Workwear; or, Dandy rigouts in which to perform manual labour.

Kask all day long. I wore a petzl vertex every day for nearly 10yrs and Kask was a revelation. Much better fit, can’t remember what model I have but is pink which makes it even more awesome as you get to annoy the knuckle draggers on site. MSA HPE ear defenders work really well with that lid. Big problem with petzl vertex is the ears have a tendency to ping ‘open’ every time you move your jaw. This is down to the shape of your bonce, width of jaw etc but never had that problem with Kask.

Also, vertex makes you look like every basic bitch scaffolder that got their industrial access ticket which they’ll probably never use.

Cheers, I was deffo leaning this way. It'll probably have to be white as enough sites I've been on use colour co-ordination for hard hats.

The more I looked at Petzl, the less they looked like what I was after!

EN397 is just the basic "this is a hard hat" standard and mandates a chinstrap that will break with a relatively low force, so you don't accidentally dabble with auto-erotic asphyxiation. Assuming you don't shop on wish.com, anything sold as a safety helmet will meet this standard.

EN12492 is specific to working at heights. As well as enhanced impact protection (the helmet will likely be padded), the chinstrap is stronger than EN397, so it stays in place after an impact.

EN50365 should be met by any unvented, metal-free helmet. But testing & certification costs money, so if you need to prove it you'll pay more.

Everything takes ear defenders and ED are cheap enough (and get so grim) that you can change them when you change your lid, so it doesn't matter what fitment they are.

397/50365 compliant lid (in "technician" blue, check site requirements) for £11 +vat
ED for £8 +vat

"Going back to being a subby so need my own, figured I might as well buy a nice one." makes no sense to me.

vertex makes you look like every basic bitch scaffolder that got their industrial access ticket

And wearing a Kask you look like every podgy main contractor dogsbody that got their ipad :)

colour co-ordination for hard hats

Is largely bollocks dreamed up by people who don't have to pay for their own PPE and there is no industry standard (lifting ops being the obvs exception).

This summer was funny, watching the supers: not so "cool" now.

"Going back to being a subby so need my own, figured I might as well buy a nice one." makes no sense to me.

I used to be an employee, so had PPE provided, and now I'm going to be self employed again working as a subcontractor so need to provide my own PPE. Or do you mean you don't understand the logic? I just mean that if I have to provide it, I'd rather get one I like rather than cheaping out. I'm also a little fussy about shit that goes on my head/get easily annoyed by ill fitting stuff tbh.

I do understand the differences between EN12492 and EN397 - a lot of helmets now come with two chinstraps so you can choose the one with the right breaking strain for your application. There's also a slight variation in what % of ventilation is allowed I think.

And wearing a Kask you look like every podgy main contractor dogsbody that got their ipad :)

Dress for the job you want, not the one you have? lol

Dress for the job you want, not the one you have? lol

Filson time

Big LOL. Would rep.

Plasma is much more comfortable than zenith IMHO.

Yeah looking at the two I suspected that the plasma had a better internal system/harness/whatever. Handy info.

I have those dungarees!

I’ve never worked anywhere where the colour coding is adhered too, the only thing that ever stuck in my world(trees) was that green was usually worn by first aiders and orange was for apprentices or other folks considered a liability..
I assume on the railways or big building sites it’s a more formal though. The joys of being a trade that pops on site for a few days or so meant that we were largely left to ourselves/treated like lepers so no one questioned our choices.

Yeah it’s deffo the minority of sites and I can live with white either way. But I don’t want to drop £50 on a hard hat that I can’t wear if I get a contract on a fussy site.

My main memory was the annoyance of arriving at a fussy site and having to trawl through my colleagues very chaotic van for his black supervisor helmet, lol.

But do you have an underwater chainsaw?

They are not rated as chainsaw PPE in the UK

And no i don’t have an underwater chainsaw but do have a 16”bar stihl chainsaw.

Thank fuck I dont work on places that need hard hats.

I think being able to wear shorts, use ladders and not needing full PPE on all the time is the only thing I actually liked about the job I've just quit, haha.

Weirdly I find wearing a hard hat quite reassuring, now I don’t work on sites it feels good to wear one when I go climbing.
Rarely wear one on the bike and always found works helmets way more comfy than bike ones :/

Glad I don’t need chainsaw boots any more, love my Parade safety sneakers.

Or do you mean you don't understand the logic?

No, I don't. But then I don't look at £200 boots, so maybe it's just me... :)

The other thing to consider is that buying expensive kit tends to introduce a desire to "get your money's worth", which can translate as a reluctance to replace it when necessary.

And if I was fussy about what went on my head, I'd rather a brand new £20 lid every year, than cram £50-worth of last year's congealed filth back on my bonce.

If you want to know which one looks less dorky, the answer is "none of them". Just count yourself lucky you don't have jug-handle ears like me.

Im done with the shorts after I had to smash a toilet out on a job because some idiot masticed it down and I could get it up, the toilet was all serated and as I went to put it down took a nice slice off the front of my shin.

The client in the house was nearly sick, I just wanted finished so wrapped it with kitchen towel and electrical tape until I went to my mums after to get it fixed (She was a nurse). Should see the scar.

Needs a pic

The during or the healed version? I can provide both.

Tbf I only ever looked at those boots, definitely never purchased!

And I’m guaranteed to look like a dork anyway ;)

Fair. I deffo wear trousers when I need the protection. But if I’m doing light work and it’s sweltering I’m glad for the option of shorts!

Go on, get your gash out.