Slippery resin bound pathway

[Dave996]

I had a resin bound pathway laid and it looks very nice, however, if you walk on it with man-made soles it is like a skating rink! Leather sole shoes do not present a problem.

The company who laid it are not responding. Is there any coating that can now be applied to make it anti-slip?

I appreciate your help.

Regards
David

[seanandruby]

sounds like it is the shoe soles you should be treating. resin bound usually has good anti slip qualities. there are anti slip solutions for concretes etc:

[Dave996]

Hi Sean

If it was only happening to one specific pair of shoes you would be making an excellent suggestion. However, it is happening to numerous visitors to the house.

Thanks
David

[RAPressureWashing]

How clean or dirty is the pathway? Resin bound's don't usually get slippery ever when dirty, algae etc

[Dave996]

It looks very clean. It was only laid in November 2016 and does not have any signs of dirt on it.

Thanks
David

[joydivision]

Hi David,

Let the path settle a few months and receive some traffic.
I had a resin bound drive installed and had the exact same problem initially. The first month or so, after it was laid, I thought I had made a massive mistake, ice rink was a fair assessment. But over time the drive seemed to wear in, and now a year later it isn't slippery one bit.

Hope this helps

Allan

[Dave996]

Hi Allan

Interesting point you make here. Do you believe the traffic on your drive has worn off the resin which coats the aggregate (stone)? if so, would it be worth me considering to have my drive lightly stone polished to remove the resin on the higher spots of the drive as I do not think it will be too long before someone has an accident? The drive is on an incline which does not help.

Regards
David

[RAPressureWashing]

Hi Allan

Interesting point you make here. Do you believe the traffic on your drive has worn off the resin which coats the aggregate (stone)? if so, would it be worth me considering to have my drive lightly stone polished to remove the resin on the higher spots of the drive as I do not think it will be too long before someone has an accident? The drive is on an incline which does not help.

Regards
David

I wouldn't be inclined to get the resin removed, you might invalidate any warranty you have on the drive. Wouldn't go down the "polishing" route either. Have you spoken to the installers ??

[Dave996]

I have spoken with the installers and they are not responding other than to say that they have referred it to their after care team. I am not sure that they have such a team!

[RAPressureWashing]

Okay, I have just noticed you are in Berkshire, next week I am over in the Reading area? if you want to contact me via email I could try and swing by and have a look for you, as I have to admit not ever come across this before as in the resin being slippery.

[Dave996]

Hi Roger

I have sent you a private message.

Regards
David

[Nigel Walker]

Hi

I am an Approved Installer for SureSet Resin Bound.
Your problem sounds like the anti slip coating has not been applied.
Once we have trowelled in our resin bound, we then scatter a very fine glass over the surface to make it anti slip.
This glass sticks to the resin surface. When you run your hand over the surface it should feel slightly abrasive.

Another reason for the slippyness could be that there is too much resin in the mix.
Most companies who supply the resin bound use a method that is as follows - The same volume of resin is mixed with a set amount of aggregate - usually 106.5kg (100kg of aggregate and 6.25kg of fine glass)
This method is easier for the suppliers as it means that every mix has the same amount of resin and aggregate in it.
This is also a flawed method as every single aggregate is different in both size, shape and texture.
Some colour blends use a lot of 3-6mm stone, other use a lot of 1-3mm stone. Some blends use a combination of both.
Mixing with the same amount of resin in each colour blend can result in one of 3 different things:
1 -The mix can not have enough resin in it and the finished surface will be very open textured and rough to feel. The aggregates will also not be bound together enough. There will be large gaps between the aggregates
2- The mix can have too much resin in it and the finished surface will be too tight. It will feel too smooth and the aggregate will be too bound together. This can result in it becoming slippy and it will also be less permeable
3 - The mix will be correct (purely by chance) which will result in the correct finish.

Every one of SureSet's colour blends has a different amount of resin applied with a different amount of aggregate. Each colour blend has been engineered correctly so that the perfect finish will be achieved every time. This is why I use SureSet !!

I would not apply any chemical to the resin. I would not polish the resin.
The manufacturer of the resin should be able to inform you if there is a coating you can apply retrospectively to make it non slip

Nigel

[seanandruby]

Good read, well done Nigel

[RAPressureWashing]

Yes very informative Nigel, Going to try to look at this next week, will photograph and up-load on here, totally agree don't polish as for chemicals again without knowing what is causing the problem, then no, there are anti-slip products that can be applied to surfaces, BUT, this surface has to be with-in a warranty situation surely, only laid n November??,

[Dave996]

Hi Nigel

What you have explained is very informative and makes sense to me. I can only suspect that the installers did not apply the fine glass on the surface, as it does not feel slightly abrasive to me, or they could have applied too much resin because it looks very shiny despite being wet or dry. Compared to my friends resin bound drive which is not shiny and, more importantly, not slippery.

The difficulty I have is that the installer is not responding and therefore I have no idea how to find out what type of resin has been used in order to apply a non-slip coating.

Should I test a small area to see if a non-slip coating will work, and where could I obtain a sample?

Regards
David