Life after plastering

flynnyman said:
I will be honest I only teach my lads how to use a bucket trowel and load a handboard, scrape the floor, tape up if they are a natural, maybe screw but more often then not take my screws out that I missed :), load the van, unload the van usually with me showing and helping. Filling buckets with water, cleaning out buckets and sockets, moving ladders, stilts and hop ups, making brews, cleaning frames and windows with a sponge, pregritting, pvaing, removing nails and screws, putting sockets back on, holding plasterboard up, stripping wallpaper and most important laugh at my jokes ;) that is the basics, if they can do all that then they will pick up a trowel. These are what you need to know or you are going to make a mess of any job. I've had lads who just want to skim straight away and can't understand why they need to learn all I've just mentioned. They don't want to learn they just want to learn how to skim and maybe board coz they have their own plans. That's why I am reluctant to train anyone because they want it all now without learning the basics. The colleges have their hands tied with having to qualify everyone because a more qualified workforce ticks all the government figures that are required. I was taught to work to dry angles and never done it for the first ten years until I went on site doing price work. You should be taught to work to dry angles because you need to know how to do it right before you start doing special moves lol
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yup thats how I started.... chief tea maker...
 
flynnyman said:
I will be honest I only teach my lads how to use a bucket trowel and load a handboard, scrape the floor, tape up if they are a natural, maybe screw but more often then not take my screws out that I missed :), load the van, unload the van usually with me showing and helping. Filling buckets with water, cleaning out buckets and sockets, moving ladders, stilts and hop ups, making brews, cleaning frames and windows with a sponge, pregritting, pvaing, removing nails and screws, putting sockets back on, holding plasterboard up, stripping wallpaper and most important laugh at my jokes ;) that is the basics, if they can do all that then they will pick up a trowel. These are what you need to know or you are going to make a mess of any job. I've had lads who just want to skim straight away and can't understand why they need to learn all I've just mentioned. They don't want to learn they just want to learn how to skim and maybe board coz they have their own plans. That's why I am reluctant to train anyone because they want it all now without learning the basics. The colleges have their hands tied with having to qualify everyone because a more qualified workforce ticks all the government figures that are required. I was taught to work to dry angles and never done it for the first ten years until I went on site doing price work. You should be taught to work to dry angles because you need to know how to do it right before you start doing special moves lol
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It's £1 a miss when u miss a joist with a screw then we see who owes who at the end of the day :-D

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Danny said:
yup thats how I started.... chief tea maker...
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Is anyone bringing out any new equipment or tools to make tea making easier and quicker so you can make more tea in a day and go on facebook bragging about how they are the best tea maker in the country ........how shiny can a cup o tea be?
 
beader said:
Is anyone bringing out any new equipment or tools to make tea making easier and quicker so you can make more tea in a day and go on facebook bragging about how they are the best tea maker in the country ........how shiny can a cup o tea be?
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I think you can buy coffee that is in a can and when you open it it heats up....
 
I'm 56 and have tried in the past to get into teaching. Been doing this job now since I was sixteen and been all over the world plastering squash courts and teaching local labour how to do them. Because I didn't do my advanced craft I am not qualified enough to teach. Advance craft in the old days was basically a lot of fibrous and measurements and quantity. Fibrous in my opinion is a totally different trade as the lads in my college which did fibrous worked solely in this field and were to be honest crap at float /skim ceilings etc. I think the industry needs to concentrate on getting lads to do basic plastering ie float/ skim ceilings etc as this is where they will be earning money. Like I said 40 years experience but not qualified enough to teach the lads of today. No wonder the trade is going down the pan
 
Sometimes you have to look at what walks through the door in the 1st place tbh, when they don't want to learn it's a bit of an uphill battle to make them.
 
When I first started, my gaffer wanted all the usual jobs done like Flynnyman says, then when I could keep that up easily, and if I could keep ahead of him, with muck or finish, then and only then, could I pick up a trowel.......and use to scrape door linings! After a while of this, he let me render a cupboard out, checked it out, muttered a bit, pointed out mistakes, clapped me on the back said I might just make it, then said "take it off"........I was gutted. But he rightly pointed out that the client was paying for HIM to plaster the property, not me.
I thought about leaving, but didn't, and I still remember the first time he didn't say "take it off". Didn't do me a lot of harm, and I've done this myself with lads that have worked for me. That was more than thirty years ago. All the best.
 
Dropsalot said:
When I first started, my gaffer wanted all the usual jobs done like Flynnyman says, then when I could keep that up easily, and if I could keep ahead of him, with muck or finish, then and only then, could I pick up a trowel.......and use to scrape door linings! After a while of this, he let me render a cupboard out, checked it out, muttered a bit, pointed out mistakes, clapped me on the back said I might just make it, then said "take it off"........I was gutted. But he rightly pointed out that the client was paying for HIM to plaster the property, not me.
I thought about leaving, but didn't, and I still remember the first time he didn't say "take it off". Didn't do me a lot of harm, and I've done this myself with lads that have worked for me. That was more than thirty years ago. All the best.
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Exactly that... that's the way I was shown...

Plastering is more than a job it's a way of life

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John fogarty said:
Having worked in the plastering business for 25years I am looking to move into lecturing or teaching, I have my NVQ level 2 and my A1 award in assessing, obviously I need some teaching qualifications but where to get and at what cost. Why can't tradesmen teach, so much bad press on here about training centres, thoughts please.
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That's a good plan thanks I think I will do the same in 15years
 
flynnyman said:
I will be honest I only teach my lads how to use a bucket trowel and load a handboard, scrape the floor, tape up if they are a natural, maybe screw but more often then not take my screws out that I missed :), load the van, unload the van usually with me showing and helping. Filling buckets with water, cleaning out buckets and sockets, moving ladders, stilts and hop ups, making brews, cleaning frames and windows with a sponge, pregritting, pvaing, removing nails and screws, putting sockets back on, holding plasterboard up, stripping wallpaper and most important laugh at my jokes ;) that is the basics, if they can do all that then they will pick up a trowel. These are what you need to know or you are going to make a mess of any job. I've had lads who just want to skim straight away and can't understand why they need to learn all I've just mentioned. They don't want to learn they just want to learn how to skim and maybe board coz they have their own plans. That's why I am reluctant to train anyone because they want it all now without learning the basics. The colleges have their hands tied with having to qualify everyone because a more qualified workforce ticks all the government figures that are required. I was taught to work to dry angles and never done it for the first ten years until I went on site doing price work. You should be taught to work to dry angles because you need to know how to do it right before you start doing special moves lol
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Lol with all due respect your a f**k face
 
uni-king said:
Do u teach ur lads how to use a angle trowel? Had a lad for a couple days recently and he was nvq level 2 qualified and didn't know wat a angle trowel was..he could barely get it off the handboard aswell..not his fault its how there are taught..and its not just this lad its been same with every1 that's cum from college 4 in total..
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Hello
 
Kids leaving school or new workers to the building trade have it way easier then when many of us started.
I remembered when I first started boarding ceilings on my own where lifting 15mm board with a sponge inside my Benny hat and coming home with little bumps on my head. Nowadays they've got plasterboard lifters etc.

My first job on site was mixing up for plasterers using a plunger type gadget that looked like we've nicked it off a kids scooter.

Also it's Amazing these days how easy it is to become apparently qualified for a trade with very little experience whatsoever.
 
Baslod75 said:
Kids leaving school or new workers to the building trade have it way easier then when many of us started.
I remembered when I first started boarding ceilings on my own where lifting 15mm board with a sponge inside my Benny hat and coming home with little bumps on my head. Nowadays they've got plasterboard lifters etc.

My first job on site was mixing up for plasterers using a plunger type gadget that looked like we've nicked it off a kids scooter.

Also it's Amazing these days how easy it is to become apparently qualified for a trade with very little experience whatsoever.
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every generation had it easier than the generation before :D :D
 
I'd like to get one of those catering vans when my arms and shoulders etc give in and do that. I love cooking and they seem to leave their pitches well before plasterers leave site.
:asadito:
 
On site today an young lad (2nd year apprentice chippy)....was so over the moon that he'd scribed in skirting....he had to be shown by an experienced guy, but had never done it at college!!!!
 
Dropsalot said:
On site today an young lad (2nd year apprentice chippy)....was so over the moon that he'd scribed in skirting....he had to be shown by an experienced guy, but had never done it at college!!!!
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Dont get me started on college training!!... I think money would be better spent paying the good trades to show them the real world rather than wasting money on colleges
 
I went to college and it was the best thing i did gives you a proper insight into how it should be done
 
Gibbo said:
I went to college and it was the best thing i did gives you a proper insight into how it should be done
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yup in the old days it was the right way to do it... go and have a look now though at the standard they are pushing out...
 
Danny said:
yup in the old days it was the right way to do it... go and have a look now though at the standard they are pushing out...
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They will pass just about anybody or they don't get the funding. It's like they can't afford to fail anybody. When I went to college in the 80's they weren't bothered to fail you or kick you off the course if you dicked about. Plus employers were kept informed of your progress and my old boss would dock me if I was reported late for college etc. I think it's sad that it's just about getting the funding rather than turn out decent quality lads who would benefit any employer
 
Marshy said:
They will pass just about anybody or they don't get the funding. It's like they can't afford to fail anybody. When I went to college in the 80's they weren't bothered to fail you or kick you off the course if you dicked about. Plus employers were kept informed of your progress and my old boss would dock me if I was reported late for college etc. I think it's sad that it's just about getting the funding rather than turn out decent quality lads who would benefit any employer
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yup exactly....
 
Baslod75 said:
Kids leaving school or new workers to the building trade have it way easier then when many of us started.
I remembered when I first started boarding ceilings on my own where lifting 15mm board with a sponge inside my Benny hat and coming home with little bumps on my head. Nowadays they've got plasterboard lifters etc.

My first job on site was mixing up for plasterers using a plunger type gadget that looked like we've nicked it off a kids scooter.

Also it's Amazing these days how easy it is to become apparently qualified for a trade with very little experience whatsoever.
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Benny hat lol
Bet theres not many know what that means nowadays
 
I think being a postman... sorry postperson for @gps :risas: ...... would be a nice chilled out job. Time to yourself, good exercise, pension. Deliver the queens mail, go home and forget about work. Might get boring though
 
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