Just build it or wait for the drawing?

Ya starting tu sound like Ally mcoist. Chill out mate. I ment ring the client.
 
haha, I'm not that bad am I? Looks like no option, I will call him might just nip down and boot him in the stones if I get any lip.:laugh:
 
haha, you are bang on Markus, years at the helm have turned me into a sh1te bag. The job we got pissed about on was one that was meant to be struck last week but cancelled till this. No fail was the instruction it would just need to come down come hell or high water but when the boys got there which included an overnight stay and plenty travel they were told to kick their heels and maybe take down bits here and there. It doesn't seem that long ago I would have steel and bodies flung all over the job and had it down anyway. Must be getting old.:(
 
haha, you are bang on Markus, years at the helm have turned me into a sh1te bag. The job we got pissed about on was one that was meant to be struck last week but cancelled till this. No fail was the instruction it would just need to come down come hell or high water but when the boys got there which included an overnight stay and plenty travel they were told to kick their heels and maybe take down bits here and there. It doesn't seem that long ago I would have steel and bodies flung all over the job and had it down anyway. Must be getting old.:(

becoming wise instead of being rough my friend
 
Probably, not the first time I have done it but it was easier back then when there were not so many wages depending on it.
 
This whole bloody system is backwards. The customer should deal with the designers and get one sent out, then get scaffold firms to price according to the drawing. Then we wouldn't have situations like this!!!

Have you ever met a customer that knew what he wanted?
Scaffold Designers/Engineers are part of your business not theirs and with the ever changing regs they will be busy for the foreseeable future.
 
Your right Alan, a customer that knows what he wants is as scarce as hens teeth. I have another on the go, one of these rare occasions when the client has offered to pay for a design before seeing a price for scaffold, but the brief I got was "We are not entirely sure how we need it built as we are not entirely sure what we are going to do". The designer I asked to do it for me has now booked a two week holiday to recover. :laugh:

We are now very inextricably linked but I agree with Flinty, I think there should be a design done by the client just as it is when they are building something, would you not agree.
 
Your right Alan, a customer that knows what he wants is as scarce as hens teeth. I have another on the go, one of these rare occasions when the client has offered to pay for a design before seeing a price for scaffold, but the brief I got was "We are not entirely sure how we need it built as we are not entirely sure what we are going to do". The designer I asked to do it for me has now booked a two week holiday to recover. :laugh:

We are now very inextricably linked but I agree with Flinty, I think there should be a design done by the client just as it is when they are building something, would you not agree.

Engineers were discribed in the early 70's by a man called David Flood (SGB MD) as a necessary evil. Was he ahead of his time?

You cant live with them you cant live without them.
That said I think it would be great if the MC were to comission a design for the scaffold from which all could quote.
I see several problems with that, not the least of which is accountability for said design and erection.

Hand on heart I think you are better off having the designer working to achieve what you want to build as opposed to what an uninformed MC wants his job to look like.
 
Have you ever met a customer that knew what he wanted?
Scaffold Designers/Engineers are part of your business not theirs and with the ever changing regs they will be busy for the foreseeable future.

A good point as always Alan, are you implying customers don't know what they're on about :blink1: I don't see how a good manager who knows what work is to be carried out, alongside a good designer couldn't come up with a drawing pre-work, to show scaffolding contractors what the intended work is. Companies can then go drawing cost= £x, adaptations = £x etc etc....

I'm not saying we shouldn't have designers at all, but it seems odd that drawings are done for every conceivable work carried out on a job which are then handed to the tradesmen, but for scaffolding the contractor must supply a drawing, and 95% it seems to be in an unrealistic time period.
 
A good point as always Alan, are you implying customers don't know what they're on about :blink1: I don't see how a good manager who knows what work is to be carried out, alongside a good designer couldn't come up with a drawing pre-work, to show scaffolding contractors what the intended work is. Companies can then go drawing cost= £x, adaptations = £x etc etc....

I'm not saying we shouldn't have designers at all, but it seems odd that drawings are done for every conceivable work carried out on a job which are then handed to the tradesmen, but for scaffolding the contractor must supply a drawing, and 95% it seems to be in an unrealistic time period.

I'll be honest with you Flinty, I have been at this game for a couple of weeks now and have yet to meet a site manager who has the first clue about scaffolding or what it takes to put it where it's needed to do what is needed.
That does not make them bad just not scaffolding literate.
A Good Designer given half a chance will however give you a reasonable understanding of what you can and cannt achieve.

The scaffolding trade using Tube & Fitt as we know it is around 100 years old and there has always been a requirement for Design Engineers or the industry would not have advanced to the level it is now.

I think it is easy to fool oneself into thinking you can throw up most things but I am sure it is going up from stuff has has been designed at some level in days gone by.

As for time scales, you have to look at the numbers of designers now verses the volume of work. In the 70's I can remember SGB had 32 Designers working for them. There were several other big players who all had Design staff ALL of which have now let them go. There may be as few as 50 Scaffolding Engineers now to cover the whole country.
It is not the Engineers?Designers that create the volume or the delays, The volume comes from the regs and the delay folows the volume
Stay Well Flinty
 
Engineers were discribed in the early 70's by a man called David Flood (SGB MD) as a necessary evil. Was he ahead of his time?

You cant live with them you cant live without them.
That said I think it would be great if the MC were to comission a design for the scaffold from which all could quote.
I see several problems with that, not the least of which is accountability for said design and erection.

Hand on heart I think you are better off having the designer working to achieve what you want to build as opposed to what an uninformed MC wants his job to look like.

Certainly don't want to labour the point Alan, (but will anyway;)) there are arguments for the status quo but I for one am always pleasantly surprised when the client can produce a drawing for a few different reasons but mostly it means they have thought about what they need and how to achieve it so the likelihood of any fall out or misunderstanding is greatly reduced. I could list a host of down sides as well I suppose and maybe it's the scaffs just being lazy trying to back heel additional responsibility, but I doubt it.
 
it come threw yet marra or you wanting me to knock you 1 up on paint free of charge,fek the bus mans holiday i can be you in house designer.... design with colours :laugh:
 
I think the problem is we are often pricing blind and trying to second guess what a design engineer is going to design , so why cant the main contractor get a design engineer to draw and design what is required then we could all price on a level playing field , i cant think of any other trade thats not given drawings to tender from .
 
Got it this morning, the guy is a bit pushed at the moment as he is heading off on holiday tomorrow. I could have went and kicked the job off but the drawing has a couple of tweaks required so will wait for the final thing to come through in the morning. It's a pretty basic job but both gables are to be spanned over lower roofs about 12m and the ownwers wanted to know how much weight was going on their roof, I reckoned about 15 stone would do it.:noworry:

---------- Post added at 08:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:06 PM ----------

I think the problem is we are often pricing blind and trying to second guess what a design engineer is going to design , so why cant the main contractor get a design engineer to draw and design what is required then we could all price on a level playing field , i cant think of any other trade thats not given drawings to tender from .

It seems to work well in other trades Phil and they are always telling us we should embrace change.
 
Got it this morning, the guy is a bit pushed at the moment as he is heading off on holiday tomorrow. I could have went and kicked the job off but the drawing has a couple of tweaks required so will wait for the final thing to come through in the morning. It's a pretty basic job but both gables are to be spanned over lower roofs about 12m and the ownwers wanted to know how much weight was going on their roof, I reckoned about 15 stone would do it.:noworry:

15 stone have you set somebody on ya fat git.:nuts::nuts::D
 
Nah, have to go for a wee procedure at the local hospital and steped on the scales, FFS I must still be carrying a bit of christmas weight.:embarrest::laugh:
 
why did ya topple 24 stone then on the scales.
 
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