FACTORY - ROBINSONS BREWERY - STAIR NOSINGS

The Project

Robinsons is one of the largest independent breweries in the UK. It has a rich history, with the family brewing in the centre of Stockport since 1849. Its main building is called the Unicorn Brewery, after the pub which the family originally ran from 1838.

The bottling plant needed a refurbishment, to help keep employees safe. The brewery requested a highly slip resistant flooring surface, to deal with the inherent risk of liquid spillages in the plant, which could cause hazards. To go with the floorcovering they also needed a hard-wearing, robust, and highly slip resistant stair nosing.

The stair nosing would need to have low slip potential in both dry and wet conditions, to help ensure safety in the plant. The main way the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) assesses the slip resistance of flooring and stair nosings is by using a pendulum test, which measures the friction of a surface. In this way, a pendulum test value (PTV) can be given to different products. Any stair nosing must have a PTV of 36, or more, in dry and wet conditions to be considered low slip potential.

The Approach

Steven Holland Flooring contacted Quantum Flooring to discuss the most appropriate stair nosings for the project. They decided to go with Quantum’s Ecoglo slip resistant yellow tread material, Eglo-34, fitted into double-channel SF225R Slenderline carriers.

Ecoglo tread infills are often utilised for their photoluminescent qualities. From just 30 minutes of charge with either natural or artificial light, Ecoglo’s photoluminescent strips can provide 7 hours of glow in either internal or external environments. Ecoglo also has a slip resistant silicon carbide tread material.

Eglo-34 is one of the highly slip resistant silicon carbide tread infills in the Ecoglo range. It has a PTV of 70 in dry conditions, and 66 in wet conditions. These both easily exceed the minimum required guidelines for low slip potential in HSE publications, and slip resistance in BS 8300-2:2018. This made Eglo-34 ideal for Robinsons Brewery.

The Outcome

Steven Holland Flooring expertly cut Quantum’s yellow Eglo-34 silicon carbide strips to size, and fitted them in both channels of the SF225R aluminium stair nosings. As Ecoglo tread material is secret fix, there was no need for plugs to hide the screws.

The result looks fantastic and helps to ensure the safety of all employees at the Robinsons bottling plant. The stair nosing is durable and has very low slip potential, with the double channel Eglo-34 double treads maximising the surface area of grip. The SF225R profiles have a ramped back, to remove any trip hazard at the back of the steps.

With the help of Quantum’s stair nosings, Steven Holland Flooring have ensured a safe, secure and visually pleasing staircase in Robinsons bottling plant. The installation will be used for years to come, helping to prevent slips, trips and falls on the spiral stairs.