Flooring and CQC Regulation 15: what inspectors actually check
Key takeaways
- Regulation 15 is titled “Premises and equipment” and sits in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. It requires premises to be clean, secure, suitable for the purpose for which they are used, properly used, properly maintained and appropriately located.
- Regulation 15 names no flooring material and sets no slip resistance figure. Any page telling you “the CQC minimum is PTV 36” has promoted an industry classification into a regulation that does not contain it.
- HTM 61 was withdrawn. Its third edition dates from 2006 and current NHS guidance on flooring sits in Health Building Note 00-10 Part A. A surprising number of flooring suppliers still cite HTM 61 as though it were live.
- Welded seams and coved skirting are not CQC requirements. They are good practice and usually project or infection control specification, which is a different and weaker kind of obligation.
- What an inspector actually assesses is condition, cleanliness and suitability for the way the space is used. A well-maintained older floor tends to fare better than a premium floor with failed seams.
Regulations and guidance on this page were checked as at 29 August 2026.
What does CQC Regulation 15 say about flooring?
Nothing about flooring specifically and that is the most useful thing to understand about it. Regulation 15 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 is titled “Premises and equipment” and it requires that all premises and equipment used by the service provider are clean, secure, suitable for the purpose for which they are being used, properly used, properly maintained and appropriately located for the purpose for which they are being used.
The floor falls within that as part of the premises. It has to be clean, suitable for how the space is used and properly maintained. There is no schedule of approved materials, no minimum slip resistance and no specification of seam detailing anywhere in the regulation.
This means the question a care home or clinic manager should be asking is not “does this floor meet CQC requirements”, because no floor does or does not in the abstract. It is “can I show that this floor is clean, suitable for this space and properly maintained”. Those are answerable questions. A CQC assessment covers far more than the premises and draws on a range of evidence, so the floor is one part of a much wider picture, but where it does come up those are the terms it is considered on.
Why HTM 61 keeps appearing and why you should stop citing it
Health Technical Memorandum 61 covered flooring and its third edition dates from 2006. It has been withdrawn. Current NHS guidance on flooring in healthcare buildings sits within Health Building Note 00-10 Part A, published in 2013, whose NHS England page was last updated on 31 January 2024.
HTM 61 nevertheless remains in wide circulation. It is quoted in flooring specifications, on manufacturer data sheets and across a great many supplier websites and it turns up in tender documents drafted from older templates. A twenty-year-old withdrawn document is not a good foundation for a specification and citing it signals that whoever wrote the document has not checked.
Two clarifications are worth making. HBN 00-10 Part A is NHS guidance rather than CQC regulation, so it informs good practice and does not by itself create a duty on an independent care home. And it is guidance on design and specification, not a pass or fail standard an inspector marks you against. It is the right reference to work from. It is not the law.
Does the CQC require a specific slip rating?
No. Regulation 15 sets no numeric slip resistance threshold and neither does any other CQC regulation. The figure most often quoted, PTV 36, is the UK Slip Resistance Group classification for low slip potential, measured by the pendulum test now published within BS EN 16165:2021 at Annex C. It is a recognised UK benchmark referenced by HSE and it is not a CQC requirement.
That does not make slip resistance unimportant. A care setting has a resident population at elevated risk of falls and serious injury from falls, so the underlying duty to provide premises suitable for their purpose engages slip resistance directly. The route to satisfying it runs through risk assessment rather than through a number.
The practical position most providers land on is to specify to a recognised benchmark in wet and high-risk areas, document why that level was chosen for that space and maintain it. That is a defensible answer. “Our supplier said it meets CQC” is not, because there is nothing for it to meet.
Are welded seams and coved skirting required?
Not by CQC regulation. Welded seams and coved skirting are widely specified in healthcare and care environments and they are good practice with a sound rationale behind them, but they are specification and infection control practice rather than statutory requirements. They usually enter a project through the client’s own standards, an infection prevention and control policy or an NHS specification, not through Regulation 15.
The rationale is straightforward and worth knowing because it is what an inspector is really looking at. An open seam or a floor to wall junction with a gap is a place contamination collects and routine cleaning is unlikely to reach reliably. Coving removes the junction. Welding removes the seam. Both make a floor genuinely easier to keep clean, which is what the regulation is actually about.
So the honest framing is that these details help you demonstrate cleanliness and suitability, which are the regulatory duties. They are not themselves the duty and the absence of either does not put a provider in breach on its own. What determines the position is the resulting condition: whether the floor is clean, suitable for the space and being maintained.
What does an inspector actually look at?
Condition and cleanliness, mostly by looking. CQC’s own guidance on Regulation 15 points at maintenance arrangements, risk assessment, manufacturers’ instructions and provider policies rather than at product test data, so a flooring technical audit is not what an assessment is built around. What is visible on the floor is whether it is clean, whether it is damaged, whether seams have lifted or split, whether the junction with the wall is intact, whether there is staining that will not clean out and whether there is any area where dirt or fluid is obviously collecting.
The fit between the floor and the activity is the other thing on view. A carpet in a sluice room, a domestic-grade vinyl in a wet room, a floor in a dementia unit with a pattern or a tonal change that reads as a step. Suitability for the purpose is a judgement about the space and these are the examples that make the judgement concrete. Whether any of them comes up in a particular assessment depends on the service and on what the wider evidence shows.
Then the maintenance record. Whether there is a cleaning regime, whether it matches the manufacturer’s requirements for the floor, whether damage gets repaired and how quickly and whether the provider knows what floor they have. A provider who can produce the product data, the cleaning specification and a repair record has evidence of a maintenance system. That supports the case rather than settling it. CQC asks for arrangements covering maintenance, renewal and replacement, regular health and safety risk assessment and action taken where improvement is needed, so the documents are one part of a picture the condition of the floor still has to match.
The specification questions that actually matter in a care setting
Disinfectant resistance is easy to miss at specification stage and it is a common route to visible failure. Cleaning and disinfection regimes vary between buildings and may involve chlorine-releasing agents, alcohol-based products or hydrogen peroxide and floor finishes differ considerably in how they tolerate repeated exposure to each. Manufacturers publish compatibility data for exactly this reason and the regime the building actually runs is the one to check against. A floor that discolours, softens or loses its surface under it is a condition problem. Whether that condition becomes a Regulation 15 issue depends on how far it has gone, what it does to cleanliness and whether the provider is acting on it.
Cleanability follows from detailing rather than material. Seam treatment, the floor to wall junction, how the floor meets thresholds, doorways and drainage and whether there are places a mop cannot physically reach. Wet rooms and sluices need drainage that works with the falls actually laid rather than the falls on the drawing.
Then there is the constraint that shapes every healthcare flooring project: the building does not close. Work happens in occupied buildings, around residents and in phases with dust and odour control agreed in advance. How much of an area can be handed back at the end of a shift depends on the system, the preparation needed and the cure times involved. Fast-cure systems and sectional working exist because of this and a specification written without a realistic programme is the one that gets abandoned halfway through.
What to do before an inspection
Walk each area and look at the floor the way an inspector would: seams, junctions, thresholds, wet areas, sluices, anywhere staining persists. Fix the visible defects, because a lifted seam is a specific, photographable finding and a repair is usually cheap. Confirm the cleaning products in use match what the floor manufacturer specifies, since the most common cause of a floor looking poor is the wrong product being used on it for two years.
Have the documentation available: what the floor is, its data sheet, the cleaning specification and the repair history. Check that any specification or tender document you hold does not cite HTM 61 and update the reference to HBN 00-10 Part A. And where slip resistance has been considered, write down why the level chosen suits that space rather than leaving it as an assumption.
Floor finishes used in healthcare and care environments are made by manufacturers such as Altro, Polyflor, Forbo, Gerflor and Tarkett for sheet and safety vinyl and by Sika, Flowcrete and Mapei for resin systems and a specialist contractor matches the finish, the seam detail and the disinfectant resistance to how the space is used. Listing a manufacturer here does not imply a partnership, approval or accreditation.
Related reading covers healthcare and care flooring, veterinary flooring, antimicrobial safety flooring and the wider legal framework in safety flooring regulations. The fire side is covered in fire ratings for commercial floors.
Surface Specialists is a network of vetted specialist contractors. Tell us the setting, the cleaning regime and the phasing the building allows and we match the project to a contractor who works in occupied care environments. Get in touch to arrange a site survey. Determining compliance with the Regulated Activities Regulations is a matter for the provider and the Care Quality Commission.
Frequently asked questions
What does CQC Regulation 15 require?
Regulation 15 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 is titled “Premises and equipment” and requires all premises and equipment used by the service provider to be clean, secure, suitable for the purpose for which they are being used, properly used, properly maintained and appropriately located. It names no flooring material and sets no numeric standard.
Does the CQC specify a slip resistance for care home floors?
No. No CQC regulation sets a slip resistance figure. PTV 36 and above is the UK Slip Resistance Group classification for low slip potential, referenced by HSE and it is a recognised UK benchmark rather than a CQC requirement. Slip resistance is addressed through risk assessment and the duty to provide premises suitable for their purpose.
Is HTM 61 still current?
No. Health Technical Memorandum 61 has been withdrawn and its third edition dates from 2006. Current NHS guidance covering flooring sits in Health Building Note 00-10 Part A, published 2013, whose NHS England page was last updated on 31 January 2024. Specifications and supplier documents still citing HTM 61 should be updated.
Does the CQC require welded seams and coved skirting?
No. Welded seams and coved skirting are good practice and are commonly written into client standards, infection control policies and NHS specifications. They are not stated requirements in Regulation 15. Their value is that they make a floor genuinely easier to keep clean, which helps demonstrate the cleanliness and suitability the regulation does require.
What flooring is best for a care home?
The one suited to how each space is used, which usually means different finishes in different areas. Wet rooms, bathrooms and sluices need slip resistance in the wet condition and drainage detailing. Corridors and lounges are usually specified for cleanability, appearance and acoustics. The disinfectant regime the building uses should be checked against the finish before anything is ordered.
Does HBN 00-10 Part A apply to independent care homes?
It is NHS guidance rather than regulation, so it does not create a duty on an independent provider in the way the Regulated Activities Regulations do. It is nevertheless the current and most authoritative UK reference on flooring in healthcare buildings, which makes it the sensible document to specify against and a far better reference than the withdrawn HTM 61.
Can flooring be replaced in an occupied care home?
Yes. Phased working area by area is the usual approach. How long a space has to be out of use varies with the system, the preparation required, adhesive or cure times and the infection control arrangements for that area, so some rooms come back the same day and others do not. Fast-cure systems exist for tight programmes. The phasing plan should be settled before the specification is finalised, because it rules out some systems entirely.
Which flooring problems are worth fixing before an inspection?
The visible condition problems, because they are the ones that speak directly to whether the premises are clean and properly maintained. Lifted or split seams, damaged floor to wall junctions, staining that will not clean out and areas where fluid or dirt collects are all evidence anyone can see on the day. Most are inexpensive to put right if they are caught early. A defect standing open on the floor is a harder thing to account for than a specification decision taken years ago.