Every surface
fails differently.

Beech and maple battened sub-floors, surface-sealed with one-pack or two-pack polyurethane finish. The dominant sports hall surface in UK schools, leisure centres and community halls built between 1970 and 2010. The vast majority of our in-service slip surveys are conducted on this construction.

The classic failure pattern: the surface seal builds up year-on-year through cleaning regimes that deposit polymer residue. Dry PTV stays comfortably above 36; wet PTV drops below 30. The hall “feels fine” in normal play and becomes acutely unsafe the moment a water bottle leaks. Most claims arise here.

Resolution is rarely re-sanding. More often it is a controlled change of cleaning regime, with re-test at six and twelve months.

Pulastic, Junckers Unobat, Gerflor Sportcourt, Tarkett Omnisports, Pavigym and similar. Cast or roll-installed elastic systems with a textured wear-layer. EN 14904 compliant on installation. Common on new-build secondary school and leisure centre installations from c. 2000 onwards.

Failure modes are different from timber: surface texture flattens under heavy traffic in localised areas (centre court, free-throw lines, baseline zones); UV near skylights causes chalking; cleaning chemistry can leave an iridescent film visible at low angles. PTV remains high until the wear is well-advanced, at which point it drops sharply over a small wear band — making periodic testing more important than on timber, not less.

Taraflex, Tarkett Omnisports Reference, Gerflor Recreation, Polyflor and similar — rolled multi-use vinyl, often laid over a foam back-layer. Standard in primary schools, community halls and ad-hoc multi-use spaces.

When new, performance is excellent. The wear surface is heavily embossed and PTV is comfortably high in both dry and wet conditions. Two failure modes dominate: embossing flattens over heavy-use zones in 5–10 years (often unevenly), and inappropriate cleaning regimes — particularly mop-and-bucket use of unsuitable detergents — deposit a film that flattens performance further.

Indoor tennis surfaces — cushioned acrylic over asphalt, carpet, sand-dressed needlepunch — are tested against two parallel programmes. BS 7976-2 for slip resistance to UK occupational standards; the ITF Guide to Test Methods for Tennis Court Surfaces for Court Pace Rating, planarity, ball rebound and ITF Recognition.

Surface Performance is recognised by the ITF as a testing organisation eligible to conduct One-Star and Two-Star ITF Recognition assessments. We are one of a small number of UK organisations that can deliver both UKAS-endorsed slip resistance testing and ITF-recognised performance testing on a single court visit.