How to Add Flooring to Your Business to Keep Your Employees Safe

Every workplace has its hazards, but business owners and facility managers must do everything they can to maximize safety outcomes for all occupants. But where to begin? According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, floor issues are responsible for approximately 2 million slip and fall incidents each year. You might want to outfit your facility with signature flooring, but the last thing you want is for your floors to be known for their peril. If you want to keep your employees safe, then, start by assessing your current floors. From there, consider the following methods for installing, maintaining, and/or updating your floors for better safety outcomes.
How to Add or Adjust Floors for Better Safety
Seal Your Floors from Moisture and Other Threats
For a floor to be safe and secure, it must be well-protected against the various threats that lead to deterioration. Common threats to your facility flooring include moisture, chemicals, UV rays, impact, and abrasion. High-quality concrete floor coatings penetrate and rest atop your floors, providing long-term protection. The best concrete floor coating options also offer custom colors and textures to enhance aesthetic appeal. Though epoxy coatings are the most popular choice for many facility managers, Anderson Painting recommends Penntek polyurea floor coatings for their superior design, convenience, durability, and longevity.
Increase Traction to Mitigate Accidents
Some slips, trips, and falls simply happen. More often than not, however, these accidents occur when floors are slippery, wet, or otherwise lacking in proper traction. It follows, then, that increasing your floor’s level of friction will decrease the number of these incidents. Installing coatings like the ones mentioned above and/or mixing them with certain additives can significantly increase floor traction. Other methods for maintaining proper friction levels include properly cleaning and drying floors and laying down rubber mats at strategic locations.
Give Your Floors Greater Visibility
A great deal of safety concerns involve what an occupant can’t see. If an employee can’t easily navigate a given space, they’re more likely to trip, run into obstacles, or end up in a hazardous area. Concrete coatings aid in this regard, too, providing a glossy finish that reflects light and brightens up interiors. Maintaining clean floors and updating light fixtures also boosts interior visibility.
Communicate and Organize with Line Striping
Employees shouldn’t just be easily able to see where they’re going – they should also have clear indications regarding equipment placement, nearby hazards, etc. Line striping refers to the process of painting clear markers on floors to communicate important information to occupants, so they stay safe. This process is especially important in factories, warehouses, and industrial settings. The commercial floor paint you use should be color-coded, bright, and durable so it gets the point across clearly and for a long time to come.
A Safer Facility Starts with Better Floors
There are countless ways to make your workplace safer for your employees, guests, and customers. If you’re not sure where to begin, however, start by contacting a reputable floor installer like Anderson Painting. We’ve improved safety outcomes and aesthetics for several Raleigh, NC, businesses with your litany of services, including flooring, painting, carpentry, and more. To learn more about us and all we do, call today at 919-610-1855 or email us at info@andersonpaintingnc.com!