Did you know January is National Bath Safety Month? While the origin of this month-long observation is unknown, the reason for it is clear: the bathroom is where most injuries happen within a dwelling, accord- ing to the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA). And of course, people can get injured in any other bathroom they use; for example, in restrooms at work, in stores and malls, at venues for attending shows or events – the list goes on. Since so much of the tile industry’s work is done in some type of bathroom, TileLetter polled a group of NTCA members and technical staff on bathroom-safety-related observa- tions and experience. Consider DCOF As you no doubt already guessed, all who were asked agreed that a main consideration is the dynamic coefficient of friction (DCOF) for any tile being used on a bathroom floor, because DCOF is essentially a measurement of a tile’s slip resis- tance. “We recommend tiles with the proper DCOF ratings and occasion- ally add an anti-slip treatment,” said Nyle Wadford of Neuse Tile in Youngsville, N.C., adding that his company will recommend a dif- ferent selection if they think there may be a safety issue. Buck Collins, owner of Collins Tile in Ashburn, Planning for safety and style in commercial and residential showers By Stephanie Samulski, NTCA Technical Director Sponsored by TECH TALK –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– The BOT 3000 is a device for measur- ing the dynamic coefficient of fric- tion (DCOF) of ceramic tile and many other hard surface floorings. technical bulletin tcna 2013 coefficient of friction and the DCOF AcuTest The ANSI A326.3 standard provides the test method for measuring DCOF of hard surface flooring materials and guidance on specifying hard surfaces relative to slip resistance. Tile Council’s technical bulletin on DCOF provides additional information in more reader-friendly language. Both pub- lications and several other helpful DCOF resources are available for free download at https://www.tcnatile.com/industry-issues/ dcof-acutest.html or https://bit.ly/2rYj861 70 TileLetter | January 2019