To ask engineer to take his shoes off?

[singingtonight]

Or at least wear foot coverings?

I'm not normally bothered about things like this but I've just moved into my new home and had new carpets fitted on Monday which obviously cost a lot of money.

Sky engineer is coming tomorrow to connect the broadband. WIBU to ask him to take his shoes off or cover them in the house?

I probably sound really silly but I don't want to be that "person" and make it awkward by asking but the carpets are only a few days old after all.

He should offer to and if not I would ask
i I don’t see an issue with that - it’s a courtesy

They should bring shoe covers!? Our housing association tradesmen always do. They also cover the floor if doing any messy work

Of course you can tell him! Often they’ll offer or have booties to put over. But totally reasonable and they should not be suprised

He will probably have those bootie things that go over his shoes or just take his shoes off ( whilst hoping he's not got holes in his socks!)
I'm sure it won't be an issue

It's his job. I don't know about sky but lots of people have to wear certain types of shoes in the work place for protection and insurance. What happens if he treds on an infected syringe in a house in his socks? Also shoe covers are not allowed often as they remove the grip that would be needed if he had to quickly run away. As I say, I don't know about sky.

Just cover your floors

My experience with the likes of big firms like Sky, Virgin, British Gas, Furniture deliveries from big firms, etc., is that the engineer will have his plastic/rubber coverings in his hand and will put them on at the door without you having to ask. The bigger firms are really good at this kind of thing.

We have a box of those cheap shoe covers bought from Ebay which we keep in the front porch to offer people who havn't brought shoe covers with them. Most reasonable people will happily put them on or offer to take off their shoes.

The only people we have trouble with tend to be independent/local tradesmen, such as plumbers, electricians, etc., who are the ones who make a big song and dance about it. If we're having major work done, we always put down cover cloths or plastic on the carpets, so they can come in wearing their work boots for H&S etc to do the proper work. I'm talking about them coming in just to do a quote or a quick look at something that really doesn't need them to wear their boots as they don't even have tools with them, just a pen and paper!

But back to OP, I really wouldn't worry, like I say, the bigger firms are really good at this kind of thing these days.

Do you have many infected syringes in your house?!?!

As PP said I very much doubt he would be allowed to remove his shoes within his own H&S guidelines. Do you expect him to do a risk assessment at every home to decide if it looks like there are nice clean safe carpets so he won't be injured? If you have invited a trades person into your home it's up to you to protect your carpets. I think you are reasonable to request shoe covers, but failing that, some protection for the carpet itself.

Just vacuum after

I have all sorts of work people in my house over the last decade including British Gas so often we were almost on first name terms with the engineers. No one has ever batted an eyelid over being asked to remove their shoes or wear shoe covers as I have disposable ones at the front door for this reason. Most bring their own shoe covers which seem to be work issued and are more substantial than the blue disposable ones.

Just seen @taxguru yes, they do seem to come prepared.

Some people do, the point is that these measures protect both sides

OP, you’re freaking out about something that’s unlikely to be a problem.

He won’t take his shoes off - definite health and safety issue. He should however have plastic covers for his boots.

The thing is, the people who do have dangerous things hanging around don't tend to advertise the fact. Workmen don't know what they're going to encounter going into a random person's house.

Some workmen will have stricter rules than others - plumbers etc who might want to keep boots on for protection in case something heavy gets dropped, and to have good grip (not always ensured by boot covers which can be a bit frictionless). Some may have stricter H&S than others (often tied to insurance, which can get a bit crafty when looking for reasons not to pay out). But then you could offer to put something down (or they might have some floor coverings themselves). So I guess just approach it prepared to be reasonable and compromise and not get hung up on one particular solution.

Most workmen have to wear safety boots so I'm not sure how you'd expect him to safely carry out his job.

Ask him to wear covers or put a covering down.

@Allfur easily done if it's just a bit of dirt but if it's raining/muddy then that's a different story.

It's good to hear that others haven't had any issues though, hopefully I won't either. As I said I'm not normally bothered about this sort of stuff, the carpets in my old house were over 10 years old. I want to take of my new one though.

@Barnaclegoose the op said she's got new carpets not that she runs a crack house! The workmen will be fine wearing booties

Of course you can't ask him. Very rude. Cover your carpets if you're precious but don't expect a workman to go against H and S.

You can buy this if you are really concerned that he won't or will be unable to due to h&s https://www.screwfix.com/p/carpet-protector-roll-600mm-x-20m/775FM?tc=ET7&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA6aW6BhBqEiwA6KzDc_4TCUyppfJT5mRsDPvZTCWtdpx1joDuNHlV9JVpgwjqwum4PWh_mBoCNpYQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

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

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.

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.

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

OP in the circumstances no, YANBU in my opinion.

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.

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.