Roughness meters do not measure pedestrian slip risk

Measuring the slip risk of your floors is important and will prevent slip accidents and slip injuries. If you have bought a roughness meter you cannot use it to monitor slip risk but you can:

1. Measure Micro Roughness of smooth metal car parts. That is what roughness meters are designed to do.

2. Use your roughness meter on a floor to generate random numbers for your Lotto numbers.

3. Trade in your roughness meter and get a slip tester that really works

If you have bought a roughness meter, we'd like your feedback.

Roughness cannot monitor the changing slip risk of floors

Rz roughness does not measure pedestrian slip risk, it won’t detect contamination and won’t tell you when the slip risk of your floors changes. It measures one parameter of micro roughness and claims to predict wet slip risk from 10 random numbers. It’s like using Kenny the "fake slip test" instead of watching Final Score or Match of the Day! Trade in your roughness meter this autumn and we’ll give you up to £900 towards a slip tester that really works. SlipAlert saves you time, saves you money and helps keep your floors safe.

Kenny the psychic otopus 'predicts' slip risk but not very well...

Rz roughness does not measure pedestrian slip risk, it won’t detect contamination and won’t tell you when the slip risk of your floors changes. It measures one parameter of micro roughness and claims to predict wet slip risk from 10 random numbers. It’s like using Kenny the "fake slip test" instead of watching Final Score or Match of the Day!

Get your money back...

Roughness "predicts" SlipAlert measures

On a Saturday night would you rather guess the football scores or watch Match of the Day? Kenny the psychic roughness meter predicts wet slip risk it doesn't measure it. SlipAlert makes quick and accurate measures of your floor. You can test different locations, wet areas, dusty areas, worn areas and get accurate measures in seconds. Guess with Kenny or buy the world's best slip meter. To find out more contact SlipAlert

Roughness cannot detect contamination

Micro surface roughness measures will remain unaffected by contamination making it useless as a way of measuring the effectiveness of cleaning regimes or as a tool to explain why one area of a floor appears to be a slip hazard.

Try SlipAlert and get up to £900 cashback!

Have you been sold roughness testing?

If you have bought a roughness meter or paid for roughness testing of your floors then we'd like to talk to you. Please contact Jenny@slipalert.com or click here.

SlipAlert more accurate and detects contamination

Watch the HSE video.

Roughness and Pendulum

Measures of roughness have poor correlation with the Pendulum. To read more about why it roughness is of little value in floor safety testing click here.

RZ and RA Roughness

Rz and RA are 2 forms of roughness meeasurement neither correlates well with the Pendulum and neither will tell you anything about contamination.

Roughness and poor cleaning...

Contamination makes no difference to the roughness measure of a surface, and so measuring roughness offers no value in testing your clesning regime.

Slip Accident Blackspot and roughness

From time to time an area of your floor may become a slip accident blackspot. When you first observe a slip or a small number of slips i the same area of floor, you may wish to test the area of floor to discover if that area of floor has become dangerous. It may have been caused by a spill that has not been cleaned properly and has made that area of floor slippery. In these situations roughness measures will not help you. You need SlipAlert.

Roughness, spills and contamination

Spills and contamination are one of the biggest causes of floors becoming slippery. Roughness cannot measure contamination on a floor.

Roughness and SAT

The HSE suggest using roughness measures with SAT, the Slips Asessment tool. Howver the logic for SAt was based on the PTV values of 20 = poor slip resitance and 40 = very good slip resistance. click here to find out more about using SAT with SlipAlert.

SlipAlert / Pendulum and SAT

The SAT programme uses these points of referenece and a notional correlation of 2:1 between Rz and PTV. It would make more sense to use pendulum-correlated vales (from a Pendulum or SlipAlert) and then half the value and enter into SAT.

Rough Luck...

A floor being rough does not mean that it is not slippery. Nor is it always true that a floor that is smooth must necessarily be slippery. Some of our clients have discovered this to their cost. Don't trust your luck by measuring roughness when you can get a much more reliable and accurate reading from your SlipAlert.

Kenny Surtronic Duo

Taylor Hobson Surtronic Duo is the biggest selleing Rz meter used for floor testing. Until March 2009 it was the only Rz micro surface roughness meter recomended by the UKSRG. the kenny is supplied by Spectrum Metrology and by Watco. You shoould know that Rz microroughness does not measure slip resistance, Rz cannot detect contamination, and Rz cannot measure changes to the slip risk or your floors.