I just had to share this one with all you hard pressed and struggling joiners out there as I think I have popped a couple of ribs laughing and feeling a little smug.

In short have had a contract to supply casement windows for a cottage style stone new build in a village nearby. The builder who is a good guy and kept me in business during these bad times has subbed out the block and stone work to a new bloke who is a complete pain (trying to be polite!!)

I delivered the formers as all the windows are different sizes, all marked up with the window reference off the architects plans and arrogant boy brickie making stupid comments like, "I hope these are right chippy" and "I will check you have got them square" and other such attempts at put downs which I just ignored.

Anyway I got back to my workshop and have spent the last couple of weeks beavering away and yesterday delivered the windows to site.

Got a frantic phone call from the builder today about the upstairs master bedroom window being the wrong size and him needing a new one making urgently,  so I duly tripped off to the site with plans in hand to be met by the bricklayer making wisecracks about "thick chippies" "need a new tape measure" etc.

My heckles were raising a bit and I was tempted to introduce him to a lump of 4 x 2 oak but all was resolved when with the builder, I rechecked the architects spec, the dimensions of the windows, and the dimension of the supplied former when the penny dropped!!

Good old arrogant "excrement for brains" had gone and put the former on its side!!!!!!!!!!!! and then built the block and stonework around it.

Not only is the stone and blockwork wrong, but the oak lintel above has been cut to that size, the wrong size etc, etc, 

The satisfaction of looking him straight in the face, smiling sweetly, and then saying to the builder "I will leave it with you two to sort out then and you can let me know what you want to do" was absolutely priceless!

My ribs ache so much from laughing I need some pain killers, and if you have had a bad day I hope this makes you chuckle.     

Haha, what a pain in the butt for him, it's a nightmare changing brickwork, not so much for carpentry. It has happened to me where all 20 windows were wrong, the brick guys just cant read.

Good for you for keeping your cool.  

i built all th former for a place once and then the client changed all the sizes so instead of calling me back to change then the brikkie did it all with his level... his out of level level. sealing gaps 15mm-0mm aint easy to do neatly

Nice one for the wood gang.  Brickies don't know how easy they have it.  Working to the nearest25mm then cover everything in plaster where we are splitting millimeters.

Let us know how this one pans out 

Woodguy

I smile at attitudes like your coworker's.  One can approach life two ways - that the other 6.999 billion people on the earth are dumber than you are, or that just maybe once in a while if something isn't working out, a look in the mirror may help a bit.

Glad you ended up ok!

Give 'em heck, Guy!

This was a hilarious story, and I commend and salute your quiet, polite victory.   Perhaps the "brickie" will learn a lesson and tone his mouth down.


I have to say, I love the various stories from around the world, because I don't know some of the phrasing and I like learning them (or at least pretending I understand).

Guy

This story reminds me of a time when i was helping a friend out hanging doors in a hotel re-furb.  I had finished 1 room with en suite & was half way through the next one when the painter came through ranting & raving about me hanging the door "squint" as he was going to have to cut all his tiles inside the en suite 

Now i new before i went through with him that the door was plumb as i had a new stabila level & i take great pride in my door hanging, so while he was having a real go at me i just picked up my level & headed through with him hard on my heels.

As soon a i got in the room i could see the problem but i quietly placed the level on the door post & what do ya know, dead on.  I then put the level on the end of his tiles & well !!
From the tile on the floor to the one about 1m up they were off by about 25mm.  I just said "doors ok" & walked away.

For about an hour after that all i could hear was cussing & tiles hitting the deck.  He was an older guy close to retiring age& instead of plumbing the first row he just started in the corner, an old room that the walls wernt getting touched & not plumb.  The further along he came the worse the problem got but by the time he got to the door & seen the taper he went mad & blamed me.

So i think the moral of the story is to double check your own work before blaming others about theirs.

Woodguy.

 

Man, that puts a few bricks out into perspective!

Anyway happy days, I am currently making another window to fit the aperture "brickie boy" made.

I am only charging the builder the going rate as like I said he is a good guy and he has kept me in business with bits of work in this last year.

Mmmm! That reminds me I wonder how my tender for the two sets of hardwood garage doors on another job of his is going.   

Sorry Rob, didn't mean to tar all brickies with the same brush