How to make the stairs safe

I used to love winter very much. Here you have New Year, gifts, vacations, skis, a skating rink in Neskuchny, and other winter fun. Now that’s all – she ran back, skated. I do not like. A couple of years ago, she slipped and broke her leg. Like in a movie: I fell down, lost consciousness, woke up – a cast … Since then I don’t wear high-heeled shoes, I move slowly in time and space and you can’t lure me to any skating rink. What a skating rink! We have a skating rink on the street, especially when it freezes after a thaw. All kinds of steps and porches evoke a special spiritual awe in me. And if the porch is lined with marble in a fashionable way, everything is lost! On our avenue near the bank, the owners laid out the front entrance with solid slabs of perfectly polished natural stone. Like winter – they carefully put up beautiful signs: “Caution, slippery!” And how, pray tell, will I be “careful” if they laid out the entire sidewalk in front of the entrance with these slabs? In general, the spectacle unfolds every time not for the faint of heart.

And they, characteristically, are not alone. We, poor fellows-passers-by, have to collect all our will in a fist to step on ominously gleaming tiles or granite. That’s where the real circus is! This is where you need to show all your skill, dexterity and dexterity! Otherwise, cranks! If you’re lucky, you can get to the cherished door. If you are a loser in life, lie to you, my friend, in a cast. In such cases, someone convulsively grabs the railing (if any), someone spreads their legs shoulder-width apart and moves like a cyborg.

In this article I want to understand and answer the eternal Russian questions: who is to blame and what to do? Who’s to blame for the dizzying pirouettes on the front porches every winter? And most importantly – what to do to prevent this from happening?

For clarification, we turned to the Moscow Society for the Protection of Consumer Rights. It turned out that the responsibility for crippled limbs and other parts of the body is borne by the institution on whose steps you were “lucky” to stretch. Therefore, you have every right to sue him, which must protect your rights and seek damages..

However, not all so simple. First, you need the ambulance staff to record the place of your fall in writing. If you fall when entering, exiting or in the area adjacent to a store, bank, office, do not get up under any circumstances! Lie at the scene of the accident, rest until the doctors arrive. Of course, if in the city, as always, traffic jams and an ambulance will not arrive soon, and on the street -20 ° C, it will be hard. There is another option. If (with a broken leg) by some miracle you manage to limp to the clinic, you should be given a conclusion about the “fact of what happened” and an extract from the medical record.

Then the fun begins. If it turns out that your knees, ankles, elbows, wrists and forearms need long-term treatment in a sanatorium for the normal functioning, be sure to take a bill from this institution. Also, collect all receipts and receipts showing how much money you spent on medicines, examination at a paid clinic and the application of expensive plaster. Moreover, while you were sick, the organization on whose steps you were injured is obliged to pay for your sick leave. Of course, all mutual settlements will be made by a court decision. In a word, if you manage to get compensation for physical suffering and moral damage, it means that you did not suffer in vain. But there are situations when we break our arms and legs just like that, not on the “official territory”. Suppose I break my leg at the entrance to my friends’ country house. It’s clear that I will not sue them. But it is good for them to take care of the health and safety of themselves and their guests in advance. But how? As I found out, there are no specific building codes and rules for “decorating” the porch. Therefore, entrances to shops and offices are not prohibited, which means that it is allowed to decorate with anything. Here are the people and are sophisticated.

Granite and how to deal with it

It’s nice to have granite on the floor. He is not afraid of any frost. The granite floor will last for a hundred years, or even more. If it is also polished, in general beauty. Looks rich – no words, it really costs a lot – $ 80-224 / sq.m.

Three types of granite: polished granite with grooves, polished granite, fire-treated granite

Everything would be fine, but in winter you can’t collect bones on such a porch. What to do? The surface must be properly treated. Moreover, it is not at all necessary to tear off the plates from the porch. It is enough to call a team of workers from a company that sells granite. They will do everything for you right on the spot. I.e:

• Heat treatment will be done at 600 ° C. In this case, a burner is simply passed over the granite. The fire burns out the quartz – and the polishing is gone, the stone becomes rough and not as bright as before. But non-slip. You can transform the entire step in this way, but you can only transform its edges. True, pleasure is not the cheapest. Heat treatment 1 sq.m. granite will cost $ 10-20.
• They will carry out a manipulation called bush hammering. Don’t be alarmed, bushard in Italian is just a hammer for a stone. No one will hit your precious granite with a hammer. In fact, there are disc grinders for this. Special drums are attached to the discs from the outside. They spin and tap on the stone. The effect is approximately the same as when working with a burner. Bouchard removes the polish and the surface turns gray, like asphalt. To make it look beautiful, not the entire porch is processed, and only strips 45–75 mm wide are made on the steps. The cost of bush hammering is $ 25 per linear meter. You can make a special “engraving” – knock out anti-skid strips on the steps. The process is as follows: several discs are put on a special machine, which leave cuts on the edge of the step. The surface becomes embossed, and therefore, the chances of falling are much less. Then rubber pads are inserted into the cuts, which also prevent the feet from sliding. The price of such work is $ 15 per running meter..

  A distant relative of granite

  An excellent facing material for the porch is ceramic granite. We have already talked in detail about this material. If you remember, in Italy it is called “gres porcellanato” (gres porcellanato): gres – stoneware, porcelain – porcelain. So, as you can see, this is not granite at all. In terms of its composition, porcelain stoneware is more similar to ceramic tiles: clay, kaolin, feldspar, minerals. Only the manufacturing method is different. But outwardly you can hardly distinguish it from natural stone, and the choice of colors is much richer than the colors of natural stone. Besides, porcelain stoneware “tolerates” our frosts much better. Therefore, slabs (or tiles) made of porcelain stoneware can be safely laid in front of the entrance to the building. Rest assured they will never crack.

  But, in order not to screw up from such a porch, you need tiles with a special treatment – matte or with notches. By the way, it is from porcelain stoneware that real anti-slip tiles are made..

  

  A distinctive feature of anti-slip porcelain stoneware tiles: it must have a relief surface

  As for prices, it all depends on the quality and texture of the material. Most of all I liked the Pave series of the Italian company Marazzi. These are tiles measuring 20 x 20 cm with diagonal notches. It looks very stylish. Price $ 25 / sq.m. Tiles from the Sigilli series are slightly more expensive. The stripes and cells on it seem to be cut out with a knife. Such an artistic “carving” costs $ 29 / m2.

  

  Especially for the steps, the Italians produce tiles with abrasive stripes

  In our market there are tiles with anti-slip strips, made not only in the form of cuts. Another option is anti-slip tiles with strips of abrasive material glued to them. If you touch the strip with your hands, the rough surface feels like a fine-grained skin to the touch. The “skin” will never fall off the tile: it is not glued, but made as spraying. The “selfish” tile costs $ 5 per piece.

  By the way, anti-slip porcelain stoneware tiles are produced not only by Italians. Their production was also established in Belarus. But, according to the firm “Credit Keramika”, they are not in great demand. Belarusian porcelain stoneware costs about the same as Italian, but the quality, alas, leaves much to be desired.

  SureStep – a confident step

  Despite the huge selection of anti-slip tiles, I advise you to pay attention to other options for decorating the porch. For example, on ShurStep (SureStep), which translated from English is a confident step. Contrary to its overseas name, this invention is purely Russian, protected by a patent. They say there are no analogues in the whole world.

  

  As you know, all ingenious is simple. I was convinced of this myself. ShurStep is an elastic strip (profile) made of frost-resistant elastic rubber and placed on the edge of the step. Rubber retains its properties at temperatures from –60 ° to + 60 ° C, does not wear off or peel off. The corners of the tiles become elastic, which means that its edges will not chip off over time.

  But that’s not the point. The main thing is HOW ShurStep works. As a rule, if frost suddenly breaks out after a thaw, ice will form on the tiles. Because of this, any surface turns into a roller. And if ShurStep is laid on the steps, there is nothing to be afraid of. When we step on the rubber strip, the profile bends and, returning to its previous position, breaks the ice into small pieces. That is, clever ShurStep cleans himself.

  The profile is sold by the piece (the length of one piece is 1185 mm). If the steps of the porch are larger, you can lay it end-to-end. If they are semicircular or zigzag, it does not matter either: flexible rubber can be easily put on steps of any shape.

  But there are two important nuances. First, the tiles should not be thicker than 10 mm. Secondly, rubber strips are put first, and only then the tile itself. And in no case is it the other way around. The explanation is simple: the profile has two “legs” that go under the tiles. Thus, the profile is securely fixed on the steps..

  And further. ShurStep is produced only in black. There are reasons for this too. First, as you know, black is a universal color and is suitable for tiles of any color and with any pattern. Secondly, the black stripes are better visible. And if, for example, a person with minus six vision forgets glasses at home, he will still see where one step ends and another begins. So if someone starts offering you multi-colored rubber strips, you should know that this is a fake. Real ShurStep only in black.

  Anti-slip sills

  

  Anti-slip sills are of two types: some are fixed on the tile when laying it, others can be put on the finished porch

  In addition to ShurStep, anti-slip sills can save us from injury. Italians make them superbly. For example, the sills of the company “Folotek” (Folotek). Outwardly, they look like this – a metal base and elastic plastic inserts. But the nut is made quite cleverly. It has a special metal “tongue”, which is placed under the tiles when laying. Folotekovskie sills are of three types. The first option is when the embossed insert is driven into the base. It can be replaced over time. The nut itself costs about $ 10 / running meter, and the replacement part costs about $ 3 / running meter. The second type of sills is all-metal, but also with a relief surface (price from $ 37–40 per piece, length 2.7 m). And you can buy sills that are attached to the tile from above. Then the tiles do not have to be replaced with a new one, with sills..

  Scotch

  It turns out that there is another opportunity to make the porch non-slip, provided that the tiles are already on it. You can buy an abrasive anti-slip self-adhesive film of the firms “Tri M” (“3M”) and “Folotek”. It is sold in rolls with a width of 19 to 50 mm, a length of 3.5 to 18 m. You can easily stick it yourself. First you need to draw a strip of the desired width on the back of the roll. Then cut it out with regular scissors or a knife.

  Just keep in mind that the edges of the strip should be rounded – this way it will last longer and will not bulge around the edges. But in any case, such a device will last for a maximum of one season. A square meter of 19 mm tape costs $ 1.2 / running meter, 25 mm wide – $ 2, and a 50 mm tape will cost $ 3.

  Our advice

  Well, now you know what to do to live in peace. By the way, there is another great option for a porch without danger. To get rid of the problem of slippery steps once and for all, we advise you to make them heated. An electric heating cable is being laid under the porch, and the cleaner Petrovna will need to brush the water off the steps from time to time. But this is ideally.

  In the meantime, you and I can only rely on ourselves. Moreover, rely on the quickness of the owners of the slippery porch, who, perhaps, will guess to sprinkle it with some nasty thing like technical salt. In this version – goodbye shoes, but the head is intact.

  Text: Nadezhda Kozlova