Fitting Fascias

[Keitai]

Lot of older guys talk about knee pads. I've got these snickers trousers with inserts but thinking of wearing those in combination with the individual ones in pix underneath. Lots of kneeling on this job.

Biggest issue I've got personally is I had tinnitus a few years ago and now am sensitive to the noise. Problem is because you have to talk to people need some which are put on and off easily or inserts I've got which are just a ten decibel protector which may mean I'm not shouting when wearing them but still take the edge off.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Lot of older guys talk about knee pads. I've got these snickers trousers with inserts but thinking of wearing those in combination with the individual ones in pix underneath. Lots of kneeling on this job.

The reason is that you will probably eventually end up with bursitis in the longer term if you don't wear knee pads (and sometimes even if you do). I know many people who've had it in the past, myself included, and the cure is just rest. But I have also worked with a few guys who have it all the time and it really isn't so good for them. So it's all about mitigation.

With knee pads watch out that you don't cut the blood supply to the lower leg (caused by wearing external knee pads with the straps too tight)

In the longer term you can also eventually get osteoarthritis, where the cartilage in the knee wears away and you get bone on bone contact, and no amount of wearing of knee pads can defend you from that. Osteo is an increasingly painful condition afflicting mainly people in their 50s and older, although some younger people can also suffer from it. It is a degenerative condition, and the only "cure", eventually, is a surgically replaced knee joint which will take a year or more to fully heal (which is where I am now, and I can assure you it isn't pleasant or pain-free)

Biggest issue I've got personally is I had tinnitus a few years ago and now am sensitive to the noise. Problem is because you have to talk to people need some which are put on and off easily or inserts I've got which are just a ten decibel protector which may mean I'm not shouting when wearing them but still take the edge off.

We did warn you about noise. Tinnitus and deafness are both progressive and many people in construction end up with one or the other, or both. Construction sites frequently have noise levels of 90 to 95 decibels which tend to mean that ear defenders with a rating of SNR 25 to 30 are recommended. There is a page on the HSE website which discusses this in more detail with additional links, including audio demos of the effects of progressive deafness. Be careful with tinnitus - it only gets worse

 

[noseall]

Biggest issue I've got personally is I had tinnitus a few years ago and now am sensitive to the noise

The building trade is not for you. I wear ear defenders a lot.

 

[opps]

he reason is that you will probably eventually end up with bursitis in the longer term if you don't wear knee pads

I had that a few years ago. My knee started becoming stiff. I got to the point where I asked she who scowls at me to give me a lift to the local minor injuries unit. It took me about 5 minutes to get out of her Freelander. The nurse told me to climb on the the bed and gave me short shrift when I explained that I found it difficult to bend my leg sufficiently to get on to the bed. She prodded it and said "It's ONLY housemaids knee", she gave me diclofenac sodium (an NSAID- same family as Ibuprofen) and it was fine 3 days later.

I hadn't recently kneeled on any hard surfaces but she explained that the inflammation might have been the result of a minor knock on the knee.

A friend of mine has the knee cartilage problem and ended up retiring early.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

She prodded it and said "It's ONLY housemaids knee", she gave me diclofenac sodium (an NSAID- same family as Ibuprofen) and it was fine 3 days later.

Diclophenac is a LOT stronger than Ibuprofen, though. It is used a lot for arthritis (both osteo snd rheumatoid). GPs tend to prescribe the less effective Naproxen nowadays as it is less likely to give you heart problems. Didn't stop my GP prescribing it for me for many years, but locums invariably wouldn't prescribe it

When I had a bout the GP said co-codomol and take a few days off. He also asked what I did for a living and then told me to wear knee pads in future (I didn't always)

Your mate may need TKR in the future depending on how bad his knee gets, but they like to leave it until you are about 70 if they can as the artificial joints last 10 to 20 years (or so they told me).

 

[^woody^]

I bet lots of building workers in their 40's and 50's would love to go back to their 20 year old selves and slap them with various items of PPE.

I'd tell myself to get the work trousers with knee pad slots from the bottom (or side), and not with poxy flaps at the top

 

[johnny2007]

Today I saw a scaffolder in flip flops.
Mind you, he was only passing the posts to the guys erecting the scaffolding...
Nonetheless...

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Ace!

 

[opps]

Diclophenac is a LOT stronger than Ibuprofen, though. It is used a lot for arthritis (both osteo snd rheumatoid). GPs tend to prescribe the less effective Naproxen nowadays as it is less likely to give you heart problems.

I had previously been told by my GP that the shift to Naproxen was down to cost. Naproxen is more than 4 times cheaper.

Medicinal forms | Diclofenac sodium | Drugs | BNF content published by NICE

Pricing and pack information for Dispersible tablet, Modified-release tablet, Gastro-resistant tablet, Modified-release capsule, Solution for injection, Eye drops, Suppository and Gel forms of Diclofenac sodium

bnf.nice.org.uk

Medicinal forms | Naproxen | Drugs | BNF content published by NICE

Pricing and pack information for Tablet, Effervescent tablet, Gastro-resistant tablet and Oral suspension forms of Naproxen

bnf.nice.org.uk

I too find naproxen less effective than diclofenac sodium.

 

[RandomGrinch]

...just an example from my line of work, where even the correct use of PPE and SOP's can prove sadly inadequate:

Karen Wetterhahn - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It's often blatantly obvious in lab work, that PPE is the last and weakest line of defense against harm - would you rather an engineering solution that meant you didn't have to handle the acid, or would you want some nitrile gloves for when you inevitably spilt some?

 

[^woody^]

Sad story.

But sometimes, wearing flip flops to pass a scaffold pole, or standing on an oil drum and not a platform or scaffold, or moving a bit of asbestos board stopping you from doing a job, can make the difference between stale bread or a mini-fish special on a Saturday night.

It's basically Darwinism in practice. Assess the risks.

 

[johnny2007]

Guilty today.
I'm laying bricks topless and wearing trainers...

 

[Deleted member 174758]

But sometimes, wearing flip flops to pass a scaffold pole, or standing on an oil drum and not a platform or scaffold, or moving a bit of asbestos board stopping you from doing a job, can make the difference between stale bread or a mini-fish special on a Saturday night.

Only if you (a) don't drop scaffolding on your foot, (b) the oil drum doesn't tip over, causing you to sprain your ankle, either of which will mean stale bread on Saturday night, or even less. The asbestos thing, like hearing protection, is a longer term issue which may take decades to work itself out.

As you say, assess the risks...

BTW I think someone wearing flip flips to haul scaffolding around is hardly likely to be wearing any "bonce protection" either, which is maybe more of an issue

 

[datarebal]

Always use the green cross code ..

 

[noseall]

Flip flops? Whaaa!

The scaffolder that works for the company that erects ours, asks any lads joining the team to wear steel toe cap boots. The next day he aims the clips for their feet if they don't heed his advice. He's been doing it for years. All the lads on the ground wear steelies.