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Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 7:03 pm
by sy76uk
I know what your all saying. I did a patio for a bloke on a council estate last year and he gave me a £100 drink at the end of the job.
The next week a bloke asked me to come and fix the down pipes on his gutter unions. I did it in 10 mins so I told him to call it £20.
The bloke lives in a house worth at least 400k and he paid me by cheuqe.
The people that live in that area all expect you to work for nothing, once you work for them they'll change there minds daily about bits and bobs then expect you to do it at the same price and thats before you've even moved there washing line and helped clear the attic.
I can't understand them very well either TBH so a conversation takes a lot longer than it should.
I'll talk to anyone. But there are certain people I'll try and avoid working for.
Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 9:40 pm
by GB_Groundworks
knocked the existing half built swimming pool down and breaking out the 150mm c35 reinforced base, quotes in for rebuilding new side extensions.
engineer and geologist have come back with a design for slope stability whichi runs to 130 piles in the slope to pin it together. then gabions at the bottom to allow for the path then gabions at teh top for the drive. price in for 60m x 4m drive and parking area. guys away for a week so waiting till hes back for a decision on the slope as the piles alone runs to about £35k
started new job at the factory in leeds
knocked down existing block of buildings and building new, workshop, laboratory, production office, server room, then on other side locker room and female w/c.
as it was
new locker room/shower room / wc going here
had to do a drop shaft into the man hole no other practical way and man hole was stuck solid, 2.5 metre deep and 12" clay pipe
so broke the entire cover out.
ordered the steel off the drawing due to tight time frame and penalty clauses on overruns, had to trim 250mm off these big boys, borrowed saw from maintenance department. 6 minutes per cut auto glides down and sprays cutting fluid. brilliant bit of kit.
had to buy a full trestle system inc all hand rails etc as we are under cdm, i give a tool box talk every morning before we start
ceiling is going to be for storage so heavy spec on it
Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 9:40 pm
by Kuts
There's a very posh street in leeds (shadwell) and I hate to see jobs there.
All they are bothered about is price, they always know better and know someone who is cheaper but they want me to do the job?
When they phone me I inform them I charge £20 for a quotation and will knock that off the price if I get the job...
They just don't like to think anyone is making money off them.
Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 9:41 pm
by GB_Groundworks
Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 12:23 am
by henpecked
Nice work Giles. See the signage has changed from Langross to GB 
Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 6:13 am
by GB_Groundworks
Only thing that's signed up as langcross is the big js130hd, I had two stencils made up big and small and everything new gets stencilled now easier to keep tab on things on a big site like that,
Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 6:15 am
by lutonlagerlout
giles those joists look like 200 by 50 s not 800s lol
first time in my life I have ever seen bandstands with a guard rail :;):
looks like you will be giving banksy a run for his money with your stencil,good idea though to brand the kit
LLL
Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 6:20 am
by lutonlagerlout
Sean Its hard to explain from a keyboard what I mean by decent jobs without sounding arsey
when you get the call or email and go out to a stranger's house its not just them vetting you,
you are vetting them as well
I would say that around 10% of people that i visit fall into the *no way ,not ever, am i doing a stroke for this person*
category
you can smell a wrong 'un and its easier not to do the job than do it and get knocked
the last extension we did was on a council house, but that is irrelevant. the people were decent people and we enjoyed doing the job
cheers LLL 
Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 7:13 am
by GB_Groundworks
Yep typo edited now,
Anything 600mm plus has to have guard rails
We don't use the old style hop ups anymore only the new 500mm high and with a top that's 600mm square a lot more stable than the old ones.
Best part of £800 for 8mwtres of trestles and safety rails, feet metal conbecting pieces
some customers just don't leave a good feelings and the benefit of being busier etc is you can turn work down. I sometimes get people saying X will do it for this but we want you to do the job if you'll do it for his price. And you have to explain that to do a job that lives upto your reputation then it's costs what you priced it at.
Some of the biggest houses we've worked are the worst payers, big £2.2m house we did the extension and retaining walls on in 2012 with big machine sat up on driveway still owes £50k and isn't paying up.
I have to say for me apart from the equestrian and property developing side commercial jobs is were I'm aiming the future of my company at, everything specified and clear, contracts in place payment terms etc, yeah lots of health and safety and bit of tramping rd the country but so much less hassle than private jobs.
Edited By GB_Groundworks on 1399879041
Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 10:04 pm
by Exsparky
I did a little photography job for this guy and he dragged his feet choosing the photos to be printed. In the end I called at his house as arranged, but there was no reply and all the lights were out; it was an evening in late February.
I drove back round the corner, waited a few minutes, then walked back to the house to see all his lights coming back on, so I knocked on the door again. I got my money.
Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 11:06 am
by Tony McC
GB_Groundworks wrote:commercial jobs is were I'm aiming the future of my company at, everything specified and clear, contracts in place payment terms etc, yeah lots of health and safety and bit of tramping rd the country but so much less hassle than private jobs.
Yeah, that's what my owld fellah always used to say, but there's something very nice about getting paid, occasionally in beer vouchers (which were always scrupulously declared, obviously!), at the end of each week rather than waiting 3 months and giving Main Contractor Discounts and getting stung over defects periods and remedials which don't really need remediating but which give the main contractor another month or two to stall paying.
Clients who think they know more than you and are convinced you're conning them, or Olympic standard procrastinators in the civils sector: Don't know which I hated most!
Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 4:46 pm
by msh paving
In God we trust all others pay cash..... 
MSH
Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 5:41 pm
by lutonlagerlout
Afraid I am with Giles on this
commercial or local authority work is always decent
you have schedules,proper plans, budgets PC sums for unforeseens
payment and invoice plans that are adhered to
the refurbs we are doing now the developer has given me an open cheque book to do the houses up properly
he has only been to the site once in 2 1/2 weeks
theres not many like that in the domestic sector
LLL
Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 6:33 pm
by sy76uk
Here's the patio I finished at the weekend.
[img]https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2915....mg]IMG_1658 by sy76uk, on Flickr
[img]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7459....mg]IMG_1657 by sy76uk, on Flickr
[img]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5579....mg]IMG_1656 by sy76uk, on Flickr
All laid on 3"stone and a 50mm mortar bed.
The dig was easy because the old slabs were laid on 100mm of sand and 50mm MOT.
Pointed up with weatherpoint.
Here's the next one.
[img]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7395....mg]IMG_1654 by sy76uk, on Flickr
[img]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7378....mg]IMG_1655 by sy76uk, on Flickr
Cleared all the slabs, bushes and rubble with the digger today.
The drive will consist of a couple of tegular footpaths, tegular border, and gravel in the centre.
Never done a gravel drive. Weed matt between mot and gravel or no?
Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 8:30 pm
by lutonlagerlout
crikey those flags are riven
it looks fine but theres a lot of crosses and straight lines there sy
if you are going to lay random ideally no 4 corners should touch and there should be no straight line longer than 1200
did you screed the type1?
thats a new one for me and may try it next time
I generally put the finished line up and use the concrete rake to get 60mm below the line before wacking
how did you get on with the weatherpoint?
i went back and took a photie the other day of the first one i used it on a year ago and it still looks fine albeit with a little moss
need to post some pics soon
cheers LLL
