Especially in Ontario/Canada, any other apprentices feel as if they were tricked by the huge push for young people to join the trades? I’m currently working non-union with an electrical company, which I’ve been with for 2 years, 5 months of those unpaid (high school co-op), and from my perspective, there is no true shortage of young guys, if anything there is a surplus of young guys especially in electrical.
All I hear about is how we need more people in the trades, and that it’s a good career path, but im starting to question that narrative. I’m making very little money, my company has put 0 effort into my training, schooling or registration, I often feel like just cheap labour. I’m wondering if I should continue down this career path? What’s keeping you guys going if you’re in a similar position?
And yes, I know, go union. But that’s not an option for me right now, it sounds like you need to know someone to get in, and unions are in a very slow period right now

Recently a few of my guys have started to clock in on their way to work. They step out of their house and clock in on the app which has a location on it. This is getting to the job site usually within 15 to 20 minutes of their house. But recently it's starting to creep up on time. I assume it's guys stopping at gas station for drinks or whatever. Occasionally it's 1 guy picking up another guy who doesn't have a car. I don't ask them to do that. And when I hire I tell people that work starts at the job site. They don't have company trucks, and we don't have a shop. Small 5 sometimes 6 man company. What have you done in these situations? We reminded one of the guys last night and he told us he is gonna start looking for new work but wants to stay on till he finds something else. I'm ready to bounce him instead.

Edit: I should clarify, that he is a helper, non high skilled. We spoke with him this morning and he "made the decision" to collect his tools and leave on his own.

I think the question I have is what is your policy on getting to job sites. We have a pretty large coverage area in the pnw. I'm always interested in learning how other people have found things that work.

I just have to rant about this guy. We're GC's and hired our usual subs for a 3 story garage project. Scaffolding will be needed for the siding and this should be a non-issue because we know our sub, we've worked with him for years now, and he's always provided his own scaffolding as part of his bid (as it should be). We were out on the job site a couple days ago and we're talking to his new employee/self-appointed 'lead man' (a relative of our sub who recently moved to our area and needed a job) about logistics for scaffolding placement. He actually says this to us "some of the scaffolding *sub's name* was going to use is actually mine. I'll rent it to you and you can pay me for it but ...". He then proceeded to ask us to run to the store for him and pick him up a new saw blade and some chalk. I've seen some truly awful people in this job before but I just don't even have words for what a tool this guy is.

You know damn well what I mean.

I’m a medium sized General Contractor in the southern California region. Yesterday morning I got a phone call from a nice lady claiming that she is calling from “Farmers Insurance”.

Now this made my heart skip a beat because anytime I get a call from an insurance company, it almost always ends up as a referral for a huge job. Farmers insurance has been the source of many good clients for me over the years.

As the conversation went on, it became clear to me that she’s trying to sell me some form of advertising. She made it sound as a farmers insurance is personally publishing an exclusive handbook of preferred contractors for distribution among its agents. The sounded a little suspicious to me, but not totally out of the ordinary - finding quality contractors to recommend to policyholders is always tricky.

She launched into her spiel about how they’re looking for only the top quality contractors in my area, how they were impressed with my online presence, and being a part of their exclusive handbook would only cost me “starting at $48 per week”.

This phrase made me suspicious so I asked her. Are you really calling from farmers insurance or are you a third-party advertising company?

“We’re from Skyways Media but we work very closely with reputable companies like farmers insurance”.

Smooth. She was really pushy about scheduling an in person meeting with me, “ to weed out the un serious unprofessional contractors, because we’ve had a lot of no-shows”

Now, why would a contractor, who is in the business of feast or famine, ever think about not showing up to a meeting with a huge company that provides a healthy source of revenue for him?

All of those red flags together made it pretty clear to me that this was just another advertising pitch, but I always have a skeptical part in my brain that tells me just do it. What do you have to lose? Maybe this will turn out to be the opportunity of a lifetime? Maybe you just misunderstood and this really is farmers insurance?

So I took the bait and scheduled a meeting for the next day. The day of the meeting I woke up with a very peculiar feeling. I had already seen two missed calls from their office probably to confirm that I’m still arriving. What kind of legitimate company simps so hard for contractors to come and take referrals?

A few minutes later, I got a phone call from a real actual client, and plan to meet him, so of course I didn’t come to the meeting with “farmers insurance”.

10 minutes after our scheduled meeting time I get a phone call from a British gentleman reminding me that I’m late for our meeting. I didn’t want to be immediately confrontational so I played it dumb, saying “ oh sorry I thought our meeting was for Friday my bad”. He immediately admonished me in that special polite way that only British people know how to do, it was quite amusing, especially since I am an Anglophile.

I thought that was the end, but he then sends me an email telling me how disappointed he was in me and how unprofessional I am and how he had booked a conference room, especially for me, and that I’m pretty much a horrible human being for not showing up to this meeting.

I was a little taken aback by this email, because it was very whiny and petty and frankly, I’ve never seen anything like it since I was maybe a seventh grader.

Since I’m self-employed and have been for the past 10 years, I’m not very good at corporate speak. I say what I mean and mean what I say - with my clients, my subcontractors and everyone I do business with. Transparency and truthfulness are my North star. So I made it very clear to him that he’s a disingenuous hack who misrepresented himself as a large company in order to pray on the insecurities of small contractors. Pretty much like every single advertising company out there.

Sorry for the rant, but this guy pissed me off and people need to be aware of these fraudulent hacks

Remove if needed.

Hello, I’m recruiting for several roles in Mesa for a bore osp construction crew.

Apply at Congruex.com/careers
And Dm me if interested

$18- 35 : Traffic control flagged, technician, supervisor and designer.
$25- 35 Fiber splicers
$22-35 CDL operator and laborers

Full benefits. Pto. 401k. Short and long term disability paid by the company.
Must clear BG check, urine drug screen, MVR

Just thought I'd get input from the Internet. Saw this trench and excavation. Personally it doesn't like 1:1, but curious for more experienced opinions. Hard to tell from a picture, but I thought by that excavator the road exposed looked like 6'. Excavation seems more (someone on site said about 10') that makes 5 down to 3 over aka, not 1:1.

Curious other people's views.

(I mentioned it to a safety person who then measured a ladder to say the ladder was 1:1... Can't see from these photos, but a previous day the ladder did not appear to be half buried in the slope so... Not sure what that tells me)

G’day ladies and gents,

Kiwi here, not sure if this is the right sub, but I’m after some recommendations for a decent headset for work.

I work in civil drainage/construction, so I’m right next to heavy machinery for most of the day. We use RTs, and I’m looking for something with good audio quality, comfort for long shifts, and ideally the ability to communicate clearly while working in a noisy environment.

I don’t mind wearing over-ear headsets or ear defenders, and I’m happy to spend a bit more if the quality is there.

I keep coming across Peltor ComTac headsets.
My thinking is that if they’re widely used by the military, they must be pretty well-designed for harsh environments and communication in noisy conditions. However, I’m not sure whether they’re actually the best option for civilian construction work, especially when it comes to compatibility, practicality, and price.

Are there any go-to recommendations from people working in similar environments? Would something like the ComTacs be worth looking into, or are there better options specifically designed for industrial use?

Cheers for any advice!

^OC https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dehwauox44W/

I'm just starting out and was thinking about trying out Checkatrade to bring more work in.

Has anyone got any experience with it?

I also saw they dont put your real number on the site so how does that work if someone phones or texts it?

We’re currently renovating an 1890 house in Toronto and have reached the landscaping stage. We’re planning to clad the concrete front steps and landing in natural black granite, with the landing stone installed on a mortar bed.

The tricky part is the strip directly in front of the doors that’s covered in Blueskin in the photos. That section is wood-framed with plywood sheathing and forms the roof over part of the basement below. It’s part of the house’s existing construction, and the concrete landing meets it just ahead of the entrances.

We installed the Blueskin early in construction, and it has held up well. We haven’t had any water entering the basement through this area over the past year.

Before covering everything with stone, we want to figure out the best long-term waterproofing approach, particularly given Toronto’s winters.

Height is another constraint: there’s only about 3 inches between the existing landing surface and the door sill, so there’s limited room for the waterproofing, mortar, and granite.

Looking for input from anyone who has dealt with a similar setup:

• What waterproofing system and layer buildup would you use over the plywood beneath the mortar and granite, given the limited height?
• Would you remove the existing Blueskin and start fresh, or could it be incorporated into a suitable system?
• How would you detail the transition between the wood section and concrete, including any movement between them?
• How would you handle flashing at the brick walls and door thresholds, along with drainage beneath the stone?

We know it’s an awkward existing detail, so we’re open to adjusting the installation approach before the stone goes down. Any experience with similar projects, recommended systems, or detail drawings would be appreciated.

I saw an ad saying they can build a professional website for just $995? is that price reasonable?

Work for a small company of maybe 12 ppl. We travel site to site daily so we're rarely at the same place, but our boss gives us an exact pin/location and time to meet at the night before so everyone has a chance to spend the 15 seconds it takes to check Google Maps and see how long it takes to get there on time.

I directly work with one guy who's about 10-15 minutes late every day, and if we ever need support/extra workers, they tend to show up 30min to an hour late. Worst part is my boss won't do anything about, and as a supervisor, it straight kneecaps our ability to start or end on time. Even better, then they bitch if we don't get out at our regular time.

I've brought it up to my boss (he's the owner) multiple times, but his excuse is hard to find any help, let alone good help, so I think he's afraid to start docking pay/sending people home.

Anyone have a strategy for dealing with this? Do I just start showing up even later than they do and cut into my personal time as well? Do I just suck it up and deal with being the only on time person?

I'm not saying it's impossible for me to get fired, but I've yet to see any repercussion (been like this for at least a year)...and there's no way my boss could take over my job without losing a lot of money or his sanity. We've been trying to find another person to double my job bc demand is sky high for the past 3 years but haven't found a single candidate that's worth it.

Any advice welcome, including calling me a lil bitch if I'm being one.

Edit: ok to make it clear, even though it shouldn't matter, we're on salary (meaning everyone in the company). My gripe is not being able to finish work in the allotted 8 hours because people constantly show up late and put everyone behind and it's eating up my personal life. I don't believe in working overtime unless it's absolutely necessary, work should be a part of your life, not the whole of it. When we die no one will say "whoa that dude worked 70 hours a week and died early from it, he's such a bad ass". NO ONE

And I was pro union until today. every one of y'all trying to compare how I'm compensated & my hours to what you guys do is apples to oranges. I've watched so many of you walk off job sites for multiple hilariously miniscule reasons, so don't act like you're some beacon of morality & the smartest guys out there, bc you're fucking idiots like the rest of us.

Looking for a very bright laser measuring tool. Something handheld maybe even pocket worthy.
I do a lot of measurements in day light and my laser can’t get a reading consistently.
Hopefully someone has a great recommendation on a bright laser measuring tool.

I work for a national corporate Fire Protection company in the bay area, California. they bought out the previous conpany and I was hired on after the buyout.

They are paying 10+ year incredibly hard working and FAST journeymen $40~ dollars less than union wages. Journeyman wages in my area are $79/hour. My foreman is 63 years old, limping around for 45$ an hour. The journeymen make between 33 and 38.

After apprentices in this company graduate, they have a choice. Take the "foreman package" and keep the wage that you're at, roughly 45 dollars an hour give or take how much they like you.

Or don't become a foreman, and your wage is cut 10-15 dollars. They actually reduce your pay, on the spot, from 45 dollars to 35 dollars. Oh, and not all foreman get a truck or other perks that come with seniority and responsibility. You have to "earn your stripes".

This is why unions matter. The CAFSA program, our non union state mandated schooling dictates we are paid a certain % of journeyman wages. But because its a privately owned company, they dictate journeyman wages. So to comply with the school, the journeyman wage is actually foreman wage. Hence cutting wages after graduation.

The CAFSA program also punishes apprentices and companies by not allowing us to be "poached". Simply put, we are not allowed to apply to other jobs, and companies are not allowed to hire working apprentices. This would work if the pay disparity between one company to another for apprentices was minimal. My classmates make significantly more money than I do. So because this company is now owned by a massive billion dollar corp, they take any apprentice out of work and lock them down. Dont like it? Quit. Well, quitting not only causes the apprentice to lose "action points" but the porgram is inept at finding an out of work apprentice a job.

My area has 3 national fire protection companies buying all the little guys. Some have integrity and keep wages respectable. Some, like this one completely fuck the fitters so that the top of the company and shareholders can rake in large six figure salaries and five to six figure bonuses while the state mandated school refuses to do anything for apprentices because "we cant dictate what they pay you"

It's completely broken. Trust me, before you say anything, I'm getting the fuck out of this shit hole company but I will tell everyone on the way that allowing state and federal governments to gut unions has allowed for a 63 year old overweight man to limp around all day for 40 dollars less than the average wage with no hope of retiring.

Update/Edit: got home today to a piece of mail regarding a class action lawsuit of the branch before Pye Barker bought them out. Apparently for unpaid wages among other things. They're settling out of court to the tune of $650,000 dollars, to which I get a small part amounting to a few days of work. I'm very interested to see if they will carry on with their current business practices. I assume they will continue in their ways, however, every single person in the company got this same piece of mail. I'm no lawyer, but i'm sure people are thinking "Wait, can I do this too?"

Not sure how to proceed from here. Bid a job last year and was awarded the contract by the GC. Fast forward to now and we just got started on the project. I've already found massive misses from my estimator and the more I delve into it, the more I find. Not really sure what to do. If we do the job I'm going to come out of pocket to finish to the tune of tens of thousands and it's only a 200k contract. Should have been 300k or over. If I just walk I'm pretty sure I'm Going to get sued for the difference by the GC. They had to have known my number was way too low. Any ideas on what to do here? For context I am a painting contractor and we missed a bunch of fly ash on the exterior and Azek trim on the job.

I've been asked by the customer to do some protective work on this beam. The I-beam is rusting on the top, as shown in the picture.

How would you go about cleaning this up and slowing down future rust.

So far I've started scraping it and a wire brush on a drill. It's not all as bad as it is in the picture.

Thanks.

Like the title says I’m looking for some real life examples verbal or pictures are fine. I’m gonna be starting this deck rebuild soon and im a little nervous about the shoring situation. I am tearing down this old deck everything except the roof is going, including the roof support beam. I have a solid plan in My head to safely support the roof while I rebuild the deck, but my experience is limited to replacing carry beams in basements or replacing rotted sils. Having to support a roof 16 feet up is a very different thing. How would you guys handle this ?

I recently had an interview for what seemed like a great job in construction. 60 hours a week at $25/hr. The guy I interviewed with seemed to like me, and I straight up asked him if my basic construction experience would be good enough, because obviously that seems way too good to be true. To my surprise he said I was good on experience and from what he described it would be a very easy job. We shook hands and I felt like I left on a good note.

I still didn't get the job. Maybe he lied about my experience being good enough, but I think it's time for me to work on my interview skills. I see people on Fiver saying they can help with interviews, but I see no reason to assume they know what they are talking about. Is there a credible source I can go to for help with construction interviews?

Why is it the loudest music is the shittiest music. I have bone conductive headphones and the drywallers music in the other room is louder than my music.