I work in the building trade and can confirm Scaffolders are a different breed. They graft though!
This thread is making me want to become a scaffolder
I’d not last an hour in that profession. When we had our house done they were openly discussing what c**t the boss was and what they’d do him if he got aggro. Scared the (middle class) life out of me.
openly discussing....
And that is precisely why I feel far less comfortable in middle-class company - I have to constantly mind my Ps and Qs and can't relax and just be myself, it's like being in a social straightjacket.
that profession
LOL It's a trade not a profession 🙂
Actually to go back to the op. Some people just like to be loud. One of the pipe fitters I worked with some years ago, everytime he put a set of stilsons down, he'd make a point of letting go a couple of cm above the floor.
Same with the pipe and gas bottles we were shifting.
I swear it was extra effort to make the extra noise.
why I feel far less comfortable in middle-class company
You can adapt, I did.
Over month they have been storing scaffold at my place….
I'm afraid the only way is to call them up and pretend to be someone from the next street over, saying you want some scaffold up.
It'll be annoying for your unfortunate victim, but that's just how it works these days
Just to counter , I passed a scaffolding flatbed recently on the tail board the usual yellow and white warning chevrons but the sign said " Person's at work " non binary shizz seems to be infiltrating the unlikeliest places these days 🤔
LOL It’s a trade not a profession 🙂
No it isn’t, doesn’t take 4 years to become a scaffolder. I’m not telling any of them that mind.
In Building Site Deathmatch the real ones to avoid were the hod-carriers
Did a stint of it many years ago when hundredweight bags of cement were still a thing. Keeping a muscular physique without ever entering a gym was easy and I could eat and drink whatever I liked without gaining weight! A bit of friendly competition with over-stacked hods was a thing. Having the sand delivered right next to the end of the scaffold run meant you could jump off the end of the lift to get down faster! A full plasterers hod was quite an unwieldly beast for the uninitiated.
I can confirm a night on the lash with scaffold contractors is indeed a heavy night.
Having said that the hardest graft I can remember was humping double thickness solid (yeah not the hollow lightweight ones) concrete blocks by hand, ****ing ball busters! Followed by handballing oak railway sleepers on my shoulder all day, the wets ones were slippy as **** and weighed more! Barrowing concrete for big flooring jobs where there was no concrete pump was hard graft as it has to be fluted in sharpish.
Was always amazed by the little Irish guys who seemed to be on every site. Could drink like fish, a few at lunch, straight on it after work, nearly every night, back in work bang at it never late or off. Some of them even had wives, god knows how when they were in the pub six nights out of seven!
if you snuck on the site and plugged their tubes with expanding foam that would quieten them down a bit.
Would sausages work?
@scaffpolice on Instagram is a trove of scaffolders' japes.
Some of them even had wives, god knows how when they were in the pub six nights out of seven!
Have you never seen an Irish wife go fetch her man from the pub? Tis a sight to behold, the torrent of verbal abuse and slaps the alcohol docile and compliant man twice her size receives 😃
Roofers are worse. Absolute animals😂
We've been in a new build for a couple of years and we've watched the houses around us be built and I've been rating the different trades as they've come and gone.
The roofers were by far the worst, closely followed by the roughcasters.
Liam williams (Welsh full back/wing) was a scaffolder pre pro rugby - lean, wiry, strong as ****
Liam williams (Welsh full back/wing) was a scaffolder pre pro rugby – lean, wiry, strong as ****
Also a complete nutter - hence his nickname "loopy Liam" or just "loopy"
Have you never seen an Irish wife go fetch her man from the pub? Tis a sight to behold, the torrent of verbal abuse and slaps the alcohol docile and compliant man twice her size receives
Is the 1950's we're talking about as very few Irish still work on the buildings now? Very few I know. We're one of the best educated in Europe so unless the wife is fetching her husband from an IT department I'm not sure this happens today.
I'd imagine that might be the same long ago on the ship building in Glasgow and Newcastle.
There were still plenty of Irish working on London building sites in the 1980s
Noise cancelling headphones. Might work but perhaps better for drone sounds than transients.
What music can I put on my Bluetooth speaker to override their crappy Capital Radio box and inane lad lad lad bantz?
Pretty much any Black Metal, or for a bit more sophistication, Ghost, Tool, maybe some Public Enemy, or NWA, Oceans of Slumber, The Hu, Hanabie, Wardruna, Dead Sara.
And remember, everything louder than everything else!
My experience also relates to minimal f++ks given to their H&S.
Yeah, well, anything that involves working higher than a metre off the ground can do one!
s the 1950’s we’re talking about as very few Irish still work on the buildings now?
Not the fifties. Still a few stragglers knocking about into the nineties! There was only ever a couple/few on a site the odd site agent/reformed alcoholic!
The systematic dismantling of collective bargaining, the rise of management contractors/corporatisation saw a mass exodus of experienced workers to greener pastures. The cost of training had already been transferred onto the individual, with employers bearing none of the costs. The labour shortages were reported by the UK press as lazy, apathetic youth who didn't want do the hard work and would rather collect benefits. How times have changed!
There were still plenty of Irish working on London building sites in the 1980s
In the noughties there were still loads of Irish and Irish descent chaps patching and laying roads in the London area. They were always one of the better groups to visit doing H&S consulting.
My son-in-law is a project manager for some big prestige London office re-furbs. Any trade other than Scaffolders and Roofers gets sent off site if not wearing PPE and conforming to H&S. Strangely, nobody seems to notice those two.
To be fair , I don’t think I’ve ever seen a scaff not wearing a hi viz on site.
As for roofers , they are in a league of their own 😂
One of my sons worked with a local roofing company for a year before uni. He's quite a big lad and funny company, which is why I think they kept him on as he doesn't like heights, and would crawl round the rooves (I do like heights. Fixed a dormer this spring climbing out the window made safeish by old climbing gear).
He started as a vegan, ended the year at least a stone heavier and very familiar with the Weatherspoons breakfast menu and with a lot of funny stories.
s the 1950’s we’re talking about as very few Irish still work on the buildings now?
I shared a house with a bunch of Dubliners in the late 80s, early 90s. Somebody behind a bar in Surrey made a comment about not expecting trouble when we all walked in and got the reply that every one of them was a doctor or middle management, what sort of trouble were they expecting 😀
, what sort of trouble were they expecting 😀
the worst sort. Taking the piss out of the wine list, complaints about being Chablis treated. Shudder.
How do you get rid scaffold when job is complete ?
Over month they have been storing scaffold at my place….can’t communicate with them.
Job paid for as well
There's your problem, never pay in full until they've taken it down.
As for roofers , they are in a league of their own
Rules for roofers as I learned were:
i. Working on the roof no need for helmet
ii. Trainers can be worn on the roof but not if using the disc cutter
iii. Crossing the site, helmet, hi-vis and boots will be worn.
Failure to follow this last rule and you wear it everywhere or go home.
Worked very well and was introduced elsewhere during my days as a peripatetic H&S advisor.
The scaffolders in Singapore dry docks are primarily Indian doing 6.5 days a week, 18 to a dorm, 6m -2yr stints. Their H&S was fine, the scaffolding was always exactly in the way of the job, and every other job in the vicinity but I didn't hear a peep out of them most of the time.
The riggers*, welders and hydraulic trades elf and safety on the other hand had drowned the elf.
*Climbing on a 4t piece of machinery suspended from a crane 20m above the dry dock floor with no harness to hook up a chain block made my toes curl.