To ask engineer to take his shoes off?

Just remembered a plumber many, many years ago who refused to take off his muddy/oily boots nor wear plastic shoe covering and instead got a pile of cover cloths from his van to put down on our brand new carpets (they were old curtains!). He put the cover cloths on the stairs!! Almost inevitably he fell down the stairs when he slipped on one of his own cover cloths that he'd put down! What a stupid thing to do - putting cover cloths on stairs! I bet he wished he'd just put the sodding plastic shoe covers on in the first place.

For many organisations - more likely big ones than your SE trades, it'll be in their risk assessment to keep shoes on not just incase they step on something or something falls on their foot but to enable them to quickly leave the house if the situation becomes hostile and it will be a blanket ban. Similarly some will have not wearing shoe coverings as they can make things slippery

If I were you I'd get a roll of vinyl carpet protector / dust sheet / old bed sheet / old shower curtain whatever and use that on the floors.

Infected syringes?? Are you ok?

Ask them to wear boot covers, for many of these people the boots are part of their PPE and they shouldn't take them off.

I have a bag of those blue shoe covers in a cupboard near the front door. If people have dirty boots, I hand them out. It's easier for them than taking off shoes. And I know myself that walking barefoot can be painful if you have problem feet as I do.

Hmm, it must depend where you are I think. I have literally never seen a tradesman offer to cover shoes or even have the plastic coverings in their hand (Ireland). Whether or not to remove shoes when entering a house is cultural to a large extent and in the UK too attitudes can vary by region.

@singingtonight hope this puts your mind at rest

Every workman whose come to our house has automatically removed shoes/ used shoe covers. The only ones who've worn boots are the guys who've had to actually knock out walls, even then they take them off in other bits of the house.

Even when they've just come to quote.

Tons of used syringes and needles here. Remarkably I always manage to put them in a sharps box.

yabu
shoes are part of his safety equipment.
but yes, he should wear shoe covers. or you could put sheets down where he needs to walk.

He’ll probably offer to.

I have a recollection of the Sky guy wearing booties like in police series.

You can certainly ask him to wear shoe covers but many companies do not allow staff to remove boots for safety reasons.

Its only 'lol' to people who don't have jobs where they go into other peoples homes. Most of those who do could tell plenty of tales to explain why offering to take their shoes off is not recommended. I had a home visiting role and have seen a syringe on a coffee table. I've also narrowly missed treading in dog shit more than once, and had a rat run over my shoe.
Whether this specific OP has syringes lying about or not is entirely irrelevant to H&S policies anyway which are not written exclusively with her home in mind. They are written to take account of possible hazards. You could have the cleanest home in the world and slip on a tiled floor in your socks.

If you think that is a bizarre suggestion you live in a very innocent bubble. Our tradesmen have come across drug paraphernalia in clean, tidy, Middle class homes.

Health and safety law doesn't only apply when it doesn't inconvenience you. . Sadly they also need their shoes on in case they need to leave quickly when a customer turns aggressive.

Plastic covers are the answer

@Barnaclegoose

It's not personal.

It's also "not personal" when a homeowner asks a visitor to put on shoe coverings, but some people seem to think it's a massive insult!

@Barnaclegoose uhuh..... The many workmen and engineers I've had come to my property have either taken shoes off of work bootie covers.

I don't have carpets downstairs ( pets) & I don't run a crack house with "infected syringes" strewn about.
As suggested op could contact the company for further information

@singingtonight maybe you could go on their customer chat/email them and check with them . Then you will not have to worry

I know. It is a terrible oversight that when companies make policies regarding working in other people's homes, to protect their workers, they often forget to add "but don't worry about @singingtonight, she's totally reliable", but the sad thing is they do. So, sometimes, workmen will have to follow safety policies on the basis that they don't know you or what they are walking into. It's not personal.

I had a BT engineer here the other day he automatically put on blue coverings on his boots. Sky engineer didn’t bother to and his boots were filthy…I had some spare so just handed them to him in my hallway. Glad I did because the way he stomped up my stairs I would have had huge black rubber sole marks left on them.

loll
I was wondering that too
What a bizarre comment that poster made.

OP in the circumstances no, YANBU in my opinion.

I always have a pair of plastic coverings for workmen to wear. Most are obliging. We have a no-shoe policy in our house. It's not simply a case of hovering afterwards. I do not want bird poo/dog wee on my carpets. It's unhygienic and gross.

The last Virgin guy was really good. He had some black rubber covering which was really quite thick, not the usual flimsy plastic ones, and they had a proper grippy sole on them, which actually fit precisely over his work boots, in a kind of pre-moulded/tailored way, so the cover itself had a ribbed sole to match the sole of the boot. Don't know if they were standard Virgin issue or something he'd sourced himself. He had them in his hand and didn't need asking nor ask himself - he just automatically put them on. Very impressive indeed.

Like others have said, they usually have those little plastic boot cover things to put on.