Why would u even turn up

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smoother09

smoother09

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Did a big job for a builder who I do a lot of work for about a week ago and he got a couple of extra spreads to push job on who he had not used before all roughing out. They came highly recommend! Never seen anything like it after day1 you could put a straight edge on wall either way and wobble it side to side. Needless to say he didn't have them back anyone else had this before. I wouldn't have the balls to even turn up if I couldn't do the job they weren't young guys either lol:RpS_scared:
 
Plenty of chancers about unfortunately in all trades. Always will be.
Working to a proper standard will always make you a lot more money.
 
you've just got to look at some of the groups on facebook to see some the stuff that goes on in the world of plastering

the stories of people doing the courses and setting up business so can imagen be alot out there that struggle to do a days work properly
 
yup... I have seen a lot of crap plastering over the years but I have noticed that most of them think they are the mutts nuts
 
Happened to me twice,turned up to a large job with 3 spreads there 1 was pretty good and humble,the other 2 came as a pair and we're shite! dot and dab all over the place,skim was worst iv seen and very slow,they came over to me several times asking daft questions and then telling me how great they were,any way the employer got rid of them two days later and left me and the other spread to finish.
The second time i rendered a house in lime and the houses neighbor was his brother and they had this competition thing going on,so he wouldn't ask for my number to use me,he found someone via an advert they started and the bloke who I did the job for was there when the mats turned up,sand,cement and hydrated lime Not nhl! I got a call to go up and he'd been on an 8 week course and hadn't the first idea about nhl,as above he thaught lime mix was cement with lime:RpS_confused:i pointed out the basics and explained he really shouldnt be doing it,i wasnt to bothered as i knew when he was finished mine would make his look shite:RpS_laugh:
 
A few years ago we were doing a few barn conversions and the company were pulling in subbies to help push them along.
We had an old bloke turn up with a young lad. Plasterer was over 70, labourer was 19.
The old fella was saying how he'd been plastering all his life and was just starting to train the lad.
I was called away to the fone and it was the office saying put old guy boarding. Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES let him dab or skim.

Eventually all there was left was skimming so we stuck him in a storeroom that we had dabbed out.
I can honestly say, in almost 30 years I've never seen plastering that bad before or since.
Trowel marks, lines, galls, bad internals, beads out of square and showing through the plaster etc...
Not 1 single aspect of it was ok.
Worst thing was, he was training the lad to do it like this as well.
We had to tell the office then go in and redo the whole room.
 
kgreigh said:
Happened to me twice,turned up to a large job with 3 spreads there 1 was pretty good and humble,the other 2 came as a pair and we're shite! dot and dab all over the place,skim was worst iv seen and very slow,they came over to me several times asking daft questions and then telling me how great they were,any way the employer got rid of them two days later and left me and the other spread to finish.
The second time i rendered a house in lime and the houses neighbor was his brother and they had this competition thing going on,so he wouldn't ask for my number to use me,he found someone via an advert they started and the bloke who I did the job for was there when the mats turned up,sand,cement and hydrated lime Not nhl! I got a call to go up and he'd been on an 8 week course and hadn't the first idea about nhl,as above he thaught lime mix was cement with lime:RpS_confused:i pointed out the basics and explained he really shouldnt be doing it,i wasnt to bothered as i knew when he was finished mine would make his look shite:RpS_laugh:
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im baffled kgreigh did u use NHL with sand and cement?
 
[QQUOT EASTsuperspread;839427]im baffled kgreigh did u use NHL with sand and cement?[/QUOTE]
Lol no,nhl 3/1,hair in scratch,I know it's not necessary but stone wasn't great. Sorry I worded it wrong pal.:RpS_thumbup:
 
kgreigh said:
[QQUOT EASTsuperspread;839427]im baffled kgreigh did u use NHL with sand and cement?
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Lol no,nhl 3/1,hair in scratch,I know it's not necessary but stone wasn't great. Sorry I worded it wrong pal.:RpS_thumbup:[/QUOTE]
Phewwww that sounds better:RpS_laugh:
 
I guess anyone can go out buy a full set of tools get on to a site there's never been any restrictions sparkies or plumbers wouldn't get away with it why do plasterers?
 
Haha, it's always a giveaway when they turn up with a brand new set of perfectly clean tools.
We had one gang working on a school in Northwich who actually told us they'd bought the tools off eBay the week before because they heard it was good money and "didn't look to difficult to do".
They were booted of die when the boss came out to check on then and the labourer was mixing the dabbing on a board with a shovel.
 
4x4 said:
Haha, it's always a giveaway when they turn up with a brand new set of perfectly clean tools.
We had one gang working on a school in Northwich who actually told us they'd bought the tools off eBay the week before because they heard it was good money and "didn't look to difficult to do".
They were booted of die when the boss came out to check on then and the labourer was mixing the dabbing on a board with a shovel.
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Quality ha!:RpS_lol:
 
cassie said:
most plasterers think their the dogs.. and dont even realise how rough they are..lol..
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Yeah it's a bit like that I agree but there's a hell of a lot of spreads my age and younger that can't float&set no disrespect to them but it's something you can only learn from the old school and some of these guys don't get the chance because there learning off the dot n dab generation I was lucky enough to work with my dad and uncle who were the b*ll***s!:RpS_thumbup:
 
See a lot of bad skimming about some of it in customers houses that has been done previously and they think it's a good job!
Same with brickwork on site seem to get gangs that throw the first lift up and disappear before anything comes back on them. Honestly it would be hard to get as bad as they do and then genuine people get stuck trying to sort it out.

Two trades where the tools are cheap and an abundance of short courses.
 
That should have said '' some plasterers ''.. not most.. thing is tho, a lot of people nowadays are just dabbing and skimming boards day in day out, which is the easiest bit of our job...
 
Hit the nail on head these courses are a joke but I suppose the guys that are running them are making a fortune ahh now there's a idea:RpS_w00t:
 
I suppose the argument with the people running the courses is they are showing people how to plaster but we all know in theory you can tell someone and show them how to do it but that don't mean they'll pick up a trowel and become the plastering guru!:RpS_lol:
 
cassie said:
problem is, you dont need any quals to be a plasterer...
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I agree to a point but there's plenty of guys who are time served who have learnt there trade with very experienced plasterers but haven't been to college so we're do they fit in ?
 
Its a difficult one... the only trades that have to be qualified are gas engineers, the sparks who sign work off, scaffolders.. what they did with scaffolders about 10 yrs back was to give them a some timescale to get qualified ... they had a cut off date, then that was it.. no cards..no work.. yes there are some still working, but only house bashing, no chance on an industrial job, and in the **** if anything happens on a job and they have no cards... no clue how they can fix the plastering problem, as it seems training estableshments are passing people irrelevant to how they perform... I think its the way houses etc are built these days..ie. board and skim... thats why i do domestic, be bored to death on site doing that all day .... thats just me though, nothing wrong with the guys doing that, but like mentioned, some cant even float a wall out properly, which is bad..
 
I don't see a way round it with plastering of bricklaying no ones going to die from a bit of rough work! The college my old firm was getting apprentices off was a joke, the plasterers used multi a grand total of once at the end of the course the rest was render with sand and lime. They were chucked onto big sites and used to sweep up and given qualifications. The assessors visited us maybe twice in a year no physical portfolios anymore all done on a voice recorder. They couldn't even skrim up it's not the apprentices fault it's seems to all be about targets for the colleges and the payout and cheap labour for the company's taking them on.
 
I understand where you lot coming from with decades of experience under your belts. Personally I think courses are good, gives you some confidence then you learn from your own mistakes and train as you go along. Not sure if college any better 3 years of doing the same old thing then on your first day everything you learnt goes out the window because whoever takes you on you'll only washing buckets or knocking up. It's ain't no rocket science everything can be learned if you got the right attitude. Hate it when people over mistify trades. There are proper craftsmen out there, doubt it they worried about the colour or price of multifinish like most people on Facebook and forums. Plastering is a tempting game when you read on places like this that 2 people knocks a whole house out in 2 days and earns a grand, and they do it on a six day a week basis. Who's got bigger ehh? Problem is these days when everything so fast moving and thousands of tutorials available on YouTube people gonna say it's p!ss easy I can do it. Then they turn out to be sh!Te and then they get talked about in here. I bet everyone done other stuff which is not related to plastering coz they thought ah that easy if Tommy Walsh can do it on a diy channel! Anyway probably nothing to do with this thread rant over...Sorry guys
 
But what you don't understand you have to learn from the bottom I personally won't let anyone on the trowel till they can prove themselves basically knowing how to mix up properly evertime and knowing every tool and material they should know what what you want before you even ask, you need to learn from experiences from other plasterers without that college or coarses ain't worth shite!.
 
I do understand it, it's just sounds like 3years of college not enough to learn how to clean bucket or knock up some gear.
 
Nothing to regulate in this trade as you either got a good finish or a crap one. some customers happy with a crap finish or they just call you to rectify it for double money. I got told years ago that be grateful for cowboys they generate a lot of work!
 
Well attitudes got a lot to do with it so all the best with your future endeavours @zolco:RpS_thumbsup:
 
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zolco said:
Nothing to regulate in this trade as you either got a good finish or a crap one. some customers happy with a crap finish or they just call you to rectify it for double money. I got told years ago that be grateful for cowboys they generate a lot of work!
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I don't know many customers that are happy with a crap finish and I'm not grateful for Cowboys because if they weren't there in the first place the building trade wouldn't get such a bad name and there would be plenty of work for all the honest tradesman:RpS_confused:
 
Thing is... it seems these '' assesors '' I heard of one who had 3 years experience, just did all the teaching courses..wtf.. anyway, they seem to pass every single person, this happens in all the trades, the qualifications these days mean nothing...
 
smoother09 said:
I don't know many customers that are happy with a crap finish and I'm not grateful for Cowboys because if they weren't there in the first place the building trade wouldn't get such a bad name and there would be plenty of work for all the honest tradesman:RpS_confused:
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That's what I was getting at colleges have no incentive to fail people ends up with a load of people who think they are qualified.
 
I seen a fair amount of customers who happy pay peanuts and settle for a shoddy work. There always be cowboys and chancers out there just like in every trade. Unfortunately that's how the world goes around. You even mentioned in your original post. They still turned up ok they got sent off site but still chanced it. If they get away with it that is fine by them. It's down to the government. They want tradesmen trained up quickly to meet quota to keep the building game going to keep the country going. It's like Russia quantity over quality. To gain an nvq you need very little, 3 weeks of training kinda thing then you sign some paperwork and you done. Have a look on the A5 edgware selco every morning hundreds of plasterers sparks leakies roofers brickies queing up for 50-60quid a day.
 
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