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6:00am, Saturday 30 September 2017

You might never have wondered whether car park line marking is slip or skid resistant, maybe not in outdoor areas, but you might have wondered about indoor car parks. Well, the paint we use for line marking in Brisbane is most definitely skid and slip resistant, and you might be surprised to learn that there are Standards within Australia for the slip resistance of car park line markings which we need to adhere to when linemarking car parks.

Measuring the skid and slip resistance of car park line markings

Everyone knows that walking or driving on a painted surface can be dangerous, particularly if the paint is not slip or skid resistant. This is why both of these situations are used as benchmarks when the linemarking paint is tested. The actual test that is used for wet surfaces is called the Wet Pendulum Slip Resistance Test and it uses two different rubber samples to represent the sole of a shoe and the tyres of a car.

Multi-story car parks are particularly hazardous areas, because rainwater easily collects on the floors and pedestrians tend to weave in and out of the parked cars. If the car park line markings are not skid and slip resistant, a car might have trouble stopping quickly when it‘s driving down a ramp or if a pedestrian walks in front of the vehicle.

It’s for these reasons that the Australian Standards recommend that linemarking in multi-story car parks should have a rating of R10, which is 45 BPN or above for shoes and 40 BPN or above for tyres (BPN is the British Pendulum Number related to the results of the Wet Pendulum Slip Resistance Test). The higher the BPN, the greater the slip resistance, for example, external ramps with a grade greater than 1:14 and loading docks need a BPN of 54 or greater, because these can be extremely hazardous in wet weather.

The problem is that over time, car park line markings can be worn away and lose their slip and skid resistance. This is why line marking in Brisbane car parks needs to be regularly checked and tested so that it can be renewed when the ratings drop below these recommended levels.

If you need professional car park linemarking in Brisbane, why not get a quote online today?