As many of our readers know, we have paid particular attention in the project to avoiding fall hazards. There is a good reason for this. Falls are the number one accident that people have in the home. This is particularly so for anyone that is unsteady on their feet. In the first 4 months after Desiree was home after 5 months in rehab hospital, she needed to learn to walk again. This was a pretty tough time. She had extreme will and wanted to get back on her feet. This inevitably lead to a number of mishaps. All in all she fell about 6 times during the period of relearning. Thankfully she never seriously injured herself. (although most incidents resulted in an ambulance visit to get her back on her feet) What it did do however was to teach us where the hazards were. The number one danger area was the bathroom and shower. Our existing bathroom and shower are traditional tiles and when they get wet they become a real danger for someone who is not steady.

This lead me to do some serious research to try and eliminate this source of danger. My research lead me to a company called Altro Safety Flooring . They made a non slip vinyl floor covering that not only could we use in the bathroom but also into the shower. So in conjunction with the Stormtech drains we could have a sill-less surface that was non slip even when it was wet. Here are some of the features of Altro .

• Altro safety flooring appears smooth on the surface but provides a high level of slip resistance when walked on.
• Altro safety flooring is a unique combination of plastic vinyl, aluminum oxide grains with a glass fiber reinforcement. Some ranges also include quartz aggregates.
• The safety performance of Altro safety flooring relies on the way in which the vinyl compresses under load, leaving the abrasive grain protruding above the surface to provide a reliable grip.
• This is why Altro safety flooring remains slip resistant even when wet.

Laying Altro safety flooring is a pretty precise job. Particularly on our project. We are having the Altro cove up the wall 200mm so that there are no sharp corners on the floor to collect dust and dirt. Hopefully this will lead to really easy cleaning.

The Altro laying team will be on the job next week after we have put all of the right falls in the wet areas. We need to have a tolerance of about 2 mm across the floor so that the final job is super smooth.  You can get some idea of the precision of the job when you look at the photo below.

I will be writing up some more postings about the Altro product as we progress through the installation phase over the next couple of weeks.