I find it interesting, and a little worrying, that no one has actually expressed an opinion on who the liability would rest with ie. the contractor or the client if there was an incident concerning a polished altro floor.
Each post has raised important issues, but not THE most important, yes Risk Assessments are required, by law, but it seems to me that by putting polish on an altro floor, that has been specified in order to minimize the slip hazard in a particular area you risk rendering that Risk Assessment null and void. In fact I think that you risk being accused of ignoring completely the risk assessment.
Under H & S legislation, we have a duty, a legal duty, to minimise the risk, by putting polish on altro flooring, we would be increasing the risk, not minimising it. A defence of the client wants it to look cleaner, is in my opinion, no defence at all.
Again, it comes down to education, we are supposed to be the experts here, very rarely does the client have any more than cursory knowledge of cleaning, if I was the client, and an accident did occur, the first words out of my own mouth would be"We employ contractors who are experts in this field to do our cleaning, they have supplied us with the relevant Risk Assessments/Method Statements etc, surely it is they who should have pointed this risk out to us, as this is supposedly their area of expertise"
Again, the defence of we could'nt afford it, or if I didnt comply with the client's request, someone else would have, is not really a valid defence, it would be useful to find out the insurance companies point of view on this.
Regards,
Rob