Occupational Health and Safety Act. The duty cannot be discharged by assuming the floor is fine. Objective slip testing to AS 4663:2013 shows where your walkways actually stand, supports your WHS risk assessments, and gives you a documented baseline before and after any surface treatment.

For existing floors there is generally no single mandated classification. HB 198:2014 is the handbook most reports, insurers and courts refer to. Loading docks are commonly recommended to achieve P5, in the same band as commercial kitchens and ramps into pool water. Wet pendulum testing is the method for surfaces that get wet or contaminated in service. Dry floor friction testing sits alongside it on reliably dry office transitions and lunchroom floors.

Typical focus areas

Pedestrian walkways through production areas
Loading docks and dispatch zones
Wash-down areas and wet processing floors
Lunchrooms, amenities and office transitions
External hardstand and access ramps

How we test and report

Where we test

Walkways, wash-down and docks

You do not need to test every square metre. A defensible program tests the locations where risk concentrates: walkways, wet processing, docks, ramps and busy circulation routes.

Pedestrian walkways

Marked walkways through production and warehouse floors are where people and plant share the same slab. Hard wheels polish sealed concrete along the busiest lines, which is exactly where a slip is most likely. We test the walking surface as it performs on site, including wear, polish and residue, and report a P or D classification for each agreed location.

Loading docks and dispatch

Docks collect water, oil and product residue, and people move loads across them in a hurry. HB 198:2014 commonly recommends P5 for loading docks. A dry-only test on a dock that gets wet in service does not describe the risk. Wet pendulum testing to AS 4663:2013 is the method we use here, with the result interpreted against that location type.

Wash-down and wet processing

Wash-down areas hold water. Wet processing floors stay contaminated for much of the shift. Oils or product residue alter grip in ways that are hard to see. These sit with other wet or contaminated heavy-traffic areas in the triage order: after stairs, ramps and wet barefoot rooms, and ahead of dry low-traffic offices.

Amenities and office transitions

Lunchrooms, amenities and the step from plant floor to office change surface, footwear and contamination in a few metres. Dry friction testing suits corridors and office floors that stay dry in use. Pairing wet and dry results shows how a threshold performs across the conditions it actually sees.

Ramps, steel stairs and sealed concrete

Industrial and back-of-house stairs and ramps fail in predictable ways. Painted or coated steel stairs, common on plant mezzanines and dispatch, can be treacherous once dusty or damp: standard paint over checker plate or steel does not keep grip. A carpark or loading ramp that was acceptable as broomed concrete can fail after a sealer is applied for appearance or dustproofing. External hardstand and access ramps must perform in the wet by definition; weathering and contamination steadily change them.

On a stair or ramp a slip means a fall with height and momentum. For new work the NCC sets minimum classifications for treads, nosings, ramps and landings. Once the site is occupied, the WHS duty applies and HB 198:2014 recommendations for stairs and ramps mirror those construction-time requirements. Installed stairs are tested in place with the wet pendulum to AS 4663:2013. Failures on stairs and ramps deserve the top of the rectification queue. Our guide to slip resistance for stairs and ramps covers the classifications and the on-site method.

Why a passed floor fails later

Traffic wear polishes concrete, tiles and coatings along the busiest lines
Cleaning residues and incorrectly diluted chemicals reduce grip
Sealers and polishes can take a compliant floor below guidance quickly
Oils, wash-down water and warehouse dust change contamination as use changes

An old report, or the R rating on the original product datasheet, is not evidence about the floor now. R ratings come from a laboratory oil-wet ramp test on new material and cannot be measured on a floor that is already down.

What you receive

Wet pendulum and dry friction results, with P and D classifications, for every agreed location
Plain-English interpretation against HB 198:2014 guidance
Prioritised recommendations for WHS risk assessments
A documented baseline before treatment, and a retest after
Slip treatment or non-slip coating by Premrest if a surface fails

Treat the floor if it fails, then retest

When a walkway, wash-down slab or dock sits below the recommended classification, Premrest specifies a slip treatment or non-slip coating matched to the substrate. Deep cleaning can restore texture where residue is the culprit. Chemical treatments, coatings and resins, and mechanical retexturing of concrete are the usual next options. Aggregate coatings are used on concrete and steel where a film or etch is not enough. The scope of works and quote arrive in the client app.

Rectification without a retest is a job half done. A follow-up test to AS 4663:2013 confirms the fix achieved the required classification and produces the before-and-after paper trail that demonstrates due diligence. Treated surfaces should join the periodic testing program, because their performance can decay. For most commercial and industrial sites that means an annual round, with high-risk wet areas checked more often. Our guide on what to do when a floor fails a slip test walks through triage and the options.

Warehouses and plants in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane

Industrial walkways and logistics sites in Melbourne's north and west, Western and South Western Sydney, and Brisbane's industrial corridors, plus plants and docks across each metro area.

Also see commercial buildings, retail and aged care, or the industries hub.

Slip testing for warehouses and industrial sites