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SPIKED
HEELS
Ladies, take care of your shoes and you’ll take care of your
floors.
The fashionably high heels (and even styles with wedge heels)
contain a steel spike;
the equivalent of a blunt 10-penny nail – to strengthen
the heel. If the leather or plastic cap is allowed to wear down, or all the way
off as frequently happens, the nails holding it and the center spike can become
exposed.
The shoe then can cause indentations and scratches, not only
in wood flooring but also in less dense resilient materials. Even carpet,
terrazzo, ceramic and metal surface can be damaged.
It has been projected that a two-ton car exerts only 28-30
pounds per square inch of pressure on its supporting surface, a full grown
elephant 50-100 PSI, but a 125-pound woman as much as 2,000 PSI when taking a
normal step. That’s because the lady’s heel measures only about 1/20th
of a square inch in size. Her weight is concentrated in a tiny area and
therefore its effect is multiplied many times.
Hardwood flooring manufacturers do not accept damage to floors
caused by such heels as incurring a warranty obligation, nor do flooring
installers. Such damage is not the result of manufacturing defects or
installation method. Hardwood is a product of nature and therefore susceptible
to abuse or mistreatment, and no type of finishing material will, as some people
seem to believe, toughen the surface of the wood. In fact, finishes are softer
than the wood and thus magnify the damage.
The solution
is really quite simple. Just check your heels frequently. When they show signs
of wear visit your local shoe repair shop and have new caps or taps (or
“lifts” as they’re called in the shoe manufacturing and repair industries)
put on. The cost is relatively small whereas the cost sanding and refinishing a
wood floor to remove indentations or completely replacing some other type of
floor covering is not.
And if that’s not a good enough reason for keeping shoe
heels in good repair, here’s another, the exposed nail heads or heel spikes
increase the chances of slipping and falling, with the potential for ankle, back
or other injury.
So treat your shoes right and you’ll help maintain the
original beauty and durability of your floors and, perhaps, avoid a painful
accident.
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