Quarry

[TooledUp]

I recently landed a maintence contract at a quarry. They have lots of large portacabins full of offices and are always taking down and putting up new partitions/building new cabins etc. Just finished my first job for them. Two offices with new partitions. The new walls had to be taped then each office painted. The catch is that these offices are occupied so did the taping and primed new skirts over the past couple of days whilst the people were in there. For painting them they moved out and gave me 3 hours to paint each (whole) office (one in the morning and one in the afternoon), with an hour added on to move the furniture < >

I would've prefered to do them at nights but they've got a complicated alarm system so that was a no go.

Luckily it was only walls and the new skirting to paint. Me and the apprentice had a hard-fast day and managed them just on time after lifting the sheets and vacuuming up. It wouldn't have been so bad if we had a bit more than a foot or so between the wall and the furniture in some parts of the room .

Still, it's work and fairly decent paying too

The minute they ask me to go paint that chimney I'm off though

Big Chimney

qry.JPG (45.57 KiB) Viewed 667 times

4 hours to move furniture, sheet up, paint the office, clear out and hoover up

office.JPG (36.97 KiB) Viewed 667 times

[Colin]

I know the feeling on that one Tooledup, especially getting behind furniture and painting round shelves. I had a job painting the offices of the local abbottoir a few years ago, which included washing off and priming the blood stains. Had to paint the office of the big boss man while he was in it. You don't want to hang around too long with someone who kills 1000 lambs a day for a living

How does the maintenance contract work, do they pay you a retainer to keep you on call?

[TooledUp]

I dunno how you could manage a slaughterhouse job. The smell that comes out of those places makes me want to puke.

I agreed an hourly rate for 12 months and give them a ballpark figure on any work they want done. If it's just small jobs then they just phone up and ask you to do it. It's a National company and their policies are to get local trades whenever they can to put money back into the local economy. Once you've got your foot in the door then they stay loyal to you so should be a good ongoing thing for many years to come

[Colin]

It was only the offices, not the killing rooms. That part looks like a car-plant - all steel cladding and ducting and I don't want to go in there.

How does it work when the sun's shining and you are doing a big exterior and they want you to come and paint some offices like NOW!

[TooledUp]

They wouldn't want you at the drop of a hat. The other trades who work for them generally get a fair bit of notice for any work they want unless it's an electrical/plumbing fault etc. I know the joiner who does the partitions/joinery work so he'd give me ample warning too if there was going to be anything substantial. The painter they used to have was a friend of mine and worked for a lot of years with them. He seemed be happy with the way things ran there and probably got up to a dozen jobs a year from them. Some smaller jobs and a few larger. He recently passed away, hence the opening for a new painting contractor.

[mistcoat]

Sounds a good little number there TU, and something to keep you ticking over should things go a bit quiet elsewhere.

Sad to hear about your friend.

[TooledUp]

Sounds a good little number there TU, and something to keep you ticking over should things go a bit quiet elsewhere.

Sad to hear about your friend.

Yeah it's good to get something that's going to be regular work. I'd have just rather got it under better circumstances.

[DialSquarePaul]

Did a job in Southall years back.

Spillers pet food factory.

Can still fucking smell it now