Role guide · Glazing
Glass is the material that punishes optimism: a pane that breaks in the hands finds wrists and forearms first, and a dropped unit finds feet. Glazing kit is built backwards from those two facts — maximum meaningful cut protection where glass meets body, and the discipline to keep it on for the 'easy' panes.
The job
Hands and wrists lead: handling sheet and unit glass calls for ISO 13997 cut level D–F gloves with genuine grip (glass is heavy and smooth — the grip is as protective as the cut rating), and the detail the trade learns early: gloves with extended cuffs or separate wrist guards, because a pane that lets go slides down — across exactly the wrist and forearm arteries a short glove exposes. Cut-resistant sleeves earn their place for unit carrying and de-glazing old frames, where shards come off unpredictably.
The rest of the list: S3 footwear (a dropped sealed unit is a guillotine with a postcode — toe protection is not optional in this trade), eye protection for de-glazing and cutting, and fitted kit without snag points that could catch a carried pane. Fitting work adds the trades-in-homes layer — knee protection at cills, overshoes in finished houses — and shopfront and curtain-wall work brings site rules plus the height regime where MEWPs and edges feature. Suction-cup carrying changed the trade's backs but not its gloves: the cups grip the glass, and the glass still breaks.
The list
| Item | The spec | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Gloves | Cut D–F, grippy, extended cuff | Edges + weight + smoothness, together |
| Wrist/forearm cover | Cut-resistant sleeves for units & de-glazing | Breaking panes slide down the arms |
| Footwear | S3 | Dropped units end careers without caps |
| Eye protection | De-glazing, cutting, drilling | Old putty and shards fly |
| Fitted kit | Snag-free, knee pads for cill work | A caught pane is a broken pane |
Questions
High cut-rated gloves — ISO 13997 level D to F — with strong grip coatings, ideally with extended cuffs or paired wrist guards, because breaking glass slides down across wrists. Grip matters as much as the rating: most glass injuries start as a slip of a heavy, smooth sheet.
When a carried pane breaks, the fragments travel down the line of carry — across wrists and forearms where major vessels run close to the surface. Cut-resistant sleeves or gauntlet-cuffed gloves cover the trade's most characteristic serious injury.
Emphatically — a dropped sealed unit or sheet concentrates a lot of weight into a falling edge, and feet are where it lands. S3 boots (toe cap plus midsole) are the trade's standard, with the midsole earning its keep on renovation sites full of old glass and fixings.
Everything in this guide is stocked, embroiderable and priced for teams — send the headcount.