Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2016 10:51 pm
Hi guys.
Not sure if this is the done thing on this forum, but thought I'd introduce myself, and get something off my chest at the same time.
Nutshell: I'm a 34 year old, out of work medical biologist (long story), and sad as it may seem, I've always wanted to be a paviour. However, I basically do it as a hobby (which no doubt sounds even sadder). I'd love to do paving, or even hard landscaping, as a job, but have been ill for a number of years. Plus I don't know if anyone locally will take on a mid-30s, unwell apprentice, even though I live on a building site
Anyway, I started 'grafting' when I was a kid. My dad was born during the war, came from a different generation, where people had a wide range of things for themselves (he wasn't in building or landscaping, he was an engineer for London Underground). So he taught me various things - basic electrical installation, paving, bricklaying, woodworking, and so on. First laid paving when I was 12, when I was 14 I laid a decent patio by myself at my grandparents'. Only around a small area but I was pretty impressed with myself. And om passing on this stuff to the kids. Okay, they're only young, but the 7 year old loves it, and she makes a pretty good dry mix, and helped me bed some slate blocks. Done a good job as well.
Anyway, the rant...
We live on a new build estate (you can probably guess where this is heading), and the patio in the back garden - it's just awful. Bloody awful. I suspect it was done by the work experience kid. The cheap concrete slabs are butt jointed (badly), the base, if it can be called that, consists of a very thin spotting of what looks like kids' play sand, no edge course basically relying on cheap turf at the edge, and in places some of them have dropped nearly an inch compared to their neighbours. At some edges it wouldn't surprise my if someone had just taken a chisel to them to knock off the edges, the spalling is that bad.
Why is this? Is it a lack of skills in the industry, or it is that it's all done to be as cheaply as possible? Im certainly far from an expert, or even a professional, but even as a keen DIY bloke, I'd be embarrassed if it was my work. Just seems as if pride in work, and effort, are a lost trait.
Rant over. Good to be here.
Not sure if this is the done thing on this forum, but thought I'd introduce myself, and get something off my chest at the same time.
Nutshell: I'm a 34 year old, out of work medical biologist (long story), and sad as it may seem, I've always wanted to be a paviour. However, I basically do it as a hobby (which no doubt sounds even sadder). I'd love to do paving, or even hard landscaping, as a job, but have been ill for a number of years. Plus I don't know if anyone locally will take on a mid-30s, unwell apprentice, even though I live on a building site
Anyway, I started 'grafting' when I was a kid. My dad was born during the war, came from a different generation, where people had a wide range of things for themselves (he wasn't in building or landscaping, he was an engineer for London Underground). So he taught me various things - basic electrical installation, paving, bricklaying, woodworking, and so on. First laid paving when I was 12, when I was 14 I laid a decent patio by myself at my grandparents'. Only around a small area but I was pretty impressed with myself. And om passing on this stuff to the kids. Okay, they're only young, but the 7 year old loves it, and she makes a pretty good dry mix, and helped me bed some slate blocks. Done a good job as well.
Anyway, the rant...
We live on a new build estate (you can probably guess where this is heading), and the patio in the back garden - it's just awful. Bloody awful. I suspect it was done by the work experience kid. The cheap concrete slabs are butt jointed (badly), the base, if it can be called that, consists of a very thin spotting of what looks like kids' play sand, no edge course basically relying on cheap turf at the edge, and in places some of them have dropped nearly an inch compared to their neighbours. At some edges it wouldn't surprise my if someone had just taken a chisel to them to knock off the edges, the spalling is that bad.
Why is this? Is it a lack of skills in the industry, or it is that it's all done to be as cheaply as possible? Im certainly far from an expert, or even a professional, but even as a keen DIY bloke, I'd be embarrassed if it was my work. Just seems as if pride in work, and effort, are a lost trait.
Rant over. Good to be here.
but where there's a will there's a way.