IMPROVING SLIP RESISTANCE IN EXISTING HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT BOARD ESTATES

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze and determine which method is the best to improve slip resistance in Housing and Development Board (HDB) estates. A previous study showed that slipping is a problem in some HDB estates, due to the nature of floor surfaces. As such, these paper aims to determine the different types of floor finishes in the market, the cost efficiency of implementing non-slip surface finishes, the duration taken to implement these, whether the surface finishes will degrade the aesthetics/feel of existing floor surfaces, and ultimately, the feasibility of real life implementation. A wide range of literature is utilized in exploring the various facets that make up slips and falls, and research on the different types of non-slip methods were conducted. After much research, it was decided that the focus of this paper would be on the comparison of two types of anti-slip remedies (Anti-slip treatments and Anti-slip solutions) and their effects on floor surfaces in Housing and Development Board (HDB) buildings. Two Experiments were done on site (in the HDB estates themselves) and one experiment under laboratory conditions. The first experiment was to determine which materials were more prone to being slippery when wet. The second experiment was to attempt to establish a correlation between building age and slip resistance. The third experiment was to enable the selecting the most suitable anti-slip solution for existing HDB floors. The results indicated favor towards non-slip treatments and a cost-benefit analysis was also conducted in depth, to ultimately decide if the optimal method was also feasible for real life implementation. However, this research had its limitations, in that laboratory samples cannot wholly represent their real life counter parts and an increased amount of research funding would have furthered the multi-pronged approach in identifying solutions to the lack of slip resistance.