Floor Cable Covers – trip prevention and cable protection for hard floor surfaces and carpet
One of my pet hates is exposed cabling running across floors. Its not only an eyesore but presents a number of safety hazards and risks. Here is a guide to selecting the best products and examples of a few of the different products and solutions available. Let us know if you have had any experience with any of these products.
Cable Covers – What to look For
Versatility – the cable cover should be able to be used in a variety of situations, especially if you move around a lot between different venues. Can the product be cut to fit without unravelling, stitching coming undone or fraying?
- Some cable cover products are a strip of hook velcro with fabric backing. They won’t work on all types of carpet. In some, the velcro is very rigid and it wont easily conform over the cord. Its internal stiffness makes it want to straighten and pull away from the carpet.
- Overkill. Some products may look substantial but they may be way too high making them a serious trip hazard and move if kicked. They’re also not easily portable, don’t conform to irregularities in floor surface and create manual handling issues if a number of them have to be deployed.
- Standards approval – with heavy duty cable covers and protectors some products may say “load tested” or “designed to comply with” or similar but preference would be for products actually approved or compliant.
- Visibility, some products may come in colours to match the carpet. But I think that whatever you do, you cant hide them so that should be as visible as possible.
- Extruded rubber profiles are designed to be used in offices and some may be difficulty to lay flat. When these products are extruded, they’re immediately rolled into a long coil to cure. Once cured they can retain the curvature created by being coiled up so unless they’re taped down, they’ll never stay flat. I’ve never really liked using them. They can also move quite easily if kicked or a trolley is rolled over them. They’re also not easily portable, don’t conform to irregularities in the floor surface and depending on the length you’re using, can be quite heavy creating manual handling issues.
- Price – of course! But, cheaper is not always better or safer
For an alternative to extruded rubber profiles and medium duty DropOvers check out the attached flyer for my EXE Cable Protectors. They conform to irregularities, they’re high vis, they stay where they’re put and they actually enclose the cord, not just cover it. The extra wide high vis base has been designed to make the unit extra stable where you have high foot traffic or trolleys being used. The weight of the trolley on the mat effectively locks the unit in place before the wheels impact the profile ensuring it doesn’t move. The profiles are extruded and cured flat in 1m lengths (more expensive but more effective) so they have no curve in them.
www.cablecovers.com.au Safcord cable covers provide a solution to securing electrical and data cables to looped carpet. This hook and loop method allows you to fasten the cords in place without the use of tapes which look unprofessional or adhesives that leave messy residues on your carpet. The industrial grade nylon fabric is tough and stands up to almost anything. It’s design allows you to cut it to any length without unravelling. It is also flexible to allow it to be used on stair cases. Safcord is also washable and reusable. These will not work on cut pile carpet and are NOT suitable for use on hard floor surfaces.
For hard floors surfaces or more permanent solutions, Cable Covers also supply a range of extruded products to help protect important cables and leads, and help eliminate the risk of trips and falls from loose cabling with our range of cable covers. Extruded from durable, black rubber the cable protectors are flexible and lightweight making them easy to install or remove. The Cable protection is cut to length to suit your application.
www.Cablesafe.com.au – An Australian company that manufactures and also imports heavy duty cable and hose protection systems for outdoor and high traffic situations along with office /pedestrian cable protector solutions for indoor use, these are quite a high profile but appear to be of good quality and probably more suitable to permanent or long term installation. Their our cable hider products remove the hazards associated with running electrical cables, wires and hoses over floors, walkways and roads.
These carpet cable covers are sold by Tripsafe.reduce trip hazards by securing electrical cables to carpet. Loose, untidy and potentially dangerous power cords can now be quickly and easily fastened to the carpet by simply pressing Tripsafe TM over the top. Tripsafe TM can be cut to length without fraying. Unlike adhesive tape Tripsafe TM leaves no glue residue, is easy to lift on and lift off and is re-usable time and again. There isn’t a lot of other information about these products on their website but they are up front about the cost – which seems pretty reasonable
4Cableing supply a range of rubber floor cable protectors and ducting which are flexible, reasonably priced and can be joined together.
SETON supply the Floor Trak® Cord Ducting Cable Covers for hard floors. See it here. I think you can see the problems of laying these flat but they may soften and straighten over time or if put in the sun? These are described as:
- Protect cords and prevents tripping
- Accommodate cords up to 13mm in Diameter
- Measures 13mm x 68mm x 3metres (HxWxL)
- Available in four colour options
- Suitable for non-carpeted flooring
