worse trade ever! nowadays

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I completely agree Cassie, a skillfully job, but plasterers don't help themselves sometimes, the majority of spreads I know look like they haven't washed they're clothes in a month, rough shaven with a fag hanging out of they're mouths & say (I let my trowell do the talking! Lol) how can we demand a professional wage if we look like glorified labourers? If we only turned up in a smart van, on time, clean clothes, didn't swear etc etc we'd be half way there. Just an observation!

I agree with dai dog. Some of the spreads I know look like labourers. Scruffy clothes, beards and shaven heads. They look cheap and probably are. Tatty old vans, fag in gob, basic tool kit if that.
 
Prices hardly moved for 10 years,some gone down,love my job but earn less than I did 10 years ago,and cost living gone right up,all time people take low prices most becouse there forced too prices won't move up,I been doing site work for over 15 years you have to be on top of your game to earn a good wage,firms don't like to see you earn over a grand a week,even if they earns really well,
 
Prices hardly moved for 10 years,some gone down,love my job but earn less than I did 10 years ago,and cost living gone right up,all time people take low prices most becouse there forced too prices won't move up,I been doing site work for over 15 years you have to be on top of your game to earn a good wage,firms don't like to see you earn over a grand a week,even if they earns really well,

Always been that way with plastering. Earn good money then the rates are too high. It is hard to up your money but I would have a minimum or stay at home on principle.

Having a wife on good money helps though.
 
Yea, I can't help it my hairs ****** off, it's just what this job has done to me.

And it aint a beard, it's designer stubble.
 
I've been trying for years Barry it's a trap. It's so hard to get out of this trade. Somehow or other you end up with a trowel in your hand again.
i went into a warehouse just had enough lost interest etc still do odd bit though folks at work always asking me to do a ceiling here or there etc must say i like the fact that i know what time im finishing each day and im not getting my car covered in crap all the time lol
 
i went into a warehouse just had enough lost interest etc still do odd bit though folks at work always asking me to do a ceiling here or there etc must say i like the fact that i know what time im finishing each day and im not getting my car covered in crap all the time lol
you still enjoying it then kemp?? How longs that now?..i remember you posting about it when you got in the warehouse...happier now?:RpS_thumbup:
 
you still enjoying it then kemp?? How longs that now?..i remember you posting about it when you got in the warehouse...happier now?:RpS_thumbup:
yeah mate its ok made some good friends and there loads of top notch fanny working there been there nearly 2 years now im alot happier now less stress etc though i must walk min 5 mile a day lol like you lot said at the time if the job getting you down and you stop caring about it its maybe time to move on
i dont make a fortune but its in bank every friday morning and when you got a kid and dog to feed you do what you got to do to put food on the table and keep them warm at night etc
 
Im a hairy scruffy fuuucker ........busy busy busy not just at work trying to juggle time between a fussy woman and 3 young daughters ......AAAGHHH WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG !!!!!
 
i went into a warehouse just had enough lost interest etc still do odd bit though folks at work always asking me to do a ceiling here or there etc must say i like the fact that i know what time im finishing each day and im not getting my car covered in crap all the time lol

Good for you Kemp and I am happy it has worked out for you. I keep saying to myself this winter I am going to find a paye job. It is all the unpaid hours that gets me down, looking at jobs at weekends, working prices out, sending quotes then invoicing. Getting the books up to date is another bind.

I cannot blame anyone for getting out. Having a job where when your 8hrs are up you can have a private life of your own.
 
I see what you mean mac with solid 2 coat work. Even if you did get the real plastering work they would want you to do it at board and skim day prices.

in the mid 80's I had a builder who was doing a grant job and he needed me to make the running moulds and run 3 different corniches in 3 rooms where the chimney breast had been taken out. I had all the rest of the 2 coat plastering to do in Carlite Browning and skim. Nothing out of the usual except these 3 moulds. At the time labour only was £40 a day. I charged him £40 a day for the plastering but £45 for the days work making the moulds and running them in-situ.

He refused to pay the extra £5! Apparently it is a plasterers job to be able to make and run moulds so he would not pay extra for knowing what I should know amyway. He did admit though he did not know of any other plasterer that could do the job.

So disgusted was I that I never ran a mould ever again. Stuff em! Instead I told them to take a sample to a local plasterers workshop and they would re produce on a bench and fit it. It was an eye opener to other trades attitude towards us and in the future if I got a specialised job where the competition is thin then I priced accordingly or gladly walked away.

Putting the board and skimmers to one side, if you know your job and the competition is not up to it price with pride or walk. Go boarding and skimming instead.

sorry lads this was supposed to be a reply to a quote from macplas last February!
 
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I have won a few jobs this week and have a few insurance jobs to crack on with, the good and bad of it is one customer told me I was the most expensive quote, £100 more than the nearest, but he liked my set up and wanted me to do work, the flip side, I wasn't expensive, so what are these other guys playing at.

it might be the time of year as rigsby said in another thread, it's swings and roundabouts.

one day it's the worst jobs in the world, the next, it's the best

Yes the time of the year and people also will pay for peace of mind. I had one recently and I wasn't the cheapest and I quoted a 3 month wait. But they gave me the job as I came across as the most experience and also was upfront with timings. They said they had confidence in me and came across as an honest person. Well thats true but sometimes to honest.
 
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