improve guest experience on pools

Where can Life Floor be installed?

Life Floor is engineered for aquatics and designed for play! Our products can be installed virtually anywhere with proper techniques and have been installed at over 2,500 facilities worldwide. Explore some of our most common application types below and discover how Life Floor may be a good fit for your project.

Splash Pads

Splash Pads are one of our most common project requests and we often see both retrofit and new build construction types.

Life Floor is certified to NSF/ANSI/CAN Standard 50 which was created by NSF International specifically for interactive water play venues, also known as splash pads and spray grounds. As a certified product, Life Floor meets 6 performance-based criteria including Slip-Resistance, Cushioning, Impermeability, Cleanability, UV Resistance, and Chemical Resistance.

It’s common for children to run around spray features to dodge water or re-engage with the amenity from different angles. This area is referred to as the overspray area or apron.

Including overspray areas in surface design is beneficial to increase safety where children are still engaging in play. The Life Floor Studio and authorized designers can easily expand designs to cover these areas in ways that complement the available space.

Without overspray

With overspray

Pool Decks

Pool decks are another of our most popular requests. Life Floor is flexible and durable which allows for tight coping and wrapping around pool edges and fixtures. We also offer high contrast depth markers, no-diving symbols, and other safety messaging that is manufactured from our same high-performance safety surfacing. Our tile modularity means that safety messaging will not lose contrast over time since each color of Life Floor is a different tile.

Custom safety messaging such as “Bench Below” or “Please Walk” signs are available upon request.

Zero-Depth Entries

These commonly slippery areas present a hydroplaning challenge for operators, staff, and guests alike due to the sloping surfaces leading into the water. Adding Life Floor’s cushioned and slip-resistant surfacing at these entry points can enhance safety, design, and accessibility at any aquatic center.

Sometimes, it’s difficult for guests to visualize how deep water is becoming and how quickly. Gradients and colors that symbolize shorelines and water depth can be a good visual indicator of zones. For example, a walkway or lounge chair area can have tan colors that resemble sandy beaches while light blues can represent shallow water, gradually developing into darker colors as water depth increases.

In some states within the USA, pool codes require specific surfacing color options under certain depths of water. Internationally, restrictions are often less limiting, allowing for colorful designs that can extend deep underwater.

For more information about the different types of Zero-Depth Entries, read our blog Reducing Slip and Falls at Zero-Depth Entries.

Waterparks

Waterparks have many areas where Life Floor can be installed to solve common challenges and aesthetically transform the design of a space.

Stairs

Due to the modularity of our tiles, stair nosings and treads will maintain high visual contrast over time. Since our products are slip-resistant, they also reduce injuries that occur on slippery slide towers and ramps.

Elevated Platforms

As WhiteWater’s recommended safety surface, Life Floor is standard on AquaForm structures and Landing Pads. Life Floor is recommended on AquaPlay structures and for splash zones under AquaPlay, AquaForm, and AquaSpray structures.

Landing Pads for Waterslide Exits

Life Floor Landing Pads are designed to meet the safety and quality standards of today’s most challenging aquatic conditions. Our Landing Pad tiles will never absorb water and will remain slip-resistant even when submerged underwater.

Edge Pads for Lily Pad Walkways

Lily Pad Walkways are a popular attraction at waterparks and provide a unique way for children to engage with a small space. Edge Pad Landings that are cushioned with Life Floor allow for safer entries and exits to these types of features. They can also include custom graphics, logos, or colors to complement a facility’s theme.

Sloped Ramps

Life Floor is ADA Compliant and can be installed on any sloped access ramp. These commonly slippery areas especially benefit from Life Floor’s slip-resistant properties.

Locker Rooms and Bathrooms

Locker rooms and bathrooms are typically added onto projects that already include a pool deck or splash pad to take advantage of lower installation costs per square foot or square meter.

Since these facility features are often connected to aquatic amenities, they are typically wet and slippery especially near showers and entrances. Wet carpet mats are unsightly and can harbor harmful bacteria or mold which require them to be replaced and cleaned often. Life Floor offers a beautiful alternative that complements facility design and is easy to clean.

DRY PLAY

Life Floor is engineered for aquatics, but some customers enjoy the superior cleanability and cushioning of our products. This is especially true on Cruise Ships where lightweight, IMO Certified products such as Life Floor are highly sought after.


To get started on your project, begin a conversation with one of our Account Executives to find out how Life Floor can solve your surfacing-related challenges.

What Exactly is Life Floor?

For anyone familiar with our product, they know that Life Floor is an aquatic safety surface with endless design opportunities. What many people don't know about our flooring, especially if they haven't seen or experienced it in person, is exactly how it looks, feels, and functions. Let's dive into the details! 

MATERIAL 

Most people have seen or experienced pour-in-place aggregate products commonly used for safety surfacing at playgrounds and they assume that Life Floor must be similar. While our product is also cushioned, our tiles are entirely different.

Life Floor is made of a closed cell foam-rubber which means it’s impervious to water and easy to clean. The compressive nature of this unique material is what also makes it a safer option than concrete. Our tiles’ impact attenuation has been third-party tested by NSF International to prove that they can cushion guests if any slip-and-falls occur.

CUSHIONING  

To achieve any level of impact attenuation, materials require a certain thickness. What does that look like with Life Floor?

Our standard 3/8" (10 mm) tiles are most commonly used on splash pads and pool decks and have been tested to a minimum fall height of 1'-0" (0.3 m). For more robust needs such as slide landing pads, we offer 7/8" (22 mm) tiles with a minimum fall height of 4'-0" (1.2 m). We also offer a layered system that can be customized to protect at even greater heights. 

SIZING

Many customers wonder if Life Floor can be rolled out like rubber matting products used in other applications. Our surfacing doesn’t come in sheets or rolls. Instead, it is a modular system with a standard square tile size of 24" x 24" (610 mm x 610 mm) that is adhered to a substrate such as concrete. As a result, any customer looking for minimal replacements, especially in the event of any accidental damage, can swap out individual tiles without replacing an entire floor. 

For additional shapes, our triangles and rectangles are half tiles, our hexagons are 20" (508 mm) from edge to edge, and our custom cutting possibilities are endless. Our proprietary precision-cutting system allows us to cut any shape, logo, or image from any number of our square tiles making Life Floor a popular choice for designers and customers looking to accurately depict specific imagery. 

INSTALLATION

But what about the grout? Again, Life Floor works differently. Our tiles are adhered to substrates like concrete with a commercial-grade waterproof contact cement adhesive. No material is applied in the joints between tiles. Instead, they are installed tightly adjacent to one another. Due to the natural closed-cell properties of our tiles, these joints are easily cleaned and do not harbor microbial growth. The finished look of our installations is continuous, allowing for more organic designs, like the one pictured above, to be achieved.

SLIP-RESISTANCE 

Our grooved Ripple tiles are uniquely slip-resistant as verified by third-party testing. Even our Slate tiles feature a MicroTread texture for added traction. Life Floor products are engineered to perform best when wet which creates a solid grip for bare feet on our surfacing. As a result, guests of all ages experience aquatic spaces more confidently—playing, swimming, and splashing in ways that would be impossible on slippery surfaces.  

SEE & FEEL LIFE FLOOR YOURSELF

The best way to experience Life Floor is by visiting an existing installation. For anyone curious about local facilities that feature our product, we've created an installation map to reference. 

To see and feel Life Floor for yourself, we also encourage you to order a product sample. We have a variety of options depending on your needs available in our sample store


Looking to learn a bit more about Life Floor? Our team would love to connect about your aquatic needs

HOW TO SPECIFY CUSTOM LIFE FLOOR DESIGN PROJECTS

The versatility of Life Floor’s design options provides an opportunity to create truly iconic aquatic spaces. While some clients opt for simpler designs using our preconfigured Patterns, many Life Floor projects are custom. Our team has spent over a decade building a process to accommodate these unique installations and we recommend initiating project-specific discussions as early as possible.

GETTING STARTED ON UNIQUE DESIGNS

Some clients and design partners create their own designs entirely in-house while others utilize our Studio Team’s complimentary design services. To visualize possibilities for specific projects, our team generates 2-3 concepts after receiving scaled plans and general design guidelines. Our team can also facilitate a hybrid approach to optimize pre-existing designs using our established best practices. For custom projects, contact us as soon as possible to streamline the design and quote processes.

OPTING FOR PRE-ESTABLISHED THEMES + PATTERNS

For rough budgetary estimates on non-custom projects, we recommend contacting us for a copy of the Life Floor Budgetary Guide, which features pricing for our Themes and Patterns. These designs have been curated to represent the most popular color and shape combinations requested by customers and designers.

TYPICAL PROJECT TIMELINE

It takes around 12 weeks from the start of the design process to the shipment of tiles from our U.S. manufacturing facility. While times vary by project, the following phases can be referenced for planning estimates:

Design Phase

2 weeks after scaled site plans are received by our Studio Team

Material + Labor Quote

1-2 weeks following design approval

Manufacturing Production

6-8 weeks following quote approval

CONTACT US

To initiate a new project or to discuss an existing project where Life Floor has been specified, please contact us. For additional design resources, please visit the Studio Section of our website.

SETTING A SAFER PRECEDENT FOR CANADA: YMCA OF GREATER MONCTON

Recently, NSF International expanded Standard 50 to extend across Canada, which includes recommendations for surfacing in aquatic play areas under NSF/ANSI/CAN 50:26 (formerly NSF/ANSI 50:26).

YMCA OF GREATER MONCTON

With its recent Life Floor installation, the YMCA of Greater Moncton, NB is one of the first aquatic facilities in Canada to recognize the importance of having NSF/ANSI/CAN 50:26 certified safety surfacing. The facility is a combination of an indoor splash pad with a zero-depth entry and a playground. Because of this unique configuration, the staff sought out a product that was able to transition seamlessly from wet to dry applications while maintaining their commitment to safety. To accomplish this, they selected Life Floor to be installed.

Having seen Life Floor at a major trade show, we knew it was the product we wanted to install in our new facility.
— Scott Munro, Vice President of Facilities
YMCA OF GREATER MONCTON

A custom beach-inspired design was chosen to complement the existing tropical theming. Life Floor’s foam-rubber tiles were able to create the perfect transition the YMCA needed between the wet and dry play areas, especially since splash pads are essentially wet playgrounds. The cushioned and impact-absorbing surfacing allows children to run, jump, and play without limits - never needing to stop and put on shoes or change the way they play from one area to the next. As a result, the fully immersive experience enhances imaginative play. 

The YMCA of Greater Moncton is skipping ahead of their competition by creating a facility full of imagination, play, and fun. They have created a holistic experience to provide their members with the perfect beach day right in their community’s backyard.

We thank the YMCA of Greater Moncton for their commitment to safety and for being one of the first in Canada to adopt NSF/ANSI/CAN 50:26 safety surfacing standards for the benefit of their members. We look forward to the future as more Canadian facilities follow their example and recognize the importance of this safety standard as an integral part of their business.




To learn more about the official code in your region or state, check out this free resource.


If you’d like to specify or install NSF/ANSI/CAN 50:26 surfacing for an aquatic play area in Canada, please contact our Canadian Partner, Paul-Émile Beaudry at pebeaudry@polyvalens.ca to assist you in both English and French.

For U.S. clients and all other inquiries, please contact us directly via our online contact form or send us an email at solutions@lifefloor.com

French Translation

Le YMCA du Grand Moncton, NB crée un précédent sécuritaire en milieu aquatique au Canada.

Récemment, NSF International a étendu la norme Standard 50 partout au Canada, incluant des recommandations pour les surfaces de jeu aquatiques sous l’appellation NSF/ANSI/CAN 50,26 (précédemment nommée NSF/ANSI 50:26).

Avec ses récentes installations de Life Floor, le YMCA du Grand Moncton, NB est l’un des premiers centres d’installation aquatique à reconnaître l’importance d’avoir une surface sécuritaire certifiée NSF/ANSI/CAN 50:26. En effet, l’établissement se compose d’un mix de  deux (2) aires de jeux, l’une étant une surface mouillée (indoor splash pad) plane et l’autre étant une aire de jeux sèche. À cause de cette configuration spéciale, les employés ont recherché un produit qui permettrait la transition en toute transparence, de la surface mouillée à la surface sèche pour leurs activités tout en gardant un engagement de sécurité irréprochable. Un seul choix leur permettait de tout rallier : Life Floor.

Après avoir vu Life Floor lors d'un grand salon, nous avons sû que c’était le produit que nous voulions pour nos installations !  —Scott Munro, Vice Président du YMCA du Grand Moncton, NB

Au niveau du design,  le thème tropical dans l’aire de jeu d’eau et le thème plage dans l’aire de jeu sèche sont en parfaite harmonie pour s’adapter au thème pré-existant. Et maintenant, les enfants peuvent donc courir, sauter, culbuter et jouer sans limites sur une surface conforme aux nouveaux standards. Les surfaces coussinées  et absorbant tout impact permettent aux enfants de jouer sans s’arrêter pour mettre leurs chaussures ou changer leur façon de jouer d’un endroit à l’autre. Comme résultat, l’expérience devient totalement immersive et renforce leur jeu imaginatif.

Le YMCA du Grand Moncton devient donc un chef de file en adoptant des installations pleines d’imagination, de jeu et de plaisir ! Ils ont créé une expérience holistique en offrant à leurs membres une journée de plage parfaite en plein dans leur cour !

Nous remercions le YMCA du Grand Moncton de leur engagement pour la sécurité de leurs membres et d’être les premiers au Canada à appliquer la norme NSF/ANSI/CAN 50.26. Nous espérons que plusieurs autres organismes, centres aquatiques  et municipalités suivront l’exemple du YMCA et reconnaîtront l’importance de l’application de cette recommandation comme faisant partie de leur politique d’opération .

Si vous désirez de plus amples informations sur les tuiles Life Floor, communiquez avec Polyvalens Inc, notre distributeur au Canada.