For the last two winters, the team at The Claret Jug, Oulton Hall, have worked hard to deliver a first class service inside their restaurant, whilst striving to provide a non-slip service outside for guests. Wet leaves, algae, snow and frosts regularly turned the entrance to their restaurant into a slippery decking nightmare – as guests walked across the decking last year, their levels of grip sure weren’t the best.

Thanks to the foresight of the maintenance team at De Vere Hotels and the design team at GripDeck, Oulton Hall has become the first Hotel and Restaurant in the UK to install RetroGrip® – an elegant anti slip decking solution, which provides a discrete but highly effective non slip finish to existing decking.

Richard Trousdale, Maintenance Manager at Oulton Hall is extremely happy with this new innovation. “It is so discrete that many guests fail to notice it, which is fantastic,  but for those that do, they all comment on its clever design and the extra grip it provides”

Paul Fox, Marketing Manager for GripDeck explains “The problem with many anti slip solutions for decking is the anti slip strips are often far too prominent. They can look pretty ugly, creating a bumpy raised path across decking and cover up 50% of the natural timbers. This generally defeats the whole point of installing timber decking. We designed RetroGrip® to solve these problems and provide a simple quick fix solution to slippery decking”

Designed and manufactured in the UK RetroGrip® inserts are made from hard wearing anti slip aggregates, bonded into a low profile aluminium insert, which drops into the grooves within the decking. Mike Sant, Managing Director at manufacturers GripDeck has been working on its design for the last 3 years. “We are very proud of RetroGrip®, like all the best innovations, it’s a very simple idea, well executed. The feedback has been amazing”

RetroGrip® anti slip inserts are designed to quickly transform slippery decked walkways, seating areas, access ramps and steps, into safe and attractive public rights of way. They are highly attractive, easily installed and provide a highly cost effective slip resistant solution for existing grooved decking. Fitted with nothing more than a cordless drill / screwdriver, a line of adhesive and screws in high footfall areas – it couldn’t be easier to add a slip resistant finish to your existing decking.

We are going all Retro this Xmas and New Year to celebrate the success of our new RetroGrip anti slip insert.

Go Retro this Xmas and in 2012, with RetroGrip …… We hope you like.

Oulton Hall is a unique 18th century former family mansion, now a stunning hotel and restaurant with beautiful landscaped gardens and lawns. It also includes a state-of-the-art spa and a 27 hole golf course.

The entrance to the restaurant was built using standard grooved decking, an elegant walkway but one that became very slippery, every winter. No matter how hard the maintenance team tried to keep it clear and safe, it presented a slippery decking headache, that resulted in several complaints every year.

De Vere hotels solution to their slippery decking problem was not to use ugly chicken wire, heavy rubber matting or anti slip paint. We are pleased to say their preferred option was our RetroGrip® anti slip inserts.

Now the science part …. RetroGrip® anti slip inserts are designed to quickly transform slippery decked walkways, seating areas, access ramps and steps, into safe and attractive public rights of way. They are highly attractive, easily installed and provide a highly cost effective slip resistant solution for existing grooved decking. Our RetroGrip® anti slip inserts are made from aluminium strips, filled with resin and hard wearing aggregates. Fitted with nothing more than a cordless drill / screwdriver and a line of adhesive, we really couldn’t have made it easier to add a slip resistant finish to your existing decking.

We hope that Oulton Hall has a successful winter. We look forward to feedback come the Spring.

For more information about RetroGrip® click here.

GripDeck’s part was to provide a non slip decking area within the school playground. The decking area is on two levels and includes a non slip decking ramp to allow access for all.

Getting involved with One Leicester has been very satisfying for us. One Leicester aims to create safe places to play. In their manifesto they state “We will invest in parks, play spaces and streetscapes so that every child is within walking distance of a safe place to play. We want to reclaim the streets for our children, so that they are not confined to formal play spaces. Sport and culture are essential for the health and wellbeing of our children and we will continue to invest in improving these facilities in our city. We will take a more proactive role in identifying potential problems and providing suitable support.”

We would like to thank Greg Hilliard, Productivity Development Manager at PepsiCo International for getting intouch with GripDeck and giving us the opportunity to get involved.

Useful links

www.pepsico.co.uk
www.oneleicester.com
Non Slip Decking

This is the first phase of the new site and we will be updating it over the coming months with much more anti slip information and an online shop. You may find that some pages are yet to be completed.

If you have any suggestions, spot any errors (there may be a few at first) have any requests for information etc, please do add a comment to this post and we will see what we can do for you.

This may sound like a pointless activity for some, but for others its a wonderful way to stay in-touch with GripDeck and receive alerts when we announce a new product or special offer.

We find Twitter a great way to discuss anti slip issues with architects and designers, so if you would like to join us online, go to our Twitter page and follow us.

www.twitter.com/gripdeck