When choosing safe and sustainable flooring for your work environment, steel is one of the best solutions. Here at Lionweld Kennedy, we manufacture steel industrial flooring options to suit many different industries and applications, but which is best for your project?
We are experts in steel fabrication and produce two primary types of steel flooring; Safegrid and Safedeck. Each has distinct advantages depending on where they are to be used.
The main difference between the two types of flooring is that Safegrid is open mesh flooring, whereas Safedeck is a solid top flooring option. Safegrid excels at distributing heat so is commonly used in data centres to allow for continuous air flow throughout the building. It is also synonymous with offshore oil & gas platforms, becoming known in the industry as ‘Kennedy grating’. Safedeck, on the other hand, is excellent at retaining spills of fluids, ingredients and powders. For this reason, it is often the preferred flooring choice for food manufacturing, pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries.
This article will take an in-depth look at Safegrid and Safedeck steel flooring. We will explore the key advantages that each flooring type holds and how each of their key features would suit the different needs of different industries.
Safegrid: What Is It? 
Safegrid from Lionweld Kennedy is the industry standard for steel grate open mesh flooring, manufactured in the UK for over 100 years. Safegrid offers a safe, sustainable and compliant solution when considering steel flooring options.
Why Choose Safegrid?
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Durability and strength
Safegrid is an industry-leading flooring system that provides many key advantages for your project, including having an extremely high performance to weight ratio. The structure of the grating creates a system of load bearing capabilities as the weight is spread evenly across multiple reinforced points within the structure.
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A sustainable option
We are working hard to ensure that we minimise our impact on the environment as much as possible. By offering our Safegrid steel flooring in only three variants, we are optimising our use of steel whilst ensuring we remain compliant with British and European standards and maximising our product efficiencies. Where ball proofing is not required, we offer Utility grating which is the most effective and sustainable steel flooring solution on the market that is compliant and fit for purpose whilst using the least amount of steel.
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Quality flooring that is built to last
Thanks to the quality steel we use to manufacture our steel grating flooring, all of our products, including Safegrid, are low maintenance and highly resistant to damage, corrosion, weather and other environmental factors. Ensuring this quality throughout our products, means our products are built to last and once installed, there is little maintenance costs or time involved compared to some other industrial flooring types.
Our Safegrid flooring is also available with either plain or serrated bars, with serrated providing extra slip resistance for applications that require it.
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Fully compliant steel flooring
. Our innovative ball proof grating ensures safety and compliancy is at the forefront of the manufacturing process with all of our products, including Safegrid – our steel flooring solution that complies with British and European ball proofing standards. Read our Guide to Ball Proof Compliance to find out more.
By reducing our Safegrid product range to only provide our three compliant options, we are delivering the most sustainable and efficient range of industry-compliant products to market, which help to further reduce our carbon footprint.
Safegrid steel mesh flooring panels as available with 20mm ball proofing, 35mm ball proofing or utility grating. No matter the requirements of your project, we’ve got you covered.
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Sustainable
Safegrid is the first steel grating in the world to have an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). An EPD transparently reports the environmental performance of a product within its entire lifespan. This is measured from the material extraction for manufacturing, transporting the product, to its usage stage to its end-of-life removal. Lionweld Kennedy have invested in developing an EPD for our ‘Safegrid’ open mesh flooring as part of our efforts to lead a better change in steel manufacturing. Through transparently reporting the environmental performance of a product, we can provide sustainability within a supply chain which allows Safegrid to be a safe and sustainable product.
Safedeck: What Is It? 
Safedeck is a closed flooring system comprising of our Safegrid steel flooring, with a solid Durbar plate fixed to the top surface to provide strength and stability to the walking surface. You can choose between a 3mm, 4.5mm & 6mm, depending on the requirements of the area including load bearing weight requirements. Our steel Safedeck flooring delivers a safe and slip resistant surface that is capable of bearing significant amounts of weight.
Why Choose Safedeck?
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Time & Cost-Effective
Using Safedeck steel flooring is a time and cost-effective solution for your industrial flooring requirements thanks to the low levels of maintenance required, the long life span of our steel flooring and the ease of installation, reducing time on site and subsequent labour costs. Both prefabricated and custom fabricated safedeck flooring can be installed quickly and efficiently thanks to the nature of prefabricated products, and the in-depth design process we offer with our custom fabricated flooring solutions. Creating such detailed designs and plans ensures the time spent on installation is as efficient as possible.
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Flooring That Lasts
When looking for steel flooring that is built to last no matter the conditions, Safedeck is an excellent choice. Our steel flooring is manufactured with strength and safety in mind. It is manufactured on our fully compliant 35mm ball proof Safegrid grating with the addition of the durbar plate to enclose the structure. This helps spread the weight of any load on the surface, providing the most economical use of steel and the greatest capacity for load bearing. This dual aspect ensures that Safedeck can withstand much larger loads than other types of grating or industrial flooring.
Steel is an material designed to withstand an array of conditions in many different environments; it is anti-corrosive and weather resistant, adding to the long lifespan of the product and making it a versatile option for a number of different applications.
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Corrosion-resistance
As with all steel flooring, Safedeck is highly resistant to corrosion. Steel is a low-maintenance material that will stand the test of time and maintain its quality and strength under the harshest weather and working conditions.
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Safety requirements
Using Safedeck in your industrial setting provides an additional safety aspect as the solid top of the flooring eliminates the risk of any falling debris.
We design and manufacture with safety and quality in mind and all of our steel flooring is helps our customers comply with BS4592-0:2006+A1:2012.
Contact Us
Here at Lionweld Kennedy, we only provide our customers with the best steel flooring available. If you want to enquire about Safegrid or Safedeck flooring, or have any questions on how we can create custom options to suit your project brief, get in touch.
Our fantastic team of industry-leading experts are happy to answer any questions you may have. We are on hand to help you make the right decision for your industrial or commercial steel flooring needs.
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