The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Wed Nov 14, 2007 11:22 pm**

I have always worked in the residential sector and am finding working on commercial jobs a bit boring...

I am building a large shed at the moment...

A previous contractor had poured the foundations and done a pretty unbelievably poor job. Lucky he works in a messed up country where people don't sue! Amazingly he doesn't even seem to be embarrassed about his work. It took a team probably at least a week to remedy his sloppy foundations and get them all level.

Putting the pillars up.

Getting the trusses in...

In fact we got the 45th one in today. It is a 4 bay shed with 15 trusses a bay, so 3/4 done.

But then there is the sheeting which we only started last week.

Then the electrics, then the roller shutter doors, then the perimeter fence... Then I reckon the client will want a concrete floor in the end although they say this red dirt is fine at present.

Has anyone else had this transitional problem moving from small jobs to large jobs? Anyway, I hope to have this done by Xmas.

Posted: **Thu Nov 15, 2007 12:27 am**

I WENT THE OTHER WAY, COMMERCIAL TO SMALL... BUT THE P[RACTICE IS JUST THE SAME... GET YR LEVELS RIGHT TO START WITH AND THE JOB IS A PIECE OF CAKE:D

Posted: **Thu Nov 15, 2007 7:44 am**

matt h wrote:GET YR LEVELS RIGHT TO START WITH AND THE JOB IS A PIECE OF CAKE:D

Too true.

If the levels had been right, this job would not be such a pain.

Unfortunately, the guys who did the foundations not only completely messed up the levels but also managed to not put enough cement in the concrete they were making... (they had to knock it up in a small mixer as there is no batching plant nearby). Everytime the crane or Manitou goes in, a piece of the foundation crumbles away. They also managed to put about 40% of the bolts in the foundations to secure the pillars in in thwe wrong place (90 degrees out) and also didn't put the rebar in ther foundations properly.

I have four more of these sheds to build... fortunately, I am doing the foundations on the next four sheds as the client says the previous contractor can not be trusted.

If the foundations are spot on, the job should be much more fun... and I like concrete/foundation work.

Posted: **Thu Nov 15, 2007 5:45 pm**

you do like a bit of crete dont you ted?
i dont know if i posted but i used a 1200 bullfloat for that job i mentioned and what a cracking bit of kit,made floating a large area a piece of cake.
it must be a huge jump from being a builder with maybe a couple of men direct and a few subbies ,to doing that kind of work
in the late 80's and early 90's i worked on big big construction sites (Â£50-100 mill jobs) and TBH i didnt care for them much
everyone on the site seemed to have an agenda.
men were let go on a weekly basis just to keep everyone on their toes (80 brickies and 35 hoddies)
it made for a very uncomfortable atmosphere
medium jobs ( < 150k) and a small gang makes work a pleasure
for me anyway
LLL

Posted: **Thu Nov 15, 2007 6:55 pm**

Firm im with do commercial and private work, much prefer private stuff. Its a bit of a stretch sometimes with just 3 squads for the work we have - the commercial clients book us in for works for maybe a week at a time then just "can you just do this too". Last time i was on the same site for 6 weeks building ramps and slabbing roofs - was only meant to be there for 2 weeks tops lol

I agree that a small gang is better LLL, atmosphere is great and the banter is always good

Posted: **Thu Nov 15, 2007 7:24 pm**

Stuarty wrote:I agree that a small gang is better LLL, atmosphere is great and the banter is always good

There's only four of us on the tools - makes for a nice working atmosphere, most of the time!

We have a few semi-skilled casual workers when required, takes the sting out of some of our larger commercial jobs.

Posted: **Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:34 pm**

lutonlagerlout wrote:you do like a bit of crete dont you ted?

I love concrete work... very satisfying and normally much safer than lifting big bits of steel about.

Posted: **Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:44 pm**

lutonlagerlout wrote:it must be a huge jump from being a builder with maybe a couple of men direct and a few subbies ,to doing that kind of work

it is... fortunately the team are not bad... those guys in the photos with white helmets are all Filipino.

Often I have a Filipino civil engineer, an architect "of sorts", and a skilled heavy machine operator onsite and they all speak English to a degree. The civil engineer is very good at English. These skilled Filipinos tend to be pretty imaginative when it comes to sorting out the inevitable problemsthat arise on an African construction site.

The Angolans are a nightmare... they have to be continually monitored. If they are not monitored they immediately do things the wrong way!

We do now have four South Africans labourers who are pretty skilled in steel structures and that makes life much easier as they also speak English.

But we have Portuguese as the main language, English as the second whilst the Filipinos natter in Tagalog between themselves and the South Africans speak Zulu to each other!

It can get exasperating as no one is fully bilingual in any of the above languages!

Posted: **Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:48 pm**

Dave_L wrote:There's only four of us on the tools - makes for a nice working atmosphere, most of the time!

We have a few semi-skilled casual workers when required, takes the sting out of some of our larger commercial jobs.

These big jobs lack the atrmosphere of the residential jobs... and as LLL says, too many people have an agenda.

The Brew Cabin

Commercial jobs - Boring