Retail slip testing in Somerset.

Retail slip testing in Somerset

Taunton, Bath, Wells, Yeovil — historic city retail and Clarks Village outlet.

Our retail slip testing service covers every retail format across Somerset — from individual high-street stores and shopping centres through to supermarkets, department stores, fashion retail, electronics, pharmacies and motor retail. Every survey is delivered under our UKAS ISO 17025 accreditation, Lab № 7933, with traceably calibrated equipment and reports written to stand up to RIDDOR, court and insurance scrutiny.

What's included in every Somerset survey

• BS 7976-2 pendulum slip testing in both dry and wet (contaminated) conditions, using the appropriate slider for the retail surface and footwear assumption (Slider 96 for shod environments — the standard for retail).
• Surface roughness (Rz) measurement on smooth retail floors — essential on polished marble, lacquered timber, vinyl and resin surfaces where pendulum results alone could mislead.
• Photographic and locational evidence at every test point, plan-marked for the final report.
• UKAS-endorsed report within five working days, including pass/fail commentary against HSE/UKSRG slip risk classifications.
• Independent corrective recommendations — we don't sell flooring, treatments or coatings, so our advice carries no commercial bias.

Retail-specific high-risk zones

Across Somerset retail premises, the highest-risk zones we typically test are:

• Entrance vestibules — wet footwear contamination from rain or external paving
• Polished shop floors — particularly common in fashion, jewellery and motor retail
• Refrigerated aisles — condensation and defrost-water from chillers and freezers
• Food court and café floors — the highest-risk environment in any retail premises
• Customer toilets — splash zones and cleaning-in-progress contamination
• Escalator landings and stair noses — high-traffic transitions with serious injury potential
• External pedestrian routes — wet weather, leaf-fall, cleaning chemical residues

Why UK retailers commission UKAS-accredited testing

Slip injuries are the single largest source of public-liability claims in UK retail. After a fall, the only slip evidence accepted by UK courts in civil claims is a pendulum test report from a UKAS-accredited laboratory. A non-accredited report — however well-formatted — is fragile under cross-examination. The UKAS endorsement mark on our reports is accepted by HSE, the courts, retail group risk teams and insurance underwriters.

Response times across Somerset

Somerset retail premises typically attend within 1–2 weeks of booking. Priority response is available for post-incident investigations, RIDDOR cases and pre-litigation testing. Multi-site programmes coordinated across multiple Somerset stores in a brand portfolio deliver consistent UKAS-accredited evidence at predictable per-site pricing — typically from £350 per store for groups of 5+ sites.

Standards we cover

Our reports are aligned with the standards relevant to retail premises — BS 7976-2:2002+A1:2013 for the pendulum test method, BS EN 16165:2021 for the European harmonised slip resistance standard, the UKSRG 2022 Issue 5 Guidelines for slip risk classification, the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 for staff areas, and the Occupiers' Liability Acts 1957 & 1984 for customer-facing zones.