For asking the heating engineer to wear shoe covers in my house

I love the hyperbole on shoes-off threads! All the carpets with steaming mountains of dog shit, spit, insects, you name it! You need to live in better neighbourhoods!

I've never seen plastic ones. The ones I've come across are paper, and they're fatal on laminate or tiles. They are the ones tradesmen always try to wear in our area. I own a mop; the floor is washable. The booties are unnecessary.

This makes me miss the laugh reaction. Getting worked up over a dog bowl in the dishwasher is hilarious.

Lots do. When we were house viewing probably half the homes we viewed had boxes of shoe covers at the door. When we sold our MIL's house earlier this year, we put a box in the front porch and told the estate agent that viewers should wear them (it had a nearly new light beige carpet throughout the ground floor!).

Even on TV property shows, you often see the presenter wearing shoe covers walking around the renovated or newly built home if you look - i.e. Grand Designs with Kevin McLeod or the other one (the Geordie architect). Likewise seen a few on Place in the Sun. The TV camera doesn't do close ups of feet so it's not always obvious.

I remember a thread where someone said that shoes off at the door is a “global standard”. So it must be true, I read it on mumsnet.

Hyacinth Bucket lives on. making the vicar and policemen leave their shoes at the door. “On no account do I allow alien shoes on my herringbone woodblock, or my grade one Axminster.” The vicar asks Richard if he has to take his shoes off, and Richard replies “oh yes, I once left a mark on the woodblock, in 1968.”

I’m a firm believer in “a few germs are good for your immune system”, and we didn’t do children any favours in 2020, by making their environment so sterile (and a whole lot of other reasons as well).

The plastic shoecovers aren't slippy - they have a non slip sole so there should be little risk of someone slipping. Walking around in socks is more dangerous which is why we have a box of the shoe covers.

I cant work out if youre joking 🤔

30 seconds is highly unlikely to make any difference!

I think the chances of any bacteria surviving and surviving in any quantity sufficient to cause any issues whatsoever are miniscule. I don't expect anything in my house to be sterile, sanitised is fine.

Most of the microbes that are likely to cause serious disease live up our nose, on our skin or in our gut. When they fall off us they tend to die very rapidly, they need a host to survive.

If you’ve had workmen in your house you need to clean what they’ve touched with their hands rather where their shoes may have been. I tend to clean door handles and work surfaces. Floors really aren’t a problem.

Basically home dishwashers are designed to sanitise not to sterilise.

So they don't get hot enough to kill all bacteria as a rule.

We've had this debate on here before. It's only the specialised ones you might get in restaurants and hospitals that get high enough in temp to sterilise. So some of the bacteria in your dogs/cats mouth could well survive the dishwashing process if you have a standard home dishwasher.

And anyone who has used a dishwasher knows they do not clean perfectly, even the best of them leave bits of food on stuff that has to be rewashed.

Shoes off at the front door. I don’t care who you are. I’m not having clodhoppers on my carpets x

I hate it too, not least because I have a recurring achilles tendonitis problem and walking barefoot makes it worse.

My plumber wouldn't take his boots off, because he wears safety boots. You wouldn't want to drop a toilet or something else heavy on bare feet!

He puts shoe covers on though, as does my builder BIL (who wouldn't take his safety boots off either).

Carpet - YANBU
Hardfloor - YABU

Those little booties can be dangerous on hard floors. I always ask tradesmen not to wear them in my house because I don't want to be responsible for them slipping on the laminate. Although, I do usually have to ask because they automatically put them on at the door. My floor is dangerous enough with all the dog hair floating about (I do sweep daily, but the dog insists on shedding enough hair to knit two new dogs every hour).

Couldn't agree more. Unless the soles are dirty I think it's really rude. Personally I feel very uncomfortable sitting around someone else's house in stockinged feet and I wouldn't inflict that on my guests.

We are a shoes off home but not dicks about it. I would never ask my dad to take his off as it’s not easy for him. Guests who visit usually clock our arrangement at the door and take theirs off but I wouldn’t expect people who find it difficult to do it.

I would not expect tradesmen to take off shoes for health and safety reasons. They usually have covers or ask.

I would never ask a paramedic to take off shoes again for their health and safety, they have specific shoes for that reason. If I have paramedics in the house the flooring is not my concern. I also think their time is more important than my flooring which I can clean.

Dog poo covered shoes? Unless you run a boarding kennel this feels like a ridiculous exaggeration.

I offered to remove shoes when viewing houses but they really should have shoe covers available and offer them.

We’re in the process of moving house and have been to view a large number of properties so far. With two exceptions, which were houses with hard floors and one of which was empty anyway, the estate agents showing us round have asked us to remove our shows. The agents who showed people round our house also asked every viewer to take their shoes off as they came in. I really don’t think it’s at all unusual to expect people to remove their shoes or at least cover them.

So its bizarre and unhinged in the uk but cultural in other countries? And what if those people move to the UK? Does their cultural habit become bizarre and unhinged at the border?

"Can you die a bit slower darling? The ambulance crew just need to put their shoe covers on" 😂

That's why we have a box of shoecovers. And yes, we have asked GP and paramedics to put on shoe covers before coming into the house. Their shoes/boots are just as likely to be filthy as tradesmen, probably previously been stood on sick or blood on a previous call out.

Its not ignorant to wait to be asked, not everyone wants someone's sweaty stinking feet thrust into their lives without permission. I certainly dont 🤢 and i do feel a bit awkward when I have had to stop someone I barely know taking theirs off so wouldnt want to put someone else in that position.

It feels like its less awkward to say "oh can you take your shoes off thanks" than "oh no wtf are you doing please put your shoes back on"....(especially when the person says "oh no its ok ill keep them off" as ive had once, but that experience still haunts me 😩😩😩 I could see the feety sweat marks on my floor in the porch 🤢)