He who laughs last!!!!!

[Guy Ashley]

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,  [big grin] [big grin] [big grin] [big grin] [big grin]

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.   

 

[DavidCBaker]

So I see in your signature line that you got the windows job. Is the Kapex next?

 

[nickao]

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.  

 

[Neill]

Guy,

Good for you.

You did the right thing to not belabor the issue or rub the mason's face in it.  

Don't put the mason on the defensive in front of the contractor.  Just play it cool and let his thoughts play on his mind.

Neill

 

[Deansocial]

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

 

[tigger]

Thanks for this Guy

After a day like mine, I needed this. My bricky has already left site and I'm stuck having to "re-make" cabinets as this genius can't read plans either. I made a special trip to site to meet the guy and show him what I was building and where. I showed him where he needed to take particular care with plaster work and I got some very shitty remarks about whether I thought he was new to his trade or whatever else he had to say.
Well, all I can say now is that my 5 year old builds his sand castle a lot staighter and more square. I could domino a new a@#hole in this guy!  [mad]

Good to hear it works out for some of us "chippys"  [thumbs up]

 

[woodguy7]

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  [thumbs up]

Woodguy

 

[Guy Ashley]

So I see in your signature line that you got the windows job. Is the Kapex next?

David, would love to, but the Kapex is equal to 3 months workshop rental and I am a bit cautious at the moment with the current economic climate!

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. 

Guy,

Good for you.

You did the right thing to not belabor the issue or rub the mason's face in it. 

Don't put the mason on the defensive in front of the contractor.  Just play it cool and let his thoughts play on his mind.

Neill

Nikao & Neil

At the age of 51 I am past building site punch up's and stick with the knowing smile and raised eyebrow. Whats that old saying "Age and experience will always overcome youth & vigour" or in his case Bull!

I could domino a new a@#hole in this guy!  [mad]

Good to hear it works out for some of us "chippys"  [thumbs up]

Thats a new idea for the domino!! Didn't see that in the manual but I will take it with me next time.

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  [thumbs up]

Woodguy

I await a phone call, I suspect it will be "please can we have a new window to fit the size of the aperture and how much are you going to charge us"

I can't see the brickie taking all the blockwork/stone work down. Its up to the gable, the roofs on, etc, etc.

I will let you know  [big grin]

 

[TJ Cornish]

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!

 

[peter halle]

Guy,

Thanks for the humor.  I needed that.

Peter

 

[Wood_Junkie]

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).

 

[Kevin D.]

There's a saying I've always liked that I think is "a propos" here, "He who slings mud the fastest, loses ground the quickest".  That Brickie was the victim of his own mudslide.  Good for you taking the high ground.

 

[Brice Burrell]

There's a saying I've always liked that I think is "a propos" here, "He who slings mud the fastest, loses ground the quickest".  That Brickie was the victim of his own mudslide.  Good for you taking the high ground.

[thumbs up]

 

[Tim Morris]

Ah sweet justice. This made my day as well.

 

[woodguy7]

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  [eek]

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.

 

[Sparktrician]

Reminds me of the incident in which the concrete foundation crew took a set of plans from my trailer, formed and poured the footers - with the wrong set of plans.  Then they wanted to be paid $2,500 for having done the job wrong.  They were a touch of incensed when that request was emphatically denied.  A conversation with the owner of the foundation company set the record straight.  There was no payment for anything until they had torn out the incorrect footers and redone them and the foundation walls correctly.  That crew was never used again. 

 

[Guy Ashley]

Reminds me of the incident in which the concrete foundation crew took a set of plans from my trailer, formed and poured the footers - with the wrong set of plans.  Then they wanted to be paid $2,500 for having done the job wrong.  They were a touch of incensed when that request was emphatically denied.  A conversation with the owner of the foundation company set the record straight.  There was no payment for anything until they had torn out the incorrect footers and redone them and the foundation walls correctly.  That crew was never used again. 

[scared] [scared] [scared] [scared]

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

 

[Rob-GB]

Guy, that's exactly the way to play it. The builder giving you the work is not at fault, so by playing fair (when he has a big problem to overcome) he will hopefully play fair with you. Of course Mr Gobby will no doubt have his pay reduced to balance all Karma. ;D

By the way not all Brickies are illiterate numpties, my Dad was very well respected in his craft and taught me a heck of a lot, but then he did start out as a chippie apprentice before the local chippie got drafted and he went to work for a local builder. He never lost his love of working with wood though.

Rob.

 

[woodguy7]

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

 

[jmbfestool]

No not all bricklayers I know two who I would have doing jobs for me but I tell you its hard to find them though they tend to be very confident and talk the talk so you think oh they will be good but no rubbish. 

We had two on the job thought they where brilliant they even took our joinery work of us! Like two big old kids they came to use and said we wanna fit the veluxes we said well why you asking use! ask the Foreman its not up to use any way they just walked of they grabbed both veluxes and started fitting them I couldnt believe it but instead of using flashing on the bottom of the veluxes because you know how some times a row of tiles are too low well they made a frame out of wood which was temporary thing to hold the tiles while the foam went! Yes thats right they foamed a row of tiles under the veluxes!

Any way we carried on fitting these large frames and doors but one garage door opening was 2 inch out of plump I couldnt understand it because we leveled the dummy frames up. We found out from the Forman that the bricklayer had knocked the frame over and just pushed it back up and carried on laying bricks.

He was also one of those who will say to you hope you made them square I hope you  get them level! I hate people like that. I think they are just jealous type of people their lives are crap! Thats how I just think of them any way!

JMB