Showing posts with label bricklayers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bricklayers. Show all posts

Wednesday, 18 May 2011

Where have all the tradesmen gone?

Bit annoyed as I sit here. After getting rid of one bricklayer last week I had a replacement come yesterday. In one day he laid 32 bricks. I was unimpressed. We had a quiet word this morning. Today he laid more bricks, I thought he was getting on better until I looked a little closer at the lintel I asked him to put in.It was level but it didn't have quite the bearing you'd hope it would have. A little under an inch. Now you'd think he'd bring it to my attention or ask where the larger lintels were, but no, I had to tell him to take it out and replace it with a larger lintel. You'd think this was just basic bricklaying skills. Am I asking too much? Is this man a bricklayer?
I remember even when I finished my three year at college studying carpentry I was still nervous to call myself a full carpenter in front of other tradesmen, this was in case they pulled me up on my work or speed. I cared about the finished product and being professional in achieving this. I think doing my training in a much smaller area meant you had to be good, word would get around if you weren't. Working in Birmingham now I can see it's much easier for people to say they are tradesmen, work somewhere for a week and move on.
On a brighter note I managed to do a bit of studding yesterday to create a "vaulted" ceiling on the landing as well as insulate and counter batten the sarking level of the roof. This was in between inductions, phone calls, site visits from management, health and safety men and ordering materials.

Sunday, 15 May 2011

More door hanging and holding a bricklayers hand

Yesterday didn't really go as planned. I had a job to go hang one pair of 15 panel glazed doors, a 2'9" 15 panel glazed door and alter a boundary fence and install a gate. I thought it would take me just over half a day but in the end it took the whole day. Still it was no great shame as they were nice people, it just means the the lawn wont get mown this weekend!



The pair of doors were the trouble (they always are) as the one side of the lining was out so it took a bit of messing round to get it looking right, the other door went on no bother at all.

On my main job (Summerfield Park) I think we've nearly found all the problems and we can go full steam ahead with the rebuild (I need to with only a month left of the program). We have had problems this week though - I decided to take out a rotten wall plate to replace on the single storey extension and the wall under it was so weak I made the decision to knock it down and rebuild it. That roof is going to need a bit of work next week - I think I'm going to get the wall plate installed a little lower as I need to extend the rafters and currently they don't have any birds mouths (more on this another time).

The bricklayers on this job have been driving me crazy - one because he doesn't turn up and the other because I have to hold his hand (not literary). Every job I have to tell him where to put the props and what order to take things out and install them (none of it is straight forward but he's got 40 years experience)- I might as well have had the trowel in my hand! He even had the nerve to tell me he wasn't paid enough to think! So I had the awkward job of getting rid of him Friday for someone new to come on Monday (all agency labour).

Who'd want to be foreman!?!
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