Walk into most busy garages and you'll see the same thing. Mechanics in jeans and trainers, oil up past the elbows, on their feet all day on concrete. It works fine, until it doesn't. Someone drops a wheel on their toes, or slips on a spill, or goes home with hands that won't stop tingling.
Motor trade work is hard on clothing and hard on the body. The kit isn't complicated, but it is specific, and a lot of it gets bought wrong. Here's what actually matters on the shop floor.
What the job does to your kit
Mechanics, tyre fitters and bodyshop staff work with oil, grease, brake fluid and solvents most days. Ordinary clothing soaks it up and never comes clean. The floor is smooth concrete, oil film and water, which is a slip waiting to happen. Add sharp panels, swarf, hot exhausts and parts heavier than they look, and you have a job that quietly wears out both the person and the clothing.
HSE treats mechanical repair as its own risk area. Asbestos in brake and clutch dust on older vehicles. Hot work on wheels. Working under vehicles. Tyre removal and inflation. Exhaust emissions. Welding and flamecutting. None of that is exotic. It's Tuesday.
Coveralls and overalls first
The boiler suit is still the best value thing you can buy for a garage. A cotton drill boilersuit handles oil, dirt and everyday knocks, and at £21.08 it doesn't matter if it gets wrecked. The ES1 Essential Zip Boilersuit is £21.90 if you want something lighter to move in, and a premium boilersuit at £55.72 outlasts two cheap ones.
For the really messy jobs, disposable coveralls do the job and go in the bin. Type 5 and 6 disposables start around £2.95 each.
Anything involving welding or hot work has to be flame retardant, and a standard boilersuit is not. The Beeswift Fire Retardant Boilersuit is £45.30, and the anti-static FR version is £56.21 where there's fuel or electrical risk nearby.
Gloves: pick by hazard, not by price
Gloves matter more here than in most trades because your hands do everything. Every glove carries an EN 388:2016 rating, and the first number is abrasion resistance from 0 to 4. For spanner work you want a high abrasion number and good feel. The Mechanic 80 Glove is £7.50, the Mechanic 120 Leather Palm is £5.40, and the Mechanic 110 Leather Palm at £12.25 lasts longer if you're going through cheap pairs every few weeks.
Then match the glove to the hazard:
- Sharp panels and swarf: a cut-resistant glove with a decent EN 388 cut letter. Standard mechanic gloves won't stop a blade.
- Solvents, brake cleaner and oils: a nitrile chemical glove to EN ISO 374, not a knit glove. A mechanic glove soaked in solvent is worse than no glove.
- Air tools and impact wrenches: anti-vibration gloves cut the sting, but they are not a fix on their own.
- Hot work: leather, not synthetic. Synthetic gloves melt.
- Sharps and needle risk: a needle-resistant glove, like the F350 at £55.50, is a different product again.
Footwear: reading the label on a garage floor
This is where most garages get it wrong. The floor is smooth, often wet, often oily, and slip is the everyday hazard, not something falling on your foot.
Under EN ISO 20345:2022, slip resistance is a basic requirement, so every marked boot has passed it. The old SRA, SRB and SRC codes are gone. There's an optional SR mark for footwear that passes a tougher second slip test using glycerine on a ceramic tile, worth having on a wet workshop floor.
The other markings you'll see on a garage boot:
- S1, S2, S3: S1 is the base level with closed heel, anti-static and heel energy absorption. S2 adds water resistance. S3 adds puncture resistance through the sole and a cleated outsole.
- FO: resistance to fuel oil.
- HRO: heat resistant outsole, tested to 300°C for 60 seconds. Worth having near hot components and exhausts.
- A: anti-static, with electrical resistance between 0.1 and 1,000 mega ohms. There's also C for partially conductive footwear, a stricter, different thing.
For hybrid and electric vehicles, or anything electronic, you want ESD footwear. That's a separate claim from the S marks, usually tested to IEC 61340, and it's the difference between a static spark and an expensive mistake.
Trainers or boots is a real choice. On a flat floor a lace-up safety trainer is lighter to move in. The Composite Cow Suede Trainer at £35.50 is S1, ESD, SR and FO, covering the floor and the fuel risk in one. The Composite Flynite Trainer at £45.50 adds S1PS puncture protection. For yard work and wet ground, an S3S low shoe at £55.50 adds ESD and HRO. If someone spends their day in diesel and hydrocarbon spills, the Mechanic B0440 at £68.80 is anti-static and hydrocarbons resistant.
Vibration, oils and the things you can't see
Two motor trade hazards don't show up in a photo. The first is vibration. Air tools, impact wrenches and grinders put hand-arm vibration into your hands, and the damage builds slowly until it doesn't. The Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 set an exposure action value of 2.5 m/s² A(8) and an exposure limit value of 5.0 m/s² A(8). Above the action value you must reduce exposure, and you must not go above the limit. Anti-vibration gloves help, but the real controls are the tool, how long you use it, and rotation between jobs.
The second is what's in the air and on the skin. Brake cleaner, brake fluid, used engine oil and the isocyanate paints in a bodyshop all fall under COSHH. That means the right gloves, eye protection, and for spraying the right respiratory protection, not a nuisance dust mask. On older vehicles, brake and clutch dust can contain asbestos, so it never gets blown out with an airline. And no running engines in a closed workshop.
Hi-vis and the yard
Anyone on a forecourt, doing roadside recovery or meeting deliveries needs hi-vis to EN ISO 20471. Class 2 is the usual working level, Class 3 for motorways and high speed roads.
What we'd actually order for a garage
Kitting out a workshop from scratch, this is the sensible starting list:
- One boiler suit per person, plus a spare, plus flame retardant for anyone welding
- Two or three pairs of leather palm mechanic gloves each, plus a box of nitrile chemical gloves
- S1P or S3 footwear with the SR mark, ESD version for EV work
- Safety glasses for everyone, RPE for spraying
- Anti-vibration gloves for anyone on air tools all day
- Hi-vis for yard, forecourt and recovery
It doesn't have to be expensive. A proper basic garage kit, coverall, gloves, glasses and a good safety trainer, is under £70 a head. Cheap kit replaced twice a year costs more.
If you want a hand working out the right kit for your workshop, call us on +44(0)1236 755544 or browse the coveralls, gloves and safety trainers ranges online. Prices shown are ex VAT.
REF: MOTOR-TRADE-WORKWEAR
