How to Ensure Your Restaurant Floors Are Safe for Your Employees
Restaurant workers encounter a wide range of potential hazards, including slippery, contaminated, and/or uneven floors. Owners of these establishments must do their part to create and maintain a safe and healthy work environment for everyone there, so floor maintenance must be a top priority. Here are some key ways to ensure that your restaurant floors are safe for your employees at all times.
Keep Them Clean
Whether in the kitchen or serving area, it doesn’t take long for restaurant floors to get dirty. Busy employees can track food residue across floors and back again during their shifts. By the end of the day, there’s no telling how much debris might wind up coating your floors, creating multiple tripping and slipping hazards. As such, restaurant floors must be cleaned regularly, ideally at multiple points throughout the day, and at least daily. Certain floor sealers such as polyurea floor coatings will facilitate this routine cleaning by offering smooth, contaminant-resistant surfaces. Maintaining clean floors won’t just reduce the risk of physical injuries, either -- it will also promote cleaner indoor air, benefiting everyone inside.
Keep Them Dry
Restaurant floors don’t just get dirty -- they also get wet. Spills, leaks, and cleaning solutions all contribute to slick floors. Fortunately, there are many ways to help keep your restaurant floors dry. For starters, place mats in key locations (i.e., under sinks and dishwashers, in entryways, between rooms, etc.). Additionally, always have mops and high-powered fans nearby to speed up the drying process following a spill or wet cleaning session. Beyond these measures, make sure all utilities remain functional and secure to prevent leaks, and keep gaps and seams sealed with caulk to keep outdoor moisture out.
Ensure Proper Levels of Friction
Even if your floors are squeaky clean and dry as a desert, they can still lead to slips, trips, and falls in other ways. Bare commercial concrete flooring, for instance, may not offer the level of friction needed to keep your employees safe on the job. Coating your concrete restaurant floors with an epoxy or polyurea concrete coating can greatly increase your floor’s coefficient of friction. Other floor types such as rubber and luxury vinyl tile (LVT) flooring are inherently non-slip and worth considering for your restaurant.
Clearly Mark Floors
In such an active environment, a little organization can go a long way toward both streamlining operations and promoting workplace safety. Floor marking is a useful tool for communicating where employees should and shouldn’t stand, where certain items should be stored, and so on. These markings essentially create visible zones that help prevent obstructions, interference, and accidents.
Install Quality Commercial Floor Coatings
All of the floor safety measures mentioned above can be achieved or facilitated by proper floor coating application. High-quality floor coatings increase cleanability, protect your floors from dirt, moisture, impact, and more, add friction, and make it easier to clearly mark portions of your flooring. At Anderson Painting, we specialize in the installation, maintenance, and repair of Penntek polyurea flooring. These durable floor coatings are built to last and improve safety outcomes in every type of facility. Let us help you make your restaurant a safer place for all employees, customers, and guests.
To learn more about us and all we do, call today at 919-610-1855 or email us at info@andersonpaintingnc.com!
