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Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 10:34 pm
by mickg
the vans have trackers and they even know at base if the van door is open or closed
had them out before Christmas to an existing gas leak we found when we hand dug to find the services and 3 guys were stood around talking for 3 hours waiting for 1 other guys to go and fetch the frame they require to use the mole - they turned up with the mole but no frame knowing they need the frame and can't set the mole off without this frame and they don't have enough space in the hole to use the frame anyway so it was placed to one side of the hole while the mole was set going *shakes head*
the guys doing the tarmac reinstating have to be 70mm or more as a guy comes round and core drills to check, if its under the depth they get fined £70 a hole and still have to go out and re do the work
great guys though once everything fell into place 
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 11:46 pm
by London Stone Paving
Nice work, that last one looks like a cracker of a job, made a massive difference to the property. The colours on the first one are a bit strong for me but can argue with the workmanship
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 7:45 am
by GB_Groundworks
what weve found is the price has gone up and they just kick back higher up to the manager, cost an extra £70 for the manager to look the other way,
ive got a lad with his own gas welder who works for one of the sub contractors does repairs for £200
might look on ebay actually as you can buy all the fittings
last time we had him out i wrote down teh model number etc and found 1 or two but cant remember it now grrr...
boom
found them watching a couple
of course this would only be for test lengths and use of gas as water pipe in fields etc better than compression joints
Edited By GB_Groundworks on 1358841558
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 7:56 am
by Nigel Walker
LLL,
The first photos of the wall with the railings were done by an extremley good brickie I use. I use him for most of my walling if he is available.
The second photos of walling using the larger 225 sizing was done by me ( my brickie was on hols)
I am not a trained brickie. Not actually trained in anything. Just picked everything I know up as I went along.
When I was a young lad - 14-18 yrs. I worked for my old man on building sites in school hols and weekends. Those were the days when kids were allowed on site as long as we didnt fool around. When there were gaps in the work I was doing, I used to go and watch tradesmen working. I only picked the good tradesmen ! and used to ask questions, get them to show me how they were doing it, why etc etc. I took that philosophy into my full time work on site. Always seeking advice and learning from pros.
By 22 I was running housing sites and groundwork contracts.
I was only ever interested in the big stuff, like bricklaying, joinery, roofing, plastering. I found these guys had more time for you. The sparks, plumbers etc were too cocky and didnt want to help you.
Still now at 42, I am always learning from different people I come across.
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 8:16 am
by mickg
your only 42 :laugh:
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 8:19 am
by mickg
Personally I much rather pay the going rate and sleep at night than to tamper with something what we are not allowed to touch by law
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 11:29 am
by Tony McC
local patios and driveways wrote:I was under the impression that british standards were voluntary unless i had put it in a contract? Any idea?
No: if an installation is taken all the way to court, the understanding is that, if you have charged money to provide a professional service, your work will be compliant with the BS or CoP, unless it states otherwise in any written contract.
This is why I mentioned the 'opt out' of having clients instruct you in writing to override the inboard cutting in favour of aesthetics. The alternative is to have a clause along the lines of..."The standard procedure of inboard cutting will not be used on this project for aesthetic reasons".
It's the 'professional' bit that gets the contractors. I have a case at the mo' where the contractor was quite happy to take the clients' money to construct a driveway as a follow-on from building an extension, but when the driveway went wrong, he started to claim he is NOT a professional driveway installer, just a jobbing builder. Bollocks, says the courts (but not quite in that language) - you took money as part of a building services business, therefore yur work should be of a professional and workmanlike standard.
The exception would be to get your mate from down the pub to do a driveway for you on the grounds that he did his own patio last summer and it's "not that bad". In such a case, it could probably be argued that, as this 'mate' doesn't earn a living in construction or, more specifically, as a paving installer, then his liability is severely limited. He would (probably) not be considered a professional.
In a nutshell: if you make a living installing paving, your work is expected to comply with the latest CoP, BS or accepted "Best practice". Ignorance is no excuse.
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 10:57 pm
by lutonlagerlout
sound similar ish to myself
22 is a young age to go it alone
I have known a few blokes do it young and unless they are very focused it has ended in tears
I used to go to work with my old man on saturdays and school holidays
loved the craic , the bonfires, and the pubs :;):
that is some smart block work there
believe it or not i was doing studwork today and tomorrow will be insulating and tacking
nil training,just watching blokes for 28 years
LLL
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 5:10 pm
by Nigel Walker
LLL - At 22 I was running sites but still working for a company.
I started my own business at 30. Dont think I could go back to working for someone else now.
I have been trained as a Site Manager and have got the CIOB qualifications and loads of experience. I could have gone down that route of site management, but with all the H&S and rules and regs, I didnt fancy it. Those jobs are more like pen pushing than what I would call managing a site.
Watching other tradesmen is a great way to learn. Just have to pick out the good ones unless you learning bad ways and bad habits !!
Mick, yes only 42 - I had a hard paper round as kid 
. The weather up here in Cumbria doesnt help either. Or maybe its the 5 kids that I am bringing up !!
Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 7:39 pm
by lutonlagerlout
Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 7:56 pm
by rimexboy
Sir blimmey they are posh round there, over hear they just hold there hand out for the money in the shops while talking on the phone....
Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 7:56 pm
by haggistini
Shop keeper by me was amazed too LLL almost gave me the right change !
:laugh:
Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 8:03 pm
by lutonlagerlout
what a place to get your first picture of snow :laugh:
outside the lout household on a snow covered speed hump
very polite people, they actually turned around and posed for that shot?
LLL
Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 9:32 pm
by rimexboy
With all the foot prints in the snow it looks like they didn't know what direction to run
Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 9:55 pm
by GB_Groundworks
we had a south african lad playing for us and one training session it snowed he was out in laying in it having his photo taken etc, same first time hed ever seen or been in a snow storm haha, was nice to see
