TILING TOOLS & WORKWEAR WATCH YO
Safety footwear is an essential piece of kit if you are a tradesperson of course, but e Sales and Marketing Director at construct
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If you spend your days tiling walls and floors, then you are among the tradespeople who clock up an average 12,000 steps in a typical eight-hour shift. This is without taking into account the amount of time you spend standing, bending and stretching. There’s no doubt that it is a physical job and there is often a lot of focus on bending and lifting in the right way to prevent joint pain and, of course, having the appropriate PPE when working on site. However, there is often not as much emphasis on the comfort side of safety footwear, which is surprising when wearing uncomfortable and ill-fitting shoes, trainers or boots all day, every day can actually be bad for your health.
Often, work boots are chosen purely on price and, while many of us wouldn’t think twice about paying out a large chunk of money for a new pair of trainers or smart shoes for a night out, we tend to economise on boots we wear for hours on end. The average tradesperson also concludes that safety boots with reinforced toe caps are likely to be uncomfortable but essential. They are often seen as a something of a necessary evil – the effects of dropping a box of heavy tiles
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on your toes don’t bear thinking about do they?
Although, according to the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, safety footwear with reinforced toecaps doesn’t need to be uncomfortable after all. They argue: “There is a misconception that safety shoes, especially protective toecaps, will be uncomfortable, but if the shoes are padded and fitted correctly, you should not be able to feel the toecaps at all.”
Taking some time out to try safety footwear on and investing in a quality brand will pay off in the long-run, particularly at the end of a long, hard day’s tiling. What tilers and other trades should really be looking for from their footwear is a pair of boots or shoes that take the strain and fit like a glove, so that they can barely be felt on your feet, regardless of how long they’re being worn for.
One of the biggest features to look for is flexibility – with a lot of bending and stretching taking place during the average working day, your boots need to bend with you, while offering support on the areas of the feet most prone
www.tomorrowstileandstone.co.uk
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