Bring Your Tools To The Job

hrscammisa

I cant believe it when some one comes to the job with one nail pouch on a 16 ounce finish hammer and a 12ft tape #2 pencil and thats all.This one guy ask can I barrow your tape I said just run back where we started on the wall and get yours.Guess what he diden't even have one said his broke the other day . Go a head guys and let it out I'm all ears.

Stevo

Get what you pay for.

mdshunk

That's what I was thinking, but I wanted to wait to be the second person to be a prick.

I mean, seriously, what caliber of guy are you hiring anyhow? Warm and breathing?

hrscammisa

This was on a union job I was on a few years back so I did not pay him a dime and any body they could get was the norm. my guys learn real quick a tool a week thats all I ask the young ones are still tooling up thats fine but on the bigger jobs dont tell me they show up with what they need and I know your help dosen't carry what you do but if you are going to work then buy some tools

hrscammisa

I dont use any body but my kids. Dont like drugs dont like booze dont like attitude or go fast. and it seems like over the years thats all you get you would think that as people got older they would grow up. My two 16 year olds have built more decks and homes the most. and do a better job my older brother still runs housing tracks so I hear the storys all the time thought it maybe a fun thread guys so easy there wild cat

hrscammisa

ok this one should have been on the construction site my bad

AtlanticWBConst

Had this cheap young punk...that refused to buy tools.
(Knew the family pretty well)
20 year old spoiled brat.
Wanted to use all his money for his toys (Motorcycle, ATV, 4x4, etc...)

(Off topic: Ended up firing him...completely incompetent. Gave him a hundred chances. Regularly screwed up 9 out of 10 jobs we gave him to do....
Sad part is that his own parents treated him like he was special..that 'no one understands him', mother told him he must be a genius, because he had a great uncle that was one....He was the absolute dumbest baby-heuy dope I have ever tried to train. Show him something up to three times.... then goes to do it the following week, and can't remember how to.... an attitude to boot)

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KentWhitten

I almost embarassed enough to tell you this.

Last fall when I fell and broke my wrist, I had to hire some guys to come and help. The HO owned apartments in the city and had "carpenters" that could come out and help

I said "there's a difference between a carpenter and a framer" he said they frame all the time. On a Saturday the first of many separate "crews" that came out was 2 guys, $35/hr each. (Don't be shocked, a year ago, this was easily the going rate).

I, repeat I had to bring down my compressor, nail gun and hose for them to finish off my subfloor. The head guy walked over to me and said "can I borrow your hammer? I forgot mine" LOL. When I get my tools back I find out they started sheathing from the back of the house towards the front where the compressor was and they dragged my nice clean airhose through the glue. OMFG I coulda killed them.

Funny thing is that the longest, straightest stretch was on the front of the house. I hired morons.

In_Mexifornia

Someone who shows up on my job without tools is called a laborer and they get paid accordingly. When I started years ago and I only had a handfull of tools. When I showed up to the first job I was given sandpaper. I sanded by hand 10 hours a day, 4 days a week, on a night job for a bloomingdale's. It had mahogany wood paneling and hardwood everywhere. Boy, what an incentive that was to buy some tools.

Back when I worked union and you showed up to a new job you had better know what you're doing and have your own gear, otherwise you were gone the same day. They'd keep you there all day cause they were required to pay for 8 hours, but at the end of the day you'd be handed your pink slip.

Stevo

[quote=mdshunk;221889]That's what I was thinking, but I wanted to wait to be the second person to be a prick.

Hey, You calling me a prick?

Sometimes I do some sub-work for a friend of mine. His guy's will use my tools, which is fine,as long as they go back in my toolbox at the end of the day,and not my friend's toolbox. I've lost more tools this way. Really ticks me off!
I guess that's why I usually work by myself. Nothing or no one to worry about.Also freedom and flexibility.

WNYcarpenter

I have a couple peeves about tools



The new guy who has all the tools but doesn't know how to use them, has no experience, but gets a gravy job because he has $5000 in tools...Like a golfer who buys Pings, the whole outfitted get up, and shoots a 120!!

Then the guy who only cares about HIS tools...uses your skill saw with a new blade to cut through roof shingles, then says I bought mine I don't want to ruin it!
It happened to me once where all of our tools were set up outside. It started raining while I was inside with a sub...When I came out, my co-worker had moved undercover with his stuff, went back to work and all of my things were still in the rain!
I still work side by side with the guy, but now he treats my tools with the same repect as his!

WNYcarpenter

[quote=Stevo;222310] Amen!

AtlanticWBConst

That's the way it should be and these tool-less goofs need to have an understanding of that...

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dougchips

A little off topic. I had a helper a few years ago that worked for me for the summer. Everyweek I was buying more hammers, prybars, you name it, I was missing it. Since I dropped him off at the end of the day I was sure that he was not stealing the tools. I began to think that he was leaving them on the job sites which was hard to believe since he did a good job cleaning up. When we got in the truck to leave a job I began to go back and check for tools and never found one.

A couple months later I had to make a dump run, generally I sat in the truck at the dump making calls while he unloaded the trailer and garbage cans. On this dump trip I was solo, when I began to empty the garbage cans into the dumpster I found that tools were mixed in with the garbage. He admitted to putting tools in the garbage can to save trips back and forth to the truck. His only fault was that he forgot to remove then from the garbage cans.

BTW I use Veto-Pro bags and every tool has it's own spot. Somehow the garbage can was easier than a "special home".

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Bradracer18

Just to stand up for these guys. I started this way(I am in now way, stupid....I'm a smart kid, work hard, and learn fast)...but I just had a crappy tool pouch, hammer, pencil, and tape. They took it easy on me the first day, I looked around, and seen what I was going to be doing and what tools everyone else had. That night, I made a run for the hardware store....and showed up the next day with some tools and a much more comfortable pouch. I then, began to gain respect, and learn things as I went. Not much longer.....I was laying out with the foreman. So, keep in mind, that some people just need a little help/direction....and they may end up making you a buck. Like I said though, its not too hard to judge charecter....haha.

AtlanticWBConst

Too bad your worker didn't insert himself into a barrel while he was at it.....


......Similar experience...found some tools in a barrel that my Biz partner's nephew had filled up.

Ended up eventually firing the pothead loser for taking the company truck he had, all over the place and claiming: "honestly, I swear, I don't know what happened to the gas" (...warned 2x previously...)

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AtlanticWBConst

Brad,

What you did would have gained my respect as well. What we are talking about are the bums that show up week after week, month after month....pulling the same ole - crap-ola...

FWIW- You're not like these guys at all.....

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TempestV

I worked with a guy this summer- had a brand new hitachi nailer, cordless set, all brand new tools in his truck, (that never left his truck while he was working there), a brandnew skill saw that he actually used, ect, yet had absoulutly no idea how to frame, not to mention that it took a month for him to realize that he needed to carry a stringline. he would use a 2x4 as a straight edge to mark his line on plywood with a pencil- and it would take at least a minute for him to get it lined up and marked- not to mention the time he spent running around trying to find a straight 2x4

finally he quite when the boss told him that he would actually have to work, and he left his skill saw on the job.

Bradracer18

you guys have straight 2x4's??? haha.

WNYcarpenter

My first day I came to the job with: a nail apron, 20 year old hammer, didn't know what a flat bar was, borrowed tape from my dad, no pencil, and a work ethic.

I"ll rememer that day forever!! I had entered the world of the unknown, and have loved it every day since.....I used to go home and watch This Old House, New Yankee Workshop every night! Before I knew it I was contributing......that was awesome!!

There isn't a feeling better in the world than being a part of the action!...It's been a while since then, but I always try to go out of my way to encourage and teach the guys who show some promise. Some guys just plain suck, attitude and all...!!!!