Midwest here, sleepy town USA – during lunch today – (doing a kitchen remodel, truck unlocked with door open) – and I brought up the question (we had no answer):
How do kitchens, baths, etc get remodeled in, say, downtown New York or Chicago??
How do you get the materials & tools up several floors – where do you park – how does it happen??? What are the problems and how do you overcome them. I know they have all these things figured out and somebody does it – could somebody that does please describe how? I can’t imagine it and I’m truly curious…..
Replies
I worked about about 4 weeks this summer in Boston on the 5th highest grossing retail street on the planet- Newbury Street. It's about 12 blocks of old brownstones in the heart of downtown Boston- all art galleries,hair salons, resturaunts and bars and clothing stores. What a trip- I'm also used to the burbs, this was the extreme! Firstly, only because it's all retail you could get a spot in front if you're in by 8:30- no problem. But then feed the meter every 2 hours, try to ignore the parade of model types strutting by all day, lock the door to turn around because you never know when the next crackpot is going to stick his head in to "inquire about laboring jobs that may be available", the trash builds up but you have to limit the callls to get it picked up, the 2 parking spaces out back become a fight with others who claim their mother's uncle owns them... it was definetly a trip. Fun for awhile, like sensory overload, then it all just becomes a grind.
So just missing your parking spot might mess up your whole day's production? And I was a little "irked" that I am having to walk around their car in the driveway while they're on vacation (ha).
byrnsie,
Sounds like you might be a good Irishman. I read this thread and could'nt have added too much,,,, been there, done that. Your reply, I could have wrote, but not added to,,,,,,,, I grew up on the 495 belt w of town. In the mid 80s, a somewhat younger me takes a job remodeling in the Back Bay. First job on Newbury St. Way too much eye candy, no parking ect ect. What a rush though for a man in his early 20s. And after a few weeks, what a grind.
We were doing really high end work, the guys I was working w were real talented and the pay was OK, so in the end it was an experience in never regretted.
I have not lived in MA for 15 years now,,,, miss the place and often wish I had never left. Having had a few years to check around a few places, I reckon some of the best tradesman in the world live in that area. Glad I grew up there!!
Thanks Inperf.-
I'll be 40 this year and trust me you can't help but look! On the day the super decided he wanted to rip out the rot on the 2nd level storefront, I watched as the breeze pushed rot particles to the neighboring bistro's perfectly set tables. The white table clothes and plates began to be peppered by our floating debris. The super went to the hardware store across the street and we quickly assembled a blue tarp tent. Once complete, the crew began to work again inside our new blue bubble, I never saw so much work get done there- I think the entire crew forgot where they were!
"It's all about logistics", we do interior renovations and the occaisional roof deck primarily in Park Slope, Brooklyn and sometimes Manhattan.
NYC alternate side of the street parking, i.e. "No parking this side of street Mondays 8am- 11am" (times/days change every few blocks) this is your best deal; you double park, put your cell # in the windshield(in casethe person you blocked in needs to get out) , and move your truck into a legal spot at 10:40, sit in the truck til 11:00 and make calls. If you need the truck on non alternate side days, sometimes you get lucky (once a month), sometimes you put it at a meter $2 for 2 hours then you have to find another spot. Sometimes you can find a lot that takes trucks $12 to $45/day. Sometimes you find an alternate street 3 or 4 blocks away and lose more time running back and forth. Oh the fine for double parking is $105 and $55 for not moving on alternate days (sometimes this is your best value). In Manhattan, a lot is usually your best alternative.
Buildings 5 floors or more have elevators, 4 or less(pre-war) and private homes are usually walk ups. Everything gets carried up forget the 12' sheets of drywall.
Doing a bath in a Pre-war building? Figure on replacing some floor joists.
Replacing basement stairs in a Brownstone? Scratch your head for two hours and come to the conclusion that there is no way build to modern code for under $5k, and that 8" CI soil line will be part of the stair.
A good network of trash guys is indespensible, unless you fill that dumpster to the top in 1 day, it will be full the next morning. They take cash only.
Make holes before you bid, the shower stall we ripped out yesterday had 3" of mortar over an inch of plaster and wire lath. That equals 35 bags of rubble, thank God it's an elevator building. Everything is rotten including the joists, subfloor is gone- basically the lead pan mortared intoto the walls was the only support.
I degress...
I have to catch my train, more tonight if you are interested.
The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.
- Fyodor Dostoyevski
It seems like the city part is a complete "trade" in itself that would have to be learned and figured in - I'm intrigued with these things plus not at all tempted to "go there". Yes I would like to here more & pretty sure there is....
I worked in Manhattan for 25 years and sometimes it was hell. You have to tip the super 5 or 6 hundred a month, tip the doorman and the elevator operator and the people behind the reception area. If you don't the job will really be hell. In some building you can only work 10 to 4 but you still have that wonderful bumper to bumper 3 hour commute,for a 24 mile round trip. If you forget something, expect to pay 4 times the price of your lumber yard. If you are working in the center of the city-midtown,like 57 st you need to hire a kid just to park the van. 3 hours to drive and walk 7 blocks at rush hour. The best thing I ever did was leave NYC.
This seems like a visit to another planet to me - but it's a whole lot better than what's on TV reading these!I'm afraid I'm going to make you guys mad if I tell you how easy my life is. 6 my wife brings me coffee in bed. I start planning my war. At 7:30 she starts my truck (diesel) and I start to work at 7:50 (don't want to be late), go maybe 12 to 15 blocks to work (about all our work is here in town). The garbage guys accomodate us for free. I can get delivery within 15 minutes. The bad side around here is it's not "one stop shopping" (no Home Depot or Lowes or anything - you order anything out of the ordinary). It's typical to get the key to the house while the customer is on their way out the door - sometimes having just met. We don't tip anybody anything. I knew we had it good, just not how good.
I left the city 4 years ago, built myself a nice shop,a great reputation and a very loyal customer base. I do finish work and very high end furniture in Williamstown,MA. I drive to work on quiet little roads looking at ponds and farms and endless forest. I worked for millionaires in the city and I am now living 10 times better than them.
Sounds wonderful, Woodman.
You're about 4 years ahead of me. My wife and I just left the rat race of South Florida and bought a 1902 victorian (HUD repo in real rough shape) up here in Dakota.
Hope to have a similarly successful trim/restoration/high-end furniture business going out here in a few years... (wife needs the home place 90% or so first...)
just curious, got a web site? I'd love to see your work.
I am going to have my brother make one up for me soon. I have to learn how to post pictures here. I am pretty good with a camera and would like to show some of my work.A little luck certainly can help a new business get off of the ground.I was driving through a upscale little town and saw 3 eight year old girls selling lemonade on a very hot day. I bought a couple of cups and was telling them what a great carpenter/cabinet builder I was. They looked at me kind of bewildered, I guess they never heard of mortise and tenon joinery. I gave them a 50 cent tip and told them to give my card to their parents if they needed any work. Two weeks later I get a call from a women describing herself as the mother of the lemonade kids. I was working 7 days a week after that. NEVER pass a kids lemonade stand without leaving your card.
Woodman, that's a great story. Thanks for the advice, I wouldn't dream of passing up kids showing entrepreneurial initiative either (especially when there seems to be so little of it these days)... but now I'll be sure leave them a card when I buy that lemonade!
This is a GREAT thread... I've really enjoyed it, and I don't want to get off topic... maybe we should start a new one...
In 1993 I moved my family from rural Iowa to Brooklyn (Park Slope area) to put my handicap son in a special school for 5 months. I did alittle work for somebody I meet at church. He lived close to downtown Brooklyn (it was all downtown to me) and I had to park about 5 blocks away in a corner lot and pay $20. I put all my tools in a old lady grocery cart and pushed them to the job site. You didn't want to leave your saw out front while you carried the board inside, too much sidewalk traffic of a questionable nature.
I didn't know my way around very well and finding a good lumberyard or hardware store was difficult. I found a lumber yard close by that just carried lumber. When I asked for carriage bolts and varnish thay looked at me like I was crazy. You'll have to go to the hardware store for that. The hardware store were right out of the 1950's with bare hardwood floors and an narrow winding path thru the merchandise. I asked for wing nuts. Sure the guy said, then he got out this tupperware tub and dumped it on the counter and started sorting thru the misc. nuts and bolts.
The best hardware store had everything, but you had to stand behind a gate and tell an attendant what you wanted and the he would go to the back and get it for you.
I found and tried 5 or 6 lumberyards and I always walked away thinking that even the smallest towns in Iowa have a better lumberyards than this. While I was there I never found the Home Depot (I heard one was there) and no Walmarts. Even getting a cup of coffee wasn't easy, no place to park. They don't know what a convience store is. I felt like NY was the physical manifestation of inconvience.
We made one phone call (from Iowa) to find and apartment. Got an Italian guy. He said sure, come out and we'll hold the place for you. We drove out with a U-haul in tow and the apartment was waiting for us along with bread, milk and other food from the landlord. Our crabby neighbor on the other side would come over and say "Richie you gotta move your car, or you'll get a ticket". The people were great, they really looked out for us and took care of us. I'm sure we stuck out like a sore thumb, all white, blond haired and gawking at the big buildings. I was a good experience, but I'm glad I don't live there.
I like working in Iowa where you drive into the lumber yard, pick up what you need, then go to the front and tell them what you picked up. Even if you've never shopped there before. Most customers leave the door unlocked for us. Some don't even remember where their key is.
I did a quick look at your post and saw, Iowa, and Brooklyn and thought, Oh, Brooklyn, Iowa, whats this guy have to say about big city life!
I dont know if you've ever been there, if so you'd see the humor!
Doug
Never been to Brooklyn Iowa. I've driven by it on I-80. I've worked in dozens like it I'm sure. I grew up in a small town of 900. Brooklyn Iowa is the hometown of an Iwo Jima hero that I have read about, but right now I can't remember his name.
It seems a only a small percentage of the job ends up being the actual "work". So much is ate up in transporting, parking, traffic, neighbor obstacles, building inspector?You must develop a different frame of mind in this work environment. I'm trying to imagine it and.....it's hard to imagine. I suppose you become "superplanners" waiting for the "work window" - 10 to 4 or whatever - such that you really make that pay, everything pre-thought out? Or does it all lead to "super-tension"?
Fonzie, that kinda 'superplanning' stuff goes on elsewhere as well. I've never worked in the big city either, but worked for a couple of years on a VERY exclusive private island in South Florida.
No bridges, everything on and off the island by boat. (25 min. from dock to dock, an additional 45 min. from the mainland to the Depot or a decent hardware store, so there was no getting re-supplied until the next morning). There was a barge service, but it was very pricey, so everything came across with the crew in our skiffs. (It was no joy humping a Sub-Zero off a rolling skiff onto a rickety dock at low tide!)
No internal combustion engines on the island (golf carts only).
It doesn't get really cold in FL, but on a winter morning in the 40s with a headwind out of the north, you were soaked and shivering by the time you arrived. I used to wear just my skivvies and a rainsuit across, with dry clothes in my toolbags.
Watched a Granite sub break three different countertops at the sink cut out trying to make the passage in rough weather...
Pay was low, boss was a moron, but I loved every minute of it... best commute I ever made!
Great thread. I've been wondering about this, too.
"All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone." Pascal
I've worked on a few high rises in downtown Pittsburgh. Luckily, the city isn't near as busy as New York or the other big cities. Most buildings have alleys behind were they have a few spaces "reserved" for parking work trucks.
The hardest part is the hauling of materials/tools up the elevator(if you're lucky). I have a cart I made with 4 casters, and it fits in most elevators. Some supers will give you a key to the elevator, so you can lock the door open. If you don't have a key, it's a race to keep the elevator. If you turn your back for a second too long, your load can be lost for 10-15 minutes, while you wait for the elevator to return.
Hauling garbage, and shutting the water off is the biggest pain in the butt. Most buildings here you have to shut down an entire run. Which could mean as many as 6 or more apartments. Of course, you have to post notice 24-48 hrs in advance. Don't break a supply line.
I always have at least one helper when I do high rise work, and make sure we have 2 ways on at all times. It sucks when you send the helper to the truck for something, and realize 2 minutes later you need something else.
---------------------
Swimming through the ashes of another life, no real reason to accept the way things have changed. Wrapped in guilt, sealed up tight.
A few times I could not get the water shut off at all, then you have to change the valves with the pressure on. That's exciting plumbing!
How do you do that? Compression fittings? I'm glad I'm not a plumber.---------------------
Swimming through the ashes of another life, no real reason to accept the way things have changed. Wrapped in guilt, sealed up tight.
I never had the need or the nerve to change valves on sweated pipe, only tried this with treaded valves and pipe. Usually I am going from old gate valves to new ball valves. I attach a long speedy hose to the new ball valve and have it go in to a joint compound bucket through a small hole in the lid.Unsrew the old valve as far as you can, with out it popping off. Then tape the exposed threads on the old pipe. Unscrew the old valve and IMMEDIATELY screw on the new valve. All the water pressure goes into the hose even after 1 turn,so you don't get much splashing. The hose can whip around all it wants inside the bucket and not soak the place. Do the cold water first as practice you DO NOT want to mess up doing the hot water line. Also never panic and run screaming out of the room,it does not look good to the customer.
Also never panic and run screaming out of the room,it does not look good to the customer.
Ala the Three Stooges!
Man thats funny
Ha, I bet you guys change elements on waterheaters without draining them too.
I live and do a lot of work in Boston's North End. If you don't know about the North End, it is like a little italy in the oldest section of the city. Just about every building is a pre-20th century 4 story walk up. Most of the work done on these buildings are gut jobs and then more condos .Many of the buildings have staircases that are non negotiable with any type of sheet goods, let alone a bag of groceries. Deliveries of materials are made with boom trucks that will lift the material to a window where the guys will then slip them through.
Everything that you do requireds a police detail and a closed road because they are so narrow that people can't get around. Not to mention that you have to tell the lumber delivery guys to take the "short truck" because otherwise they will be doing a 30 point turn in at least two places.
Sometimes the trucks go down a street only to find that they are unable to make the turn at the end and then there are 20 cars stuck behind him. Then you need to call the cops and they need to back the cars out one buy one.
Not to mention the amount of times I have seen cars get clipped or sideswiped.
Then you've got the abutting neighbors who grew up in the buildings next door and look at you like your some punk for coming around and fixing a building up and actually relieving a fire hazerd. Oh, so sorry to come over here and install a new electrical service and a sprinkler system and security cameras. I'm sure the old service panel that was held together with shoelaces was just fine.
The zoning variances are a nightmare
Building permits cost "a little extra" wink wink
If you don't take care of people as someone else mentioned your life will be made very difficult.
The sprinkler guy had all 4 tires slashed on his van a month ago. I felt awful
The carpenters had all their tools stolen two months ago. again I felt awful
Logistical Nightmare.
I often look at pictures posted on this site of construction sites where there is just flat land all around the site and not another sturcture to be seen. The thought of working in that type of environment boggles my mind.
Didn't realize what a logistical nightmare Boston was. I almost bought a 4-story brownstone backed up to Newbury Street in the Back Bay section. I think it was near Dartmouth St. Anyway, this was ten years ago, it was gutted and apparently foreclosed on, as it sat vacant and "For Sale" for a couple of years. Should have, could have, didn't. I couldn't see myself trying to contract that kind of a job when I'm used to rural Vermont. The building sold and was turned into your typical Back Bay boutique with a luxury walk-up.
I don't envy you. Although living in the North End has to be fun. I've always tried to make that area a destination while in Boston, if only for the food and atmosphere.
To add to the other posts regarding NYC work,
Get used to 4'x6' SR (we sometimes rode larger sheets up ontop of an elevator - not OSHA approved.
Rubbish removal is a major logistic to perfect. Lots of mini containers, that need a space on the street reserved for them so the garbage truck can get to them. Temp protection is very important, use lots of masonite and cover everything.
Security, need someone there all the time and you can't leave anything unlocked anytime.
Transportation, sometimes it's easier and cheaper to just pay the tickets than deal with parking. Many carpenters/labores take the train (subway)with tool chests on wheels. I used to ride a bike to a jobsite with my tool belt slung over my shoulder.
Limited work hours in many co-ops 10-4 and no weekends, no dust, no noise, you got to be creative and innovative. There are contractors that make mock-ups of apts. off site and prefab alot off the job, then do a major install on site. Desert Storm like stealthness.
Clients can be extremely demanding. You can be working for some very rich and powerful people who think they live in a different world than you. On the other hand some will pay outrageous sums of money.
Worked on a 5 story brownstone renovation, client wanted the elevator slightly larger after it was in. Another guy wanted original plaster mouldings. Found these guys in Argentina who came up, lived on the jobsite and pulled all the crown mouldings with handmade knives.
If your non-union on a large enough project, expect the big inflatable rat out front and expect your truck windows to be broken from union goons.
Tip doorman, supers, freight elevator operators, etc.
Had a rooftop deck job once where material was to be boomed up on the roof, in this case it required a street closure permit $2000, Had the material scheduled for Sat. 7am, tipped the driver $100 right away and told him to get the stuff on the roof ASAP. Took less than 20 minutes.
Sometimes get material from a Hasidic (Jewish Orthodox) lumber store, open on Sundays, guys with hairlocks and yarmulkes whipping SR around with their boom trucks.
Is it a pain sometime, sure, but ask most NYers if they would want to live or work anywhere else and they would look at you like you were crazy. And at the end of the day, the customer pays for it all, I won't even get into what things cost. Contractors can do very well for themselves despite the fact that there is alot of cheap competition from immigrants.
Only in New York
"Only in New York"I don't know...sounds pretty damn close to what we have to do around here. It's kind of a rush at times isn't it? Managing these types of projects is like nothing else.BTW, I think Johnny Damon will make a great Yankee!
Just an expression. I've heard Boston is similar too. I thought the Sox learned after Babe Ruth.<g>
What is the "big inflatable rat"?
Apparently, unions will put these things up in front of construction sites using non-union labor. Not very subtle, is it?
View Image
"Apparently, unions will put these things up in front of construction sites using non-union labor. Not very subtle, is it?" (Stuart)This is another problem I thankfully don't have - unions. Non-union is the strong sediment here in this area - no rat worry.
Fonzie, some of what has been stated here are worse case scenarios. Not every job is in a strict Co-Op bldg. (though many bldgs are becoming that). Alot of jobs can are 7 to 6 or whatever. Manhattan is an island with several bridges and tunnels, so that is one of the main reasons for traffic in and out of the city. As I mentioned before, the customer is the one footing the bill.
Cas in point, I just completed a house in eastern Long Island (rural area)though very pricey (The Hamptons)and the electrical contract for the whole house was $15K, a friends 600sf studio apt. is costing him $10K.
Good point about union jobs. Reminds me back twenty something years ago working in Manhattan as lighting installer, union buildings where nothing goes inside unless moved by union porters, nobody works inside without union card. Needed to do an install there and the only way I got in was to pack my tools into cardboard lighting fixture boxes, have them delivered and hauled in by union porters, then walk in to site as a customer. Did the job behind closed doors (including a frantic wiring effort during lunch, the only time circuit breakers could be turned off without raising suspicion), repacked the tools, had them returned to lighting store as a "product return", and nobody was the wiser. Still have some of those boxes from that job lying around, now filled with junk.
Only in New York.
Rich.
Good story Rich,
I've heard and done similar. In fact a friend just got a studio apt. 600sf for $300K in the village, which is a deal BTW. CO-OP rules won't let him do any work, have to be licensed and insured, so he is going to pack all materials and tools in boxes and sneak it in like a Trojan Horse.
"Limited work hours in many co-ops 10-4 and no weekends, no dust, no noise, you got to be creative and innovative." (TGNY)(This sounds like the "building of Solomon's temple" where the sound of a hammer was not to be heard.)
On the other hand, my loft is a commercial bldg. and when I renovated I worked around the clock. I also had a lumber store on the ground floor with a freight elevator, couldn't have been easier. I originally worked in an environment much like yours, so it took a little getting used to at first. On the other hand, when you live in NY, you don't have to watch TV, you live it, the rest of the country watches what we live everyday. We tried the suburbs for a year, got bored as hell and came right back to the city.
If you want to cut down on feeding the meter we used to squeeze three mini trucks in two parking spaces, or just put a nickel in the meter( say you had five or six parking spaces taken up), but don't turn the dial. Now you have a nickel in an expired meter just sitting there, when you see the meter maid turn the corner,ready to write tickets, have someone run out and turn the dials on all the meters. I used to park all day on a dime. Put the dime in, turn the dial. Then jam a 16ga finish nail in the coin slot, you have to jam it in just right. (a 2 1/2" senco nail worked perfect) The nail will catch the timer and hold it until the nail is removed. I havn't figured out how to beat the new digital meters yet.
Just a footnote - Our first house was a brick rowhouse in Hoboken , NJ. My DH had a landscape business.
ALL materials went in and out through the house - soil, compost, plants, shrubs, trees, concrete rubble, wheelbarrows...
We used a ton of tarps, plastic trash bags, masonite pathways through the house, etc., along with what everybody else said about parking, guards, payoffs, traffic, ect.
But somehow it was fun. When, a few years later, we moved to upstate New York & started farming, it seemed easy.
All I can say is WOW!!!!!
I thought i had it rough here in San Francisco. I did some work in the downtown area but was able to park right in front of the building by paying the city a measley 150 a month for a "NO PARKING" Construction parking permit, If anyone is in there between 7:30 - 6:00 I can get the tow truck out.
I find myself using this optioin even now if i am going to be on a job for any length of time... and most interior remodels seem to last awhile.
now i find myself working out of the downtown area but the entire city is essencially house on house and not much street parking so we must plan accordingly.
We generally are working in more than one room at a time so tools etc get loaded in and stay untill we do not need them, material can be interesting to get in but we make do.... every now and again we do a job where there is a garage and that is just grand!!! it has become our new onsite workshop.. unless the owners insist on parking in there in which case we set up and break down daily and make space for their rides.
would I go anywhere else? not likely... lived and worked in the LA area, San Diego area, Philadelphia area, New Brunswick NJ, Centeral California Valley ( hated it ) and now here.. I'm not going anywhere.
james
The closest thing I ever had to that was a "load before checkout" ticket I used several times at the lumberyard before they took it away from me. I'm astounded at these prices for parking, closing streets, etc.
Fonzie,
My sister lived for a short time in a very desirable manhatten neighborhood. Just before she moved in, My father and I did some work to her apartment.
I couldn't in any way shape or form get my Full Size truck anywhere near her place so I had to load it all into the family mini-van. I had to park in the garage and pay for the day. Pay really means be shook down by the parking attendant. Then, no workmen entering the building before 8 AM and no work before 9 AM. So, between 8 and 9 AM it was like a herd of cattle. Anyone working in the building that day fighting for space on the one elevator we were allowed to use.
9 AM until 12 noon was all work. Then, none between noon and 1 pm. All workers must be out of the building by 4:45 PM. Six hours was a good day.
Everything came and went on the service elevator that for some reason was about 3/4 the size of the lobby elevators. 8'6" pieces of crown moulding, enough for the whole apartment. It was fun.
We had a bunch of hassles with the building super. We found out that he was running a small company on the side and he didn't want anyone else in his building stealing work. A few veiled threats about knowing who to talk to about him not being licensed and on the up and up and he went away.
Through the whole thing, even though my sister had just taken possesion of a $500K, 800 SQFT apartment in the very building, we had to leave at 4:45 PM every day. No working, taking the tools down and then coming back thru the front lobby for a visit. No way, not a chance.
Funny thing is, My parents live in a much nicer building, in a much nicer corner penthouse, 5 minutes drive from Manhatten and if I arrive there in work clothes or my Uniform or filthy as hell after a long motorcycle ride and all I hear is " Good Day sir. Going to your parents? Let me get that elevator for you and I'll key the penthouse floor"
You couldn't get me to go back to manhatten to work for $400 an hour. Hell, I'd just as soon be poked in the eye with a sharp stick all rather than even visit there. No one is as important as those people have convinced themselves that they are.
i left nj 30 years ago. funny story my dad had a job to replace windows in harlem. lucky to have parking in back. walk up 8 stories i did all the humping. i saw a rat in the hallway and was scared so as i walked up and down i hit my hammer on the walls. to make them run before i came along.finely all the tenents yelled at me to stop waking them up. had to step over junkies at the bottem. it was kinda fun for a while. at any time you could look out the window and see a thousand people
I read a lot of the replies that the guys wrote to you, and as far as adapting it seems to come pretty naturally. You just have to be willing to double park while being respectful as possible, learn to use your cars to block key parking space on the streets and if you're down town make sure you follow the rules of the building. I just got down paying $200 in parking tickets _ a years worth. I have a funny story though about an elevator. i was working ofr a company years ago that asked me to work over Thanksgiving weekend installing some white oak crown moulding in an office down town. I think it was close to 500' and was about 2-1/4'' stock. Anyway I got there I found that the elevator was too small for the lengths and I when faced with either cutting the stock or lugging it up the stairs I thought I better reconsider the elevator scenario. Being a bow hunter I carefully bent each piece into a pretty tight arc so that they fit into the elevator. This was a pretty nerve racking ordeal but as I got the feel of exactly what the white oak would do I because a little more forceful. I got it all up there (11th floor) and when finished the job I was tired and was even more comfortable forcing the white oak into the elevator, I forgot to mention that it seemed a little easier to get the trim in than it was to take it out. Now the frieght elevators in these buildings many of them open to the lobby but when materials are transported they open to the othe side, the back in order to blind the tradesman form the business people. On this day I think it was Saturday the elevator opened on the 1st floor lobby level to the front and there weren't that many people in there so i started unloading the 8 or so leftover pieces. I was in a hurry and at my most confident with the sticks. As I was unloading more people came into the main lobby. All of a sudden I bent the stick and a loud crack resounded throughout the lobby. Of course everyone looked over at me holding my forehead and I was a bloody mess. It was just a little bleeder and nothing serious but I'm sure it was a shocker for the folks in the lobby. Sort of one of those bloody Dusty Rhodes wrestler looks. I was interupted a few times writng this but I hope you get the picture. I've been working DC (residential mainly) for 20 years now.
That's funny. The closest thing with me to that was a fibreglass "squeezer" I made one time to get full rolls through a 14 inch attic access. I'd be curious just what kind of wages you guys work for - though there's no amount that would tempt me.
I pay full carpenter, someone who can work without much supervision, rare bird that he is, $25/hr to start, although I've started many I have none on the roster right now. By that I mean many claim that can do what I require, but ..... Let's just leave it at that. The next sentence starts a whole new thread. I have a guy who started with me 3 years ago at $17.00 and he now makes $22.50 and has full medical benefits paid for in full and another carpenter making $20. These guys have a lot of great skills but they still need experience. I can give them all the knowledge I have, show them every trick I know but as we all know I can't give them experience. You shouldn't be so wary of the city - not that I'm trying to convince you to come to one. Actually my fair city, the nation's capital, is not a very big one, but I've been able to really have some great, great experiences in carpentry that have really had everything to do with a ever stable economy. A carpenter interested in high end will find many an oportunity in the city. I grew up in the mountains of Pennsylvainia. So I know what its like to see the world through rural eyes. Its different but added stress is most apparent in people that don't have the skills to manage it. There are a lot of great tradespeople here but it seems that most like to stay in the suburbs and the rest who come into the city fall into the larger companies, or are flying solo and doing rehabs. What I do is mid-size residential condos about 10000 sq ft more or less averaging 5 or 6 stories. The work is enough different from suburban residential to frustrate an average guy and it is enough different form the larger building with the wet decks and all metal stud that I find my self caught in between and guys who work for us have to be really innovative and able think outside the box. The first thing I tell them is these building look simple but they get you if you're not careful.I went on enough, I have to go see a symphony orchestra now.Just kidding I can't even spell symphony orchestra.HAPPY NEW YEAR