Deer Hunter

I'm a 'cradle Canadian' and no I don't think that we would spend 6 pages debating the appropriateness of shoe removal in somebody's house because it's expected. I now live in Oz and am amazed when people walk into my house (with real hardwood floors) with high heeled shoes when it's been raining . Yes, this did happen!!

My MIL in East Molesey makes us take off our shoes in the house too.

dbd33

I'm a bit baffled by this. I assumed the original reference to high heeled shoes related to the absence of fashion in Canada; Canadian women generally wear "comfortable shoes" or boots. If someone actually owns nice shoes and is willing to wear them to visit why would you discourage it? If she's willing to risk a tumble in the street because of bad weather isn't it doubly rude to ask that she take them off when she arrives?

Souvenir

Because grit etc trapped in the tread of a shoe will scratch the floor.

Canada2006

In our house we take our shoes off... it started because we wanted to minimise cleaning... and now it's just horrid to be in a house with shoes on. They are sooo dirty.

Custom here (Belgium) is to keep you shoes on when you go to someone else's house, so we don't ask people to remove theirs.

I think it's another reason we're going to like Canada!

dbd33

Isn't it a bit odd to install floors that won't withstand being walked on and then to invite people over? What do you sockists do in public buildings such as churches?

iaink

'Cos sand and dust will eat the finish on hardwood alive just the same as mud. And its rude not to. And its the normal expected thing to do here.

I dont understand why there is a resistance to take shoes off in the circumstances.

iaink

People are invited over on the assumption that they are normal civilised people and will behave according to the societial norms that go along with nice finished hardwood floors. Ours are now trashed anyway by the collective action of small children who dont observe rules that closely, and by the combined effect of a thousand small hard plastic toys getting pushed around over them.

We keep our shoes on in public buildings. Sometimes winter boots will be replaced with more indoor shoes though.

However there is a world of difference betwen the finish on a domestic floor, and the more hardwareing surfaces of public buildings. I cant think of a church (or any other public building) around here that has expensively finished hardwood floors anyway.

Souvenir

Any time I am forced to go into a church, I look for a cow field first.

I rarely wear socks between May and October. When I do, I always wear slippers. It looks naff but it's better than breaking my neck on the stairs.

dbd33

If a domestic floor is expensively finished and yet can't withstand shoes there's something sadly wrong. I like the hardwood because it's tough and in the worst case it can sanded down, I'm sure that in the seventy+ years it's been down it's seen plenty of shoes and yet it's not ruined.

iaink

Think about it. How do you remove the old finish when you refinish a hardwood floor? With Sandpaper.

And how do you think your outside shoes with mud and dirt on the soles behave....like sandpaper!


So yes, hardwood can be refinished... but:
A: That costs money, and is a royal and messy pain in the arse best done when you move to a place and all the rooms are empty and you plan to dust top to bottom anyway. You wouldnt want to do it in your home, so why would you expect the person you are visiting to want to do it more often than they had to.

B: You can only sand and refinish a finite number of times before there is nothing left to sand. We are close to that point now, and replacing hardwood is a couple of orders of magnitude more expensive than putting down laminate

dbd33

I think the shoe removal thing is rather tail wagging dog. It seems to me mildly inhospitable to tell visitors that the shine on the floor is more important than their style and comfort. Still, I can't say I get terribly bent out of shape about it, to me it's just like Canadians offering beer from the bottle instead of a glass, it's what they do and I never had much manners anyway.

However to my OH and especially to her mother, manners and politeness are important and things like that make them scream, they view life in Toronto as being barely one step up from a mud hut. I think that's a common view among immigrants confronted with the shoe custom, regardless of their place of origin.

iaink

If manners are so important, then surely they remove their outside footware, as that is the good mannerd thing to do At least, thats how I've always seen it.

Investor

Most people under 45 wouldn't be seen dead in slippers nowadays, but surprisingly the stores are full of them in the run up to Christmas (ie 1st August onwards)

dbd33

Presumably, "always" meaning since you've been in rural Canada, I don't think it's common anywhere else.

iaink

No, my mum wouldnt let us near the 1970s shag pile with outside shoes on, and that went for any of our friends houses too.

Plus its "normal" to leave your shoes at the door in the big cites of Trenton, Belleville and Peterborough too.