Transport flooring FAQs

A.    Safety flooring for transport is specially engineered to minimise slip risk and provide safe movement in moving vehicles such as buses and trains, all while meeting the required fire and performance specifications for the intended application area. It is often referred to as non-slip flooring, however, this is a misconception. It is designed to minimise the risk of injury in areas that are exposed to slip risks such as mud, water, or ice tracked in from outside the vehicle, or spilt food and drinks.

A.    Safety flooring was invented in 1947 by us, here at Altro.

A.   Safety flooring is engineered to provide sustained slip resistance to safeguard passengers. This is typically achieved through either the inclusion of hard mineral aggregates such as quartz and silicon carbide throughout the thickness of the floor or via an intelligent surface layer containing a high concentration of glass particles. A true safety floor will always be supported by a ramp test rating (R10 rating) and a pendulum test value (PTV≥36). 

A.    Slip-resistant properties mean a floor has been engineered to minimise the risk that people walking on it will slip, even when contaminants such as water, ice, or mud are present.

A.    Slip resistance is determined in lots of different ways. In the UK and Ireland, the most subscribed-to way to measure slip resistance is with the Pendulum test, giving a Pendulum Test Value (PTV). Watch our video on the Pendulum Test here. A PTV of 36 or higher means that the risk of slipping on that particular floor is as little as one in a million.

A.   Easyclean technology is a resilient coating applied to some Altro Transport products to ensure easier cleaning of the products.

A.   The new Altro ShieldGrip cleaning technology has been developed to offer state of the art cleaning performance and has been tested with many common contaminants found in buses including general and road traffic dirt as well as coffee and food grease. It offers our best resistance to staining and dirt pick up.

A.    Altro Transport floors are constructed in three layers: the top coat, scrim, and undercoat. This triple layer construction gives our floors greater durability, resilience, and flexibility.

A.    Altro was the first to introduce the hot weld joint, which continues to be the best quality hot weld on the market. The hot weld is designed to tolerate temperature changes and vehicle movement ensuring a fully bonded, watertight and impervious system is in place at all times. Hot welds are permanent and watertight ensuring that debonding is prevented.

A.    Altro flooring can be cold welded, and creates a very good seal. Altro does not provide any cold welding products, so please contact your chosen manufacturer for your specific requirements.

A.    Yes – Used in floors, vinyl is highly durable, non-porous, non-shedding and has very high impact resistance, which prevents the cracks and chipping that can trap bacteria. Vinyl is suggested for use as a standard for the transport industry because of its inherent hygienic and safety properties, as well as a far more effective cleaning record compared to carpet. Vinyl is also naturally hygienic – no additives are required, compared to other materials such as carpet which give bacteria and viruses a safe haven.

A.    Altro transport safety flooring includes different aggregates and particles to produce a surface texture designed to maintain contact between a foot and the floor even when contaminants are present. This is achieved through either the use of hard aggregates such as silicon carbide and quartz or via our ShieldGrip Technology which utilises high concentrations of smaller glass particles that penetrate contaminants when compressed to ensure coefficient of friction.  

A.    Through our years of experience we have adapted our products to meet the most challenging service environments. All of our transport safety floors provide sustained, one in a million slip resistance supported by industry-leading guarantees, so are suitable for the busiest city buses the world over. We even offer the industry’s only 2.7mm Heavy Duty Plus option for the ultimate in safety and durability. 

A.    Save time, weight, waste and therefore, money, on your installation by making use of our transport installation services such as our self-adhesive, kit cutting, or reverse welding services.

A.    Yes – find our installation guidance here, or alternatively, watch our installation video series here.

A.    Yes – Altro offer industry-leading guarantees of at least ten years, and more for greater thicknesses.

A.    When Altro Transflor products are maintained correctly, we expect them to last much longer than the guarantee, and in most cases longer than the general refurbishment lifetime. We can also offer extended warrantees on a project by project basis, based on usage. Please contact us for more information.

A.    As standard, here are the tools you'll need to install Altro transport flooring:

• Full PPE including gloves and eye protection
• Utility knife with hooked and concave blades
• Straight edge
• Trowel handle and trowel blades
• Hand roller and large three section roller
• Heat welding gun with round and HB welding nozzles
• Trimming knife / spatula and metal trim plate
• Grooving handle and blade
• X-acto blades

Find out more information about the tools we recommend and what they're used for in this video.

A.    Altro has a list of recommended cleaning products, including our own AltroClean products and those from our sister company, Autoglym. View our full list of recommended products here.

A.    Slip resistance of Altro floors should last for, at least, the same period as the product guarantee. This assumes that Altro’s cleaning and maintenance guidelines are followed.

A.    All our products are engineered to meet the most stringent slip resistance standards globally. We believe in full transparency, so the slip performance of all our products is displayed clearly on product pages and marketing materials alongside the product guarantees. The safety credentials we use are recognised and accepted in each region we operate in. 

A.    Altro Transport floors are designed and engineered for use for all applications across the bus and rail sectors. Find out more about what we offer for each sector here.

A.    You can purchase Altro Transport floors through your local Altro Transport consultant, or through our distribution network across Europe. Contact us to find out more.

A.    Full written guidance on installing our transport floors can be found here, or view our installation video series here.

A.    Our floors for transport are used worldwide in a range of applications. Read our case studies for bus here and for rail here.

A.    We recommend that only Altro Transport floors are used in transport applications, as they have been engineered especially for this purpose. Altro floors engineered for construction may not be guaranteed for use in transport applications.
Regular commercial building floors are often not capable of coping with the movement and physical stress that interior materials are subject to inside a moving vehicle, as they have been designed for use in a building. Additionally, these products will often not have the fire behaviour needed to pass the required fire safety certification for use inside a vehicle.
The Altro Transflor product ranges have specifically been engineered to be installed in a vehicle, be it a bus or a train carriage, both in terms of these floors’ physical properties and their fire certification.

A.    Some vinyl floors may shrink after installation due to plasticiser migration from the flooring material whereby the plasticiser in the flooring product leaks out, reducing the volume of the flooring material causing this shrinkage. There are a number of reasons that vinyl flooring might shrink after installation, such as a reaction with cleaning chemicals, if the wrong type of adhesive is used and water ingress happens, or even unstable temperature in the installation area.

A.   We recommend that a strong dilution of alkaline cleaner is used to clean and disinfect organic soiling on your vehicles. Full guidance and tips for cleaning transport floors can be found here.

A.   All Altro Transflor products feature a porous backing material that facilitate good adhesion to subfloors, especially when using adequate wet adhesives (if you are unsure, please contact us for advice on which adhesives to use). Additionally, most Altro Transflor product ranges now are available with our self-adhesive service, for greater ease and speed of installation. The self-adhesive tape offered by Altro has been tested and developed to be compatible with multiple types of substrates and to perform under harsh conditions – please contact us for more details.

A.   Find out more about the different adhesives offered by Altro here.

A.   Yes, please find our video guidance on HB welding here.

A.   Altro are leading the way with transport products designed specifically for next generation zero emission vehicles. As public transport increasingly drives towards net zero emission targets, our products are an excellent choice. Purposely engineered to keep weight at a minimum without compromising performance our portfolio provides a range of operational benefits to keep buses running as efficiently as possible. 

A.   Work areas must always be kept well-ventilated during installation. A great way to further improve indoor air quality is to use Altro’s self-adhesive service, which minimises harmful VOC-emissions.

A.   All Altro Transflor products are recyclable, however those protected with Altro ShieldGrip Technology even more so. The removal of hard aggregates allow material to be processed much easier making them our most sustainable products to date.