Pool-Side Changing Room Testing

Why changing rooms are unusually high risk

Several factors compound:

• Users are barefoot or in wet socks/poolside flip-flops throughout transit
• The floor is persistently wet, not occasionally wet — the steady state is wet
• Soap, shampoo and emollient residue accumulate during the day — cleaning cycles cannot keep up at peak
• Hot-floor (heated) systems produce continuous evaporation cycles that affect surface chemistry
• Lighting is often subdued for thermal comfort, reducing visual hazard recognition
• Users are typically distracted with possessions, lockers, wet kit and clothing
• Dry-side to wet-side transit happens with shoes-on-then-off in close proximity to the wet zone

Test zones in a typical changing room

• Locker-row corridors — consolidated pedestrian flow, dry-side
• Bench-and-changing-cubicle floor — transit between locker and shower
• Shower entrance/exit transition — wet-to-dry-to-wet zone where soap residue concentrates
• Communal shower cubicle floor — persistent moisture, soap, shampoo
• Toilet-cubicle floor — barefoot wet zone
• Hair-and-grooming area floor — products spillage, persistent moisture
• Pool-side exit corridor — transit toward pool deck

PTV thresholds for changing rooms

Working PTV targets for pool-side changing rooms (using Slider 55 for barefoot zones, Slider 57 where slipper/pool-shoe use is common):

Zone	Target wet PTV
Locker-row corridor	36+
Changing-cubicle floor	36+
Communal shower cubicle	40+
Pool-side exit corridor	40+
Bench / lounger surface (Slider 55)	36+

Common findings

• Tile installations originally compliant that have polished down through chemical-cleaning regimes
• Bench and ledge surfaces that are more slippery than the floor — users sit, stand, and the bench surface is the actual fall point
• Shower-cubicle thresholds where the cubicle floor differs from the changing area floor
• Drain-grate covers below specification, presenting local fall points
• Locker-row corridors where carpet/mat material absorbs water and saturates
• Family-changing-room floor where the higher-friction product specification has degraded faster than expected

Hot-floor (underfloor-heated) systems

Underfloor heating produces a continuous evaporation cycle that affects how moisture interacts with the floor. Tile selected for cold-floor changing rooms behaves differently in heated installations — sometimes better (faster drying, less standing water) and sometimes worse (chemical residue concentrating as water evaporates faster than it accumulates). PTV data for heated floors should be collected with the heating in normal operation, not switched off.

Cleaning regime impact

Changing rooms are subject to particularly aggressive cleaning regimes — high-frequency disinfection cycles, often using polish-loaded products. The cumulative effect on slip resistance is one of the most consistent findings in periodic pendulum testing. Detail in our cleaning products guide.

Public sector vs private leisure

Local-authority leisure-centre changing rooms typically have older floor stock with more wear-related PTV deficit; private health-club changing rooms tend to have newer, higher-spec installations that meet specification when new but degrade through frequent chemical cleaning. The pendulum captures the actual current state regardless of operator type.