UKAS ISO 17025 accredited pendulum testing across pool surrounds, spa floors, kitchens, lobbies and bathrooms. HSE-compliant, court-admissible PTV reports — typically delivered within five working days.
Defensible evidence under HSWA Section 3
Slip claims are the single most common cause of hospitality public-liability payouts in the UK. Defensible PTV evidence transforms your insurer position and your duty-of-care defence.
Read moreHotels are uniquely exposed: wet leisure, polished lobbies, greasy kitchens, rain-ingress entrances, barefoot spa zones. Each needs the right slider, contaminant, and PTV target.
See zones testedQuotes within 24 hours. On-site visits typically scheduled within 2–3 weeks; 48–72 hours for incident-driven testing where claims are anticipated. Reports follow within 5 working days.
See our processWe are a UKAS ISO/IEC 17025 accredited test institute specialising in slip resistance testing across the UK's hotels, spas, leisure clubs and resort properties. Our reports stand up where it matters — under EHO scrutiny, during insurer underwriting reviews, and in court when a claim is brought.
Most slip-test providers are not UKAS-accredited. The distinction is not cosmetic: only UKAS-accredited results carry the highest level of evidential weight in UK litigation, and only UKAS labs can demonstrate the full audit trail (calibration, consumables, technician competence) the courts and insurer panel solicitors look for.
From boutique London townhouses to country-house spas in the Lake District, golf hotels in Surrey and city-centre groups in Edinburgh and Manchester — we attend in person across mainland UK and Northern Ireland.
We are not a flooring contractor with a side line in testing — and we never sell anti-slip treatments alongside our reports. Our independence is structural, and that's what makes our findings defensible.
We hold ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation issued and audited by UKAS — the only national accreditation body recognised by the UK Government. Many providers display ISO logos but are not UKAS-accredited; the difference is decisive when test data is presented to a court.
We have no commercial interest in flooring sales, anti-slip treatments, or cleaning chemicals. Our customers receive entirely unbiased results, with no upselling pressure attached to a "fail" — and no incentive for us to soften a "pass" we shouldn't have given.
Our technicians attend in plain workwear, time visits around housekeeping and low-occupancy windows, and never disrupt guest experience. Testing is silent, leaves no residue, and is briefed against your specific brand standards before every visit.
Whether you operate two boutique properties or two hundred, we build rolling test cycles that match your portfolio: typically annual for high-risk zones, bi-annual for guest areas. Single point of contact, group-level dashboards, predictable invoicing.
Each zone of a hotel carries a distinct slip-risk profile — and a distinct minimum PTV under UKSRG and HSE guidance. We test all of them, with the slider, contaminant and shod-state appropriate to real use.
Pool decks, changing-room thresholds, sauna and steam-room floors. Identifies surfaces falling below the recommended PTV ≥ 36 (often ≥ 50 for sloped or barefoot zones).
Marble lobbies, polished porcelain bathrooms, corridors, entrances. Tested wet and dry to evidence safe transitions during cleaning, rainfall ingress and overspill.
Greasy-shod testing using slider 55 (4S rubber) for chef-line and prep zones. Evidences PAS 13 compliance and supports defensible RIDDOR investigation following staff incidents.
Treatment-room thresholds, hammams, relaxation lounges, barefoot circuits. Specialised testing for guests transitioning from wet feet to interior flooring.
A simple, predictable process built around hotel operational realities.
Share floor plans, area schedules, or simply a property name. We'll return a fixed-price quotation within one working day — including travel, sample size, and contaminant scenarios for each zone.
A UKAS-trained technician attends with a calibrated Wessex pendulum. Testing is non-destructive and takes 5–8 minutes per location, scheduled around guest occupancy.
Within five working days you receive a fully-traceable, UKAS-accredited report — ready for insurance underwriting, EHO submission, or evidence in a personal-injury claim.
Where surfaces fall below recommended thresholds we advise on practical mitigation: anti-slip treatment, matting strategy, cleaning regime — and re-test to verify.
The Pendulum Test Value (PTV) is the HSE's recognised measure of pedestrian slip risk. A surface with PTV ≥ 36 in the wet is considered low risk; below 36 demands intervention. Sloped surfaces and barefoot areas (pool surrounds, spa floors) require PTV ≥ 50 to be considered safe.
Our reports always include the PTV value, slider used, surface temperature, direction of test, and contaminant. That level of detail is what makes a report defensible.
Accredited & operating in line with
Their team conducted slip testing across our pool deck, lobby and three restaurant areas without any disruption to guests. The UKAS report was comprehensive and our insurer accepted it without question on this year's renewal.
We had a guest slip incident in our spa changing room and faced a personal-injury claim. Their post-incident testing and detailed report became the cornerstone of our defence — claim was ultimately withdrawn.
The detail behind hotel slip testing — accreditation, frequency, cost, equipment, and the standards your insurer will be looking for.
Hotels are uniquely exposed to slip-and-fall risk: guests transition through wet leisure facilities into carpeted corridors, marble lobbies are mopped during peak arrivals, kitchens spill grease into staff walkways, and outdoor entrances face rain ingress year-round. Each of these hand-offs is a slip-claim trigger.
Independent UKAS-accredited slip testing demonstrates two things at once: that the property meets recognised anti-slip safety thresholds, and that management has discharged the duty-of-care obligations imposed by Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Both reduce liability exposure and improve the position of an insurer should a claim be brought.
A typical multi-zone hotel test programme covers:
Pricing scales with the number of test points and travel. A single-property, multi-zone visit (pool, lobby, kitchen, public bathrooms, spa) typically falls in the £500–£1,400 range, all-in. Larger sites with greater test-point coverage, or properties requiring barefoot and shod-greasy testing in parallel, sit higher. Multi-property programmes attract group rates.
Costs are primarily driven by the number of test areas, ease of access (e.g. pool surround sweeps require time-to-dry), whether testing is needed indoors and outdoors, and the level of reporting required for insurance or EHO purposes. Send a quick scope and we'll return a firm written quotation within one working day.
Hotels should conduct slip resistance testing at least annually, with high-risk zones (pool surrounds, kitchens, spa floors, main entrances) tested every 6–12 months. Additional testing should be triggered after:
Regular testing supports accident prevention, reduces claim exposure, and demonstrates a proactive approach to risk management — all of which underwriters increasingly look for when pricing public liability premiums.
Our reports are produced under a stack of recognised standards, ensuring they hold up under scrutiny:
We use the Wessex pendulum skid resistance tester (also known as the British Pendulum Tester) — the original, most widely used and most accurate portable skid-resistance device, and the only one recommended by the HSE for in-situ floor testing. All our pendulums are independently calibrated against BS EN 1097 and BS EN 16165 on an annual cycle.
For new floors and material specification, we offer laboratory testing on tile samples (200mm × 200mm, three directions) under the same accredited conditions. Where appropriate, surface microroughness gauges supplement the pendulum to give an additional safety insight, particularly in dry-only environments.
Yes. We offer urgent call-outs and out-of-hours testing for hotels — particularly valuable when responding to a slip incident, when surface conditions need capturing before they change, or where a personal-injury claim is anticipated. We aim to attend within 48–72 hours for incident-driven testing.
Out-of-hours visits (overnight, pre-breakfast, between covers) are scheduled in coordination with hotel managers to ensure minimal impact on guests and staff. All technicians operate to high standards of professionalism, discretion and safety on hospitality premises.
It matters considerably. Many slip-test providers display ISO logos and claim to operate to ISO standards, but are not UKAS-accredited. UKAS (the United Kingdom Accreditation Service) is the sole national accreditation body recognised by the UK Government, and is the only body empowered to assess laboratories against ISO/IEC 17025.
The practical difference appears at the moment that matters: when a court or insurer scrutinises a report. UKAS-accredited labs can demonstrate a complete audit trail (calibration records, technician competence, consumables traceability, internal QA), and their results carry materially greater evidential weight in litigation. Non-accredited reports are more easily challenged.
Surface Performance is one of a small number of UK labs holding UKAS ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation for slip resistance testing. Every report we issue carries the UKAS crown.
From boutique London townhouses to country-house spas in the Lake District, golf hotels in Surrey, and city-centre groups in Edinburgh and Manchester — we attend in person across mainland UK and Northern Ireland.
Whether you operate a single boutique hotel or a UK-wide portfolio, we'll return a fully-costed, no-obligation quotation within one working day.
Monday — Friday, 8am–6pm
Out-of-hours testing available by arrangement.
Surface Performance Ltd
(Hotel Slip Testing division)
Surrey, United Kingdom