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Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2013 9:45 pm
by cookiewales
lutonlagerlout wrote:you must of been young then giles,the 50kg bags were phased out in about 1992
I remember the cement lorry and the brick lorry turning up on site till i was about 21 and then they started using fork trucks
previously we had to hand ball the lot off
cheers LLL
oh ah lll so long ago but you never forget 20 ton of hot cement in bags and then the 8000 bricks also could be hot with straw every where .joking apart tarmac and concrete done right is the dogs bollicks .its as lll says 2 day course pic and they take on the world .have worked all over Europe with some masters of their trade gleamed a lot of my skills from them .but more so the attitude for the job right is right .excuse my grammar boyos of to Scotland in the morning rugby calls :p
Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 7:14 am
by Carberry
GB_Groundworks wrote:Proper concrete is on the same level large civil engineering pours etc
See Tarmac now doing self consolidating concrete doesn't have to be vibrated etc
Too many guys on site and I've done it and I plead ignorance because the older guys told me wet it up to make it more useable, this just equals weaker concrete that's harder to do anything with.
And trying to force ppl to change is hard work, even simple things like dpm under Crete or pouring large slabs and spending the time to finish vs leaving them as they'll get a screed later
I think young lads like me are pushing things forward in our game we read up on stuff and try new things where as older generation stick to what they know, my dad always has a go at me for trying to find a machine for everything. I have no problem with mechanising everything and that old boy thing a hard days work never killed anyone.
Erm yes it did, and it crippled men's bodies
Small dumper instead of barrows, block grabs, magic screeds mini diggers etc kerb grabs, when I started helping out on site cement and everything was in 50kg back breakers.
We have much easier access to learning resources thanks to the internet. With all the information and videos and a small area to practice in you could teach yourself a trade
Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 7:47 am
by GB_Groundworks
ay lad i did, thee start em yung t'up north 
Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 8:56 am
by henpecked
Found that quite educational and informative. Bad practice pervades the building trade in the UK as its a 'Jack of all Trades' approach rather than taking time to do it right. Measure twice cut once, if you like. As concreting is a messy , specialised job in the UK, I've seen my fair share of chancers, a big company (which rhymes with Mortel) is a doozy :laugh:. Granted, there isn't the money in the job to have someone who shutters/pours finishes concrete on every job, but a little knowledge will avoid callbacks after a frost or two.
Thanks Rock and GB. 
Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 10:26 am
by TheRockConcreting
henpecked wrote:I've seen my fair share of chancers, a big company (which rhymes with Mortel) is a doozy :laugh:.
These boys are some of the worst in the trade, they specialise bad practice. All their tools are made from wood found on the job site, half don't even have boots! It's a real shame that they are being allowed to get away with it, but for £3.50/m2 you know your going to get monkeys.
I was watching them work onsite last year they had just been told not to spray any extra water on the surface and had their bucket of water taken away, once the foreman left one of them got his bottle of coke and started spraying it on the concrete! lol!!