I was helping my brother-in-law replace some windows at his place last weekend, and he handed me these safety glasses that looked straight outta some sci-fi movie. At first, I kinda laughed it off, like "really, dude?" But man, after a shard of glass pinged off the lens later that day, I was pretty grateful. Also wore some heavy-duty gloves he had lying around—made handling the broken glass way less sketchy.
But one thing I noticed was we didn't have any ear protection. The noise from the saw and hammering got pretty intense after a while. My ears were ringing for hours afterward... probably not great.
Wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences or if there's other gear you swear by when doing window replacements. Maybe knee pads or something? My knees are still complaining from kneeling on concrete all day, haha.
I've done a few window replacements myself and honestly never bothered with ear protection. Is it really that loud, though? Maybe it's just me, but I've never noticed ringing afterward—then again, I usually use a manual saw for smaller jobs. Knee pads, on the other hand... totally underrated. Learned that lesson the hard way after spending hours kneeling on gravel.
Ear protection depends a lot on the tools you're using. Manual saws are pretty quiet, but if you're breaking out a circular saw or multitool, trust me, you'll notice the difference. It's not about immediate ringing—more about long-term hearing health. And totally agree on knee pads... gravel is brutal. I'd also throw in gloves; splinters and sharp edges are no joke. Learned that one after a nasty slice from old window framing.
Good point about gloves—I learned that the hard way too. But what about eye protection? Seems like no one's mentioned goggles yet, and honestly, flying wood chips or old paint flakes can get nasty pretty quick. I mean, maybe it's overkill if you're just popping out a single window, but if you're doing a whole house, wouldn't you rather be safe than sorry? Curious if anyone else bothers with goggles or if I'm just being overly cautious here...