Protective shoes

Isobel Griffin <igriffin [at] nts__org__uk> writes

>We will soon be opening a very fragile historic house to the public,
>and would like to obtain some protective shoes for visitors to wear
>over or instead of their outdoor shoes. Can anyone recommend a
>particular type, preferably with details of the supplier?

We have been using disposable synthetic overshoes for visitors
inside the Main House for approximately two years.  I would not
recommend such products due to durability and safety problems

The visitors to Rouse Hill walk across portions of rough sandstone
flagging which dramatically reduce the lifespan of the overshoe to
one or two wears, proving far from economical.  This abrasion also
accelerates disintegration of the material resulting in deposits of
wiry synthetic fibres on carpet pile. We have also found that the
one size fits all results in dangerously loose overshoes on people
with small feet or children.

As an alternative  we are developing our own in-house cloth overshoe
as a washable, economical, and durable replacement. The performance
of the prototypes have been positive, though not perfect, we will
hopefully be able to make the switch this year. This has been a long
process but no commercial product we looked at met the criteria.

Matthew Scott
Housekeeper
Rouse Hill estate
Historic Houses Trust of NSW


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 14:61
                  Distributed: Thursday, May 10, 2001
                       Message Id: cdl-14-61-008
                                  ***