State of the economy - Good or poor?

[mickg]

sorry to hear that Injured, if your struggling for work give me a ring I can always use an extra pair of hands for a couple of days a week and normally longer

[Mikey_C]

LLL,

I would like to wait for this chap (but there again I have no idea how much he is going to charge) but the mrs wants it finished before the second daughters christening which is going to coincide with first daughters 3rd birthday at the end of september.

can you see where i am going here.

with two children, one of which insists on getting up at 5am every morning, I AM KNACKERED! I hoped to get it done during my paternity leave but that ended up being just that, paternity leave.

the work that is left is about 6 linear meter of flag on edge + back fill with lean mix, a bit more digging out to do, sub base needs a whack, step to build, two sleepers to concrete in, then about 45m2 of some very nice random thickness Fawn beige indian sandstone to be laid in a random pattern.

injured

sorry to things aren't going well, keep going fella it will be worth it in the end. bournemouth has always had its own micro economy which seems to bare no resemblance to the rest of the uk, i just can't work out where the money keeps coming from!

[Injured]

Got a start on a site in liverpool tomorrow with a company I subbed for last year. So hopefully that will keep me going for a bit and since had that confirmed phone hasnt stopped ringing :p
Gaffer has said if needs be we can work around any jobs I get so i can leave him for a few weeks and go back to site when quiet. Hopefully best of both worlds.

[irishpaving]

Good on you mate...Both worlds would be nice :;):

[bobbi o]

brutal out there right now,has been for the last few weeks.knew it was going to be a long winter,but its difficult to remain optimistic. we've got a couple of decent jobs which will kick in january,but its pretty much survival mode till then. if i was in the fortunate position of having 0 employees,i'd just shut the doors and come back next year.

[Stuarty]

Strangely, we cant get any busier right now. The gaffer has been pricing up work for the past few weeks non stop, and just depending what gets won, hes looking to add another van and crew on. Hes also managed to sort out the backup plan, incase this is another winter like last year. At the moment, all six of us employees across the 3 vans are flat out. Im still having to do atleast 10 hours a week overtime to stay ontop of the work at the moment

[rab1]

we`re on a 15% pay reduction with lay offs on the cards. at least someones busy

[ilovesettsonmondays]

i was made redundant last friday

[DNgroundworks]

Nice to hear Stuarty, things are awful for me, went for an interview last week for a civils firm they said because i dont have my cpcs cards and all the rest im not worth squatt they offerd me £7.00 p/h 35 hours a week......i declined.

So im going to have bash on, on my own for a while got bits and bats to do, just done a large flat roof on my own - never again what an awful job!! having to go back plastering aswell, that pays ok so itl have to do for now

[DNgroundworks]

Just to add, i forgot how hard graft it is workin on your own, sorta get used to having staff and goafers to do the menial jobs!

[Stuarty]

I really dont know how we are so busy, alot of the firms we compete with seem to keep having to lay off more staff. Our private work has increased but at the same time alot of our commercial works on the house builder side has decreased.

[lutonlagerlout]

i was made redundant last friday

sorry to hear that mate
we have 2 definite extensions after the one we are on and a couple of drives,thats a whole lot better than last year but still not as i would like
these cuts will knock the bollocks back out of the building game
IMHO
LLL

[ilovesettsonmondays]

yes tony times are hard .olympics are paying 11 pound an hour for laying granite setts .im doing a little job for a firm up your way tony .its only lasting a cpl of weeks .good bunch of lads .you ever come across frosts ,gardening company.

[lutonlagerlout]

are frosts near bedford?
if you are coming past M1 jct10 pop in for a cuppa Chris

£11/hour sounds about right for the big boys right now,basically due to the recession they are taking the p!ss out of people

we have had to trim costs (in a reasonable fashion) but paying trades between £17-22 /hr

the young fella that used to work with us is on pricework BWK now
hes getting £380/thou, so it means him and the other brickie must lay 1000 facers a day for them to earn (with the hoddie of course) £125 before tax
nigh on impossible with modern house design
LLL

[ilovesettsonmondays]

they are up that way m8 .got a few garden centres as well .head office is milton keynes.im in victoria for them