Stairways, one of the leading causes of serious injury or even death.  The American National Council on Compensation Insurance estimated in 2001-2002 that the cost of such fall injuries was second only to those caused by motor vehicles. Safe stairways are not something that can be avoided or set aside.  Many times cost scares companies out of providing safe walking surfaces for workers and employees.  The problem with this way of thinking is that the cost of an injury is up to one hundred times the cost of new flooring.  Fines from OSHA can be crippling to a company due to the fact it is mandatory for employers to evaluate and fix unsafe stair treads within a reasonable time range.

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According to the University of New Mexico’s Slip, Trip and Fall Prevention Program, “Standardization of steps and ramps is needed to prevent accidents.  Pedestrians need to have stairs and steps which are predictable in construction to avoid falling.  Walkways which change in slope and have unmarked single steps should be avoided.  Risers and treads should be uniform and have uniform dimensions to avoid tripping.  All treads and nosings shall be of slip resistant material.”  Stair coverings, like customized or retrofitted treads and nosings, must have a slip resistant material applied to them in order to ensure for a safe walking surface to avoid accidents.

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Metal stairs are an integral component in any application, whether interior or exterior, commercial or industrial.   Often metal stairs are installed and never thought of again until something happens, whether it is deterioration or a slip and fall accident.   Metal stairs can be retrofitted or supplied with properties that will greatly decrease these occurrences from happening.  SlipNOT^® Metal Safety Flooring specializes in providing a custom designed and precisely accurate non-slip coating that can be applied to metal stairs.  The non slip coating for the metal stairs is applied through a plasma stream deposition process that creates a file hard, grit free, random hatch matrix slip resistant surface that will not flake or wear.  The non-slip coating not only provides an aesthetically pleasing appearance but also most importantly provides function and safety in all commercial and industrial applications. SlipNOT^® can be applied to steel, stainless steel and aluminum metal stairs.  All of these substrates are either corrosion resistant already or can easily become corrosion resistant by galvanizing or treating.  Why wait until “something happens;” why not incorporate a permanent slip resistant solution for metal stairs from the start.

Metal stair treads are used in almost every industry. There are so many different choices and different style, how do you choose the right type of metal stair tread for your particular application?

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According to an article entitled “Reducing Slips, Trips and Falls in Stairways” by Wayne Maynard and George Brogmus, “More serious upper and/or lower extremity injuries occur traveling down a stairway than when traveling up a stair way.  In stairway decent, the tread depth – or horizontal surface – must be adequate for the ball of the foot to land on the tread without extending over the step below.”  There are specific recommendations for riser and tread dimensions to help prevent these injuries from occurring.
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