The terms antistatic and conductive are unrelated. Under certain circumstances, a floor described as antistatic—or low charge generating—will not generate static on the shoe soles of people walking on the floor. Low charge generation could be limited to certain shoe sole materials—leather shoe soles, for example, are sufficiently close to the material composition of rubber that they won’t generate significant charges on a rubber floor. Static-protective footwear also eliminates charge generation, even on floors—like ESD vinyl or ESD epoxy—that otherwise generate static.
A flooring material does not need conductive properties in order to inhibit static build-up on people walking on the floor. However, if they are conductive, many low-charge generating floors gain their conductivity from sprays or additives that leach moisture from the air. These additives usually lose conductivity over time or in low RH environments. Therefore it is imperative to follow ANSI/ESD and AATCC protocols and test charge generation on floor samples that have been conditioned at low relative humidity (<15%).
Charge generation is expressed in volts or kilovolts (kV.) A low charge-generating floor cannot be grounded unless it has conductive or static-dissipative properties. Conductive and static-dissipative properties are expressed using a unit of measure called the ohm.