The Construction Thread

[Xander]

Purple primer doesn't stick like super glue. It was a metal chair.

I bleeding, I'm washing, I'm duct taping. I figure I haven't died yet so it has to work. I did get some grief about duct tape on my leg. Pulling all the hair off my leg was kind of uncomfortable.



I teach trail building to college students all the time. We tell them over and over to wear those boots all the time for a couple of weeks before they get out here. But do they listen? Noooooo! I use duct tape for as a friction stop pretty well.

I predict Sweetvee will come in here and call us all nuts for our loyalty and alliance with a good roll of Duct tape.

Actually most students, fresh out of college has a hard time listening to anything. I have worked with a couple of hot shots, straight out of college.
And when they start mouthing off and believing they got one up on people that's been doing it since they were only an itch in their mother crotch. Is generally a quick way to get everyone pissed at them.

 

[thør]

What kind of compressor do you have?

Oil-less, I hope......

 

[TurdFergeson]

I predict Sweetvee will come in here and call us all nuts for our loyalty and alliance with a good roll of Duct tape.

Actually most students, fresh out of college has a hard time listening to anything. I have worked with a couple of hot shots, straight out of college.
And when they start mouthing off and believing they got one up on people that's been doing it since they were only an itch in their mother crotch. Is generally a quick way to get everyone pissed at them.

http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/prod_lrg_images/376/40152376.jpg

 

[SkAoUt]

Stupidest thing I saw.
This past season. Residential subdivision. After machine pouring all the curb the machine operator has to wash all the concrete off the machine so as to avoid build up over time. The extruder is loud and at half power to keep the pressurized water tank, well, pressurized. Machine operator washing down machine oblivious to the co worker backing up a pick up down the rd. Rear View mirror blocked by the pile of line gear in the back of said pick up. Co-worker, backing up with huge blind spot, music cranked, just slight stunned. Nudges operator and luckily stops just before the big squeeze btwn the big yellow machine he somehow didn't see and the back bumper on the pick up. Operator almost rips oblivious co-workers head off. All because nickle nuts co-worker got complacent. Totally avoidable with a little focus.

Funny stupidest thing I ever saw.
Green fellow working with old hand setting catch basins on a 20 ft curb patch. Old hand convinces new fellow that he should be tied off incase Workers Comp comes around. Totally unnecessary since the catch basin is only 6 ft deep but with a bit of muddy water in the bottom could look really deep to a new fella. So the old hand suggests the new guy tie himself off to the telephone pole near by while the old hand walks a 100 ft down the rd to get some material to se the catch basin (a catch basin is usually at a low point in the curb and is basically a cast grate integrated into the curb where water flows down into. As a friend says it all goes to the arctic ocean from there). Owner of company drives by sees new hand tied off to the telephone pole with a thin piece of string line and sees old hand down the rd letting the rest of the crew in on the jk. Shakes head and keeps on driving. Amazing that a new guy could be so gullible.

Another funny. Base prep for curb in between existing asphalt and sidewalk. Basically a remove and replace job. Bulk in some gravel and level it off making sure about clearances. Jumping jack is only thing that'll fit in the slot to compact the crush. Forman tells new labourer that the way to run a jumping jack is at half power. Ok this might be an oldie but its a goodie. Imagine a short guy trying to reign in a jumping jack bouncing up almost past his head. Its was hella funny to look up from what I was doing and be utterly shocked at the scene before me of a barely controlled jumping jack take this fella for a ride.

 

[Slowlane]

I know some contractors who take bids low and make out heavily on the change orders. They seem to thrive on government work.

That's SOP, especially if there is to be a lot of tenant finishes.

 

[Slowlane]

Talk to the fucking engineer. The plans say the duct goes down through the middle of the hallway.

*shows plans*
*points out hallway*
*smirks*

That makes the ceiling too low for the light fixtures - this needs a change order.

(writes furiously)

 

[Slowlane]

Schools can take a long time to pay......it's when your a Sub contractor where it even takes longer.

Churches are the worst. One committee, two committee, three committee four.

uh, sir, would it be possible to get you to donate this work that we agreed to pay you for?

 

[Xander]

Oil-less, I hope......

Yes sir.

 

[thør]

Yes sir.

some folks don't think about that

 

[Xander]

some folks don't think about that

You know I have an cheapo G-force sitting aorund somewhere, but I rarely use it. However when I do, I always check the oil in it.
I've seen what happens when they run out.......

 

[Slowlane]

Tricks of the trade.

I know we all have a few up our respective sleeves. And since there is a wide spectrum of construction workers here. It would be nice to hear a few from fields in the biz that we're maybe not all that familiar with.

As a plumber, to maintain the correct pitch on drain pipes.
Take a 4 foot level, and put a 1/4 inch piece of wood, or something else 1/4 inch, at the end of it.
When leveling pipes for pitch, keep the bubble in the middle, and you always have the proper pitch on your pipe.

If you are working alone and need to fish a wire down a wall drill three holes in the top. one for the wire one to shine a light in and another for the wire. I like 1-1/2 in holes for this.

 

[Slowlane]

I'm enjoying these tricks of the trade, fellows, but I don't really have any to add that are applicable outside of heavy construction. Keep 'em coming, though.

Other than "Bondo covers a multitude of steel sins".

"You can never have too many comealongs & portapowers"

Skaout, I live right near the Concrete Laborer Apprentice School. Every class, they rip up their sidewalk and redo it.

Bondo is also great to patch holes when a screw has stripped out. Bondo it, let dry, drill and screw. Stronger than the original.

 

[daylightwarrior]

That's SOP, especially if there is to be a lot of tenant finishes.

All TI's are money makers. I hardly ever get this type of job because I know what they want.

 

[Slowlane]

Another trick.

When testing waterlines after a complete plumbing job. Dont test it by turning on the water.
Hook an air compressor up to the system and apply 40 psi to the whole system and let it sit over night.

If the pressure has not fallen. All water lines are good to go and it's safe to turn on the water.

In my area water pressure is closer to eighty pounds - I might add a bit more pressure to your air test.

 

[Xander]

In my area water pressure is closer to eighty pounds - I might add a bit more pressure to your air test.

Well pressure varies from place to place. I didn't know that some places has close to 80 psi of pressure. But if that's what you have, of course that's what it needs to be tested at.

 

[Saint Boner]

I am going to write a book called, The builders book of tricks. All the little time saving building shortcuts. I'm not talking about something that cheapens the job but makes things way easier. All the years I was in the building trades and learned the "easy way' to do things. I've got stuff from footers to antiquing tricks I have done or saw done. Sometimes just the order in which you do something is the easy way. The golden rule is the right tool for the job.

 

[Slowlane]

Everyone, post "The Stupidest Thing I Ever Saw" and "The Stupidest Thing I Ever Did".

I have many candidates for both.

Ever saw - I have seen to many stupid things to pick just one but the results are almost always spectacular and some darken entire city blocks (my personal best is about three blocks)

Stupidest thing I ever did was become self employed.

 

[TurdFergeson]

Ever saw - I have seen to many stupid things to pick just one but the results are almost always spectacular and some darken entire city blocks (my personal best is about three blocks)

Stupidest thing I ever did was become self employed.

I saw a guy hook a high voltage line into a low voltage control box accidentally.

When he flipped the main switch, the cover of the control box blew off.

This was for a large machine in a factory. Insurance covered that one. Took a couple days for the new control box and electronics to arrive.

The electrician got laid off not soon after for that boo-boo.

 

[Slowlane]

20 years ago, working in cleaning out an abandoned elevator shaft in a building we were renovating...my partner goes upstairs, after leaving me chest deep in the access door. pulling out some old conduit...he goes upstairs to check something, notices the brickwork around the access door there is loose....yanks the access door out and kicks the shit out of brick. First one down took off my hardhat...second one, middle of the chest...3rd 4th and 5th, random shots to the side of the head, shoulder and jaw as I tried to get out of the way. He hid the rest of the day...something about me threatening to throw his ass down the shaft from the 18th floor...he still shys away from me if I go home...figuring I have had time to plot some wicked revenge...never have got him back yet...

I once worked on a building with FAR too many young framers on it. The plumber (that is to say the plumbing crew chief) and I walked out of the underground parking lot and had a pre sided and finished exterior wall land just a few feet behind us. Somehow someone on the fourth floor had dropped one over the edge. The plumber and I went up to four and “explained” as how they shouldn’t do that again, thank you very much.

Closest I ever came to being hit from above

 

[Slowlane]

I saw a guy hook a high voltage line into a low voltage control box accidentally.

When he flipped the main switch, the cover of the control box blew off.

This was for a large machine in a factory. Insurance covered that one. Took a couple days for the new control box and electronics to arrive.

The electrician got laid off not soon after for that boo-boo.

He should have been fired - before the cover hit the ground.

 

[TurdFergeson]

He should have been fired - before the cover hit the ground.

Were you fired when you took out 3 city blocks?



Controls were his speciality, but he made a mistake that time.

That's why he's bonded.

 

[daylightwarrior]

In my area water pressure is closer to eighty pounds - I might add a bit more pressure to your air test.

This is just to see if you have an active leak. We have up to 145 lbs of water pressure at some homes. Mostly due to they are near the pumps, at the end of a slope or other reasons. Then we have homes with 12 lbs coming in. Not good either.

 

[SkAoUt]

Another bad one. Hired a woman to run the chute. Gender doesn't really matter because any green hire could've done the same thing. Anyhow the chute is at the back of the concrete truck and directs the concrete into where ever one needs it (apologies to trades people that know all about mud trucks and shit but some others reading might not be in the know). This particular instance the mud needed to go onto the conveyor of the curb machine/extruder. The conveyor feeds the hopper which had vibrators that help (with the weight of the concrete in the hopper) to force the concrete out a form in the shape of a curb section or whatever one happens to be extruding. Mud truck and extruder slowly advance (as one) down the street pouring curb with the person on the chute relaying information from the operator to the mud truck driver. Ok so this new girl has to flip a two part section of the chute down to extend the chute on the mud truck. It take a bit of force to overcome the initial weight of the chute and then one usually cradles it, hands above head, and lowers it into position or jumps out of the way an lets it slam down. This new hire pulled on the chute, over came the mass of the chute, hooked her thumbs inbetween the two chutes (obvious pinch point to those aware of such things) and promptly had her thumbs sheared off. Gawdamn it was fucking awful. Lesson learned: Never let a new hire alone on the most dangerous job on site assuming something is common knowledge/sense. Honestly there is a lot to be said for "construction sense".

 

[Slowlane]

Were you fired when you took out 3 city blocks?



Controls were his specialty, but he made a mistake that time.

That's why he's bonded.

No. But tying two power systems together is just about the dumbest thing that any one can do - with a capitol DU.

 

[rosco rathbone]

Ever saw - I have seen to many stupid things to pick just one but the results are almost always spectacular and some darken entire city blocks (my personal best is about three blocks)

Come on now, no teasers.