Slip resistance for floors: PTV and what to specify

At a glance

Descriptions follow HSE's technical information sheet, the BS EN 16165 foreword and introduction, and UKSRG's summary of standards (updated April 2024). The standards themselves were not read in full. Ask for the method, the slider and the condition with every PTV.

The PTV and HSE's three bands

A pendulum tester swings a standard rubber slider across the surface and reads how much the surface slows it. The reading is the pendulum test value, or PTV, and a lower value means a slipperier surface. HSE has adopted the pendulum as its standard test for floor slipperiness, wet or dry, and says it must be operated and interpreted by a suitably trained and competent person.

HSE’s technical information sheet Assessing the slip resistance of flooring reproduces the UK Slip Resistance Group’s 2011 classification: a PTV of 0 to 24 is high slip potential, 25 to 35 is moderate and 36 or more is low. The sheet describes its contents as notes on good practice that are not compulsory. The bands are a way to read a result. They are not a threshold set by law.

Two sliders matter. HSE says Slider 96 rubber gives enough information for shod pedestrians, and that barefoot areas call for Slider 55. For profiled flooring it may help to use both. A PTV quoted without its slider, and without saying whether the surface was wet, is incomplete.

Roughness gives a second reading. HSE’s sheet also gives bands for surface roughness (Rz) in water-wet pedestrian areas, and notes that a thicker contaminant needs a rougher surface. It presents roughness as a supplement to the pendulum, not a replacement.

BS 7976 has gone: what replaced it

Much guidance, and many suppliers’ reports, still say ‘BS 7976’. BSI Knowledge lists all three parts of BS 7976:2002+A1:2013 (pendulum testers: specification, method of operation and calibration) as withdrawn on 25 February 2022. Their replacement is BS EN 16165:2021, Determination of slip resistance of pedestrian surfaces: methods of evaluation, listed as current. Its national foreword says it supersedes the three parts of BS 7976.

EN 16165 describes four methods: a barefoot ramp (Annex A), a shod ramp with oil (Annex B), the pendulum (Annex C) and a tribometer (Annex D). Its introduction says the methods cannot be compared with each other, and that results can only be compared with results from the same method. The UK committee’s foreword goes further. It considers the pendulum the only one of the four that should be relied on to assess the risk of pedestrian slipping in wet conditions, and says that relying on the other three could lead to accidents. It adds that Slider 55 has been used in the UK for decades and is the preferred alternative to the Slider 57 that EN 16165 specifies; Slider 55 as supplied is normally within the Slider 57 range.

HSE’s sheet (first published in 2012, web page updated on 5 June 2023) still cites BS 7976 and the UKSRG’s 2011 guidelines. The UKSRG’s Guidelines are now at Issue 6 (2024), which its page says supersedes all previous versions. They are sold as a PDF and we could not read them. Issue 6 has a new section on interpreting results, so check its bands before relying on the 2011 ones. For a specification this means: name the current standard and the current guidelines, not BS 7976.

What the law and the approved documents say

None of the documents below gives a PTV for a type of room. They ask for floors that are slip resistant, or not slippery, and leave the number to those responsible.

• Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, regulation 12. A floor in a workplace must be suitable for its use, and must not be slippery so as to expose any person to a risk to health or safety; where necessary it must have effective means of drainage. It applies in England, Wales and Scotland and sets no number. Whether a given hotel area or a private home is a workplace is a question for the duty holder’s adviser.
• Approved Document B volume 2, paragraph 5.17 (2019 edition, with amendments). Escape route floor finishes should minimise their slipperiness when wet. No value is given.
• Approved Document M volume 2 (2015 edition incorporating 2024 amendments). The floor of a changing area next to showers is slip resistant when dry or wet (5.18 i). The floor of a shower and shower area is slip resistant and self-draining (5.18 o). The floor of a wheelchair-accessible bathroom is slip resistant when dry or when wet (5.21 c). Notes beside them say HSE guidance on slip resistance is given in Annex C of BS 8300. That points to the 2009 edition, which BSI lists as withdrawn and replaced by BS 8300-2:2018 and BS 8300-1:2018, and we could not confirm where the slip guidance sits in the 2018 text.

The documents we did not read include the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish building rules, the Stone Federation’s slip guidance and any client or operator standard. Check them for your project.

What to put in the specification

A specified PTV is only useful if the test behind it is pinned down. Seven things belong in the clause.

• Method and edition: BS EN 16165:2021 Annex C (pendulum), with the current UKSRG Guidelines for how the pendulum is set up and used.
• Slider: Slider 96 for shod areas and Slider 55 for barefoot areas, as HSE uses them. UKSRG adds that if an accident happened HSE would measure with Slider 96 in a shod area and Slider 55 in a barefoot area, so it may be prudent to test with both: one to satisfy a product standard and one to suit the intended use.
• Condition: wet, naming the contaminant where it is not clean water. A dry result says little about a floor that will meet water.
• Sample: a production sample finished exactly as the works will be: the same stone or board, finish, sealer or oil, and joint or grout. HSE notes that manufacturers’ data usually describe the as-supplied product, and that grouting, cleaning, burnishing or polishing can change slip resistance significantly.
• Who tests: a trained, competent operator with a calibrated pendulum. UKSRG members offer the service. HSE’s FAQ advises thinking about whether a test provider has an interest in the result.
• The target: a number for the designer or the duty holder to set, with a risk assessment behind it. HSE’s table is the way to read the result: 36 or more is low slip potential. This sheet gives no target for any room.
• Re-test: after installation and the first clean, to the same method. UKSRG’s FAQ says best practice is to test the floor after installation, because wear or the installation process can change a product.

Spaces differ in what reaches the floor and what is on the feet. The table is a set of prompts, not requirements.

Finish, wear and cleaning move the number

HSE’s slip potential model names seven factors: the floor material, cleaning, contamination, footwear, environment, use and behaviour. The surface of the floor is only one of them, and several of the others change over time.

• Finish. Natural stone finishes compares the finishes and gives no PTV for any of them, because none held across stones in the sources we read. Rougher finishes are usually chosen where grip matters, but the stone and the texture both count, so test.
• Installation, wear and cleaning. HSE says slip resistance can change significantly with installation and after short periods of use, and that inappropriate maintenance or longer-term wear also change it. UKSRG notes that an accelerated wear test exists and lets you decide before installation.
• Treatments. HSE’s FAQ says acid-etch treatments dissolve part of the surface to roughen it, change its appearance, may wear quickly, and often use hydrofluoric acid, which carries serious health risks. UKSRG says a shiny surface cannot generally be made more slip resistant when wet without changing how it looks. Be wary of a product that claims otherwise.
• R ratings. R9 to R13 come from a German ramp test with oil and heavy boots (DIN 51130). HSE has reservations about it, says R9 and in some cases R10 floors will be slippery wet, and notes that R10 alone covers a friction range from 0.18 to 0.34. An R rating cannot be turned into a PTV. HSE’s FAQ adds that if a manufacturer does not claim a floor is slip resistant when wet, it will probably be slippery wet.
• Timber. We found no PTV for oiled or lacquered timber systems. UKSRG lists a CEN pendulum method for wood flooring (slider 55, usually dry, with an annex for wet); its current status was not checked. Ask the timber partner for a wet test on the finished system.

For stone floors see natural stone flooring specification, and for bathrooms and spas stone and timber in wet areas.

Slip resistance of [floor reference, finish, sealer] is to be tested wet to BS EN 16165:2021 Annex C (pendulum), with Slider [96 / 55 for barefoot areas] [both sliders where the area is used shod and barefoot], by a laboratory competent in the method, following the current UKSRG Guidelines. The report is to give the pendulum test value as [the mean of the readings] with the individual readings, direction and test conditions.

Target PTV [ ] or more in [area], set by [designer / duty holder] on the basis of the risk assessment dated [ ]. [HSE's classification, in which 36 or more is low slip potential, is the reference for reading results.] A result below the target is to be resolved by changing the finish or the material before fabrication starts.

Test sample: a production sample [size], finished and sealed as the works will be, cut from the approved slab or board. The report is to be issued before fabrication and to name the sample, finish, slider, date, laboratory and operator.

Re-test in situ after installation and the first clean, at [number] areas chosen by [designer], to the same method. The cleaning regime and products are to be those used in the test and approved by [workshop] and [sealer maker]. No anti-slip treatment, acid or otherwise, is to be applied without written approval.

Standards and sources

• HSE: Assessing the slip resistance of flooring (GEIS2): tables 1 and 2. First published 2012; web page updated 5 Jun 2023; read 5 Nov 2026.
• HSE: Slips and trips, frequently asked questions: page dated 20 Jun 2025; read 5 Nov 2026.
• BS EN 16165:2021: BSI listing, foreword and introduction read 5 Nov 2026; current. It supersedes BS 7976-1, -2 and -3, withdrawn 25 Feb 2022. Annex text not read.
• UK Slip Resistance Group: Guidelines Issue 6 (2024, paid, not read); 'Meeting standard requirements' (updated Apr 2024) and FAQs read 5 Nov 2026.
• Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, regulation 12: read 5 Nov 2026.
• Approved Document B volume 2, para 5.17; Approved Document M volume 2, paras 5.18 and 5.21: editions as above; read 5 Nov 2026. BS EN 14231:2003 and BS 8300-2:2018: BSI listings only.

Questions we are asked

What PTV should I specify?

No document we read gives a required PTV for a type of room. HSE's table calls 36 or more low slip potential, and the requirement is for the designer or duty holder to set from a risk assessment. State the method, the slider, wet, on the finished surface.

Is a PTV of 36 a legal requirement?

No. HSE's technical information sheet describes its contents as notes on good practice that are not compulsory. The Workplace Regulations require floors not to be slippery so as to expose any person to a risk, without setting a number. The bands are a way to read a test.

Is BS 7976 still the right standard?

BSI lists all three parts as withdrawn on 25 February 2022. BS EN 16165:2021 replaced them, with the pendulum method in Annex C. HSE's sheet and many supplier reports still cite BS 7976, so ask what a report actually followed.

What is the difference between R10, R11 and a PTV?

R values come from a German ramp test with oil and heavy boots. HSE has reservations about it, and an R rating cannot be converted to a PTV. HSE says R9, and in some cases R10, floors will be slippery wet.

Can polished stone be used where it will get wet?

Published guidance says a polished face is the finish whose grip can fall furthest when wet or contaminated, but the stone, contaminant, footwear and cleaning all count. Do not assume either way: test the finished surface wet.

Does a PTV apply to timber floors?

The pendulum is used on timber, and UKSRG lists a CEN pendulum method for wood flooring, but we found no PTV for oiled or lacquered systems. Ask the timber partner for a wet test on the finished system.