OK, as part of my continuing education on contracting here 😉 I have a philosophical sort of question. I was working at a project today, painting in what is essentially an attic room. It was hottttttt as heck (outside was 90s and “tropical humidity levels” to quote the weatherman). Now, one of my personal weaknesses is really hating unbearable heat. So after a few hours I’m soaked through in sweat, literally toweling myself off every couple minutes and I said “this is nuts, I’m gonna make myself sick” and packed up.
So my question to ya’s is this… at what point do you guys (if you do) say “it’s just too brutally hot/cold to work” and call it quits?
Replies
I sweat like that when it's 60 and cloudy, so don't really have a limit. Just when I'm working on a finish I have to be sure to not sweat on it.
Drink plenty of fluid, get extra salt, work slowly, take frequent breaks.
It's funny... as long as I can remember I've despised really bad heat. I used my first paycheck as a kid to buy an AC, had one before my parents did. I just can't concentrate when I've got sweat pouring down my face and I'm trying to do detail work like trim or painting. Now I can bust my #### all day long in the cold, doesn't bother me a bit. But if I'm going to do this (contracting) thing* I have to figure out how and how much to work (and when not to) when all I want is to jump in the truck and hit the Max AC button.
*"This contracting thing... sounds like it should have a nickname like "La Cosa Nostra" maybe "La Contracting Nostra" or would there be confusion about what kinds of contracts?
Paul
Edited 8/20/2004 5:21 pm ET by PaulB
I sweat alot. It is part of my genelogical heritage from my father. I also work in the heat and in my area, the humidity is usuallyin the 90's . Somethmes I can just look outside and I'll start to sweat. I try to handle this problem in a few ways.
These are just a few "David'isms":
1, Carry a fan. I have a rather nice 18" or so fan that's sorta commercial. It might look silly but I have even strapped this to walkboards and next week, I'm hooking it onto an 80' JLG. Even if it just pushes around hot air, it works. BTW: The reason it feels good to feel the fan is because of "water evaporation" which is why you sweat in the first place.
2, Wear a t-shirt under your shirt. It does work! Plus, I carry a minimum of 3 extra t-shirts and usually one complete (yes, complete) change of clothes. I carry several bath towels too.
3, Drink liquids. I have a gallon size water bottle (it's 2 parts, the jug with a lid and an insulated jacket that the jug slips into). I will freeze this every night and during the day it'll melt slowly and always produce cold water. On long days, I carry 2 of them and I keep on in a cooler untill I need it.
4, Work the sun. If it is an outside job, I will ask the home owner what time of day does the sun (or shade) hit the sides of the house.
5, Consider starting early or late. I have started on jobs as early as 5:30 am. so the hot part of the day ... you're outta there. Same thin thing applies to starting later at night. Heck, if your making your own schedule, split shift it. Take the hot part of the day off and go back after supper (this is if you are flexable with the ife and kids).
These are just hot day tips and more than likely did not answer the "when do you call it quits" question. But I can't usually afford to shut down the job because of the heat, although I have.
Above all else: think cool thoughts. It's all mind over matter.David H. "Splinky" Polston
Founder of Sawdust, Norfolk, Virginia
When heat or cold is making me physically ill or risking heat exhaustion or frostbite I now call it quits. When I worked for another guy, I was lucky that his hands got cold before mine did, so we'd warm up in his truck or build a fire. On days we had blizzards, he would still work, but I wouldn't. One day the wind chill was -30 F and he stopped to talk to the contractor and I kept working on a second floor deck. When he finished, he said, "Would you mind if we quit for the day? Stopping moving for that long really cooled me off." It was 4:00, so we didn't miss a lot of work, but I didn't argue. That was the day I forgot and stuck a nail in my mouth and it froze to my lip, but came off without taking any skin with it!
Another job, I think we were installing windows (or something--I was using a nail gun anyway) when the wind chill was very low. I'd steel myself, jump through a window opening and powernail about 10 or 15 nails and then jump back inside to warm up. Even with gloves, that was about all I could do before my hands were too numb to hold the gun. (The inside wasn't heated, but at least I was out of the wind.)
Now, I figure if I'm so messed up by the heat or cold that I'm no longer doing a good job, I call it quits. Same if I'm ill. It's not fair to the client for me to screw things up because I'm not up to par.
I was lead for a framing crew when the space shuttle blew up..oh, wait the first one..way back when.
It was about 10below inside a shell, I went to drive a 16 into the temp stairs , and the nail BROKE..this was 'bout 0900.
Told the guys, that's it..we went to the local pub, watched TV and saw the explosion.
This cedar roof I been on was a scorcher..heat index of 110..at lunch time..which meant lunch time was also quittin time for me.
when ya get goosebumps in the heat,quit.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
On that county run HUD project I was associated with a long time ago, a sub was talking to me about how the GC never paid half the subs and stuff. Anyway, this guy was the carpet installer. He said he kept telling the GC to get heat in the building--installer would trowel adhesive down on the concrete and the adhesive would freeze. Said he walked off the job the day he kicked the carpet to unroll it and broke a hole in it because it was frozen so hard!
dats cold bro..
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
Man, you had ne worried ("Dat's cold, bro"); I'm thinking, oh gawd, what did I say now! Turns out it related back to something I said about temperature. Whew!
I once had to tell a little old lady that she couldn't ride a metro bus (I was the planning manager of a bus sytem) because she smelled. So someone asked how I was going to do it so she wouldn't feel bad. I said, if they wanted a diplomat, they wouldn't have made me be the one to do it. Actually, I was pretty nice, seeing as I didn't believe we should tell her that and not only that, but it violated her civil rights, but my boss said do it or you're fired (only he said it more diplomatically). Then the driver didn't want to let the lady ride home on the bus--just leave her stranded downtown. I told him he WAS going to take the lady home and he dicided that he did want to live to see tomorrow and did it. Someone later, very concerned, (after I stopped working there) told me that that boss was in the hospital and almost died and I said, "Too bad he didn't." When I was told another not nice person died, I said, "Good, now I can go p*** on his grave!" Gee, no one from that old job ever seems to get in touch with me anymore. Gawd, how I love Bay City.
I work in Canada, I'm good till the sweat freezes up on me. :)
I agree sweating my butt off on finihs work is not good so we dont. Being so hot that you can not work comfortablally is not good either
yet Ive worked in some darn cold, hot, wet times that I would say never again
but you have ot be safe for yourself and those around and if it effects noticable quality then its time to quit
somewhat related
so if temperature or illness is causing someone else to screw up or be unsafe, and they really need the money, how do yu tell them to call it quits for the day
yet your budget cant afford to give them paid time off
and sometimes reasoning with them does not work, believe me I know, from many other professions then this
how many people with a cold , sniffling make your hamburgers at mickeydees, because they cant miss the hours
same with pounding nails
One thing I've never figured out is how people can stand to do built-up roofs in the summer. Working on the top of a black roof, in the scorching sun, while hauling around hot tar. Makes me glad that my day job is a desk job.
Yeah, built up roofs would be horrible. I remember walking down a roof I was shingling one day, 90 degrees and 90% humidity, in my nice, new guaranteed not to slip boots, and looking back to see my footprints forever etched into the new black shingles. Not a good feeling.
I worked at a landscape nursery for two summers (May-Nov) though and the owner would tell us to come in when it was too hot (or cold) and say, "Come on in. It's not good for you; it's not good for the plants."
Good questions about what to do when others can't afford the time off. I saw a 60Minutes once where tobacco pickers were getting deathly ill because sometimes when the tobacco gets damp, the nicotine goes right through your skin into your bloodstream and you get poisoned by it. Anyway, the pickers would spend the day in a hospital or clinic recovering and then go back to picking the next day, knowing it would probably make them sick again, but they had to do it because they had to have the money to eat with.
I guess I'd try to get them extra work during good weather, but how can you guarantee that? No easy answers.
Hot... I quit when it effects my work. Of course, my work is effected when I fall over from heat-stroke!! I am pretty lucky that heat doesn't bother me... humidity dos... but not heat.
I am a "moving air" junky in the summer. Luckily, the majority of my work can be done with a fan moving air. I have a BIG fan that I take onto a job when the heat/humidity will be a factor.
Cold... there is where I am a wimp. I have been known to build tents around my work area to ward off wind... I have several large salamanders that I use on new construction... electric heaters for situations where salamanders are not an option. Arctic Carhartts are REAL nice (although they reduce freedom of movement).
If my fingers get numb... I'm done. If a bugger freezes up on my nose... done. My back aches from the cold... done. Pop freezes to the mustache... yep... I'm done.
was 90s and "tropical humidity levels"
Ah, yes, I remember visiting Western CT in August with the locals all apologizing for the heat . . .
If it helps any, the present temperature (1645) in Bryan is 92, with a heat index of 98 (we've had a cold front roll in yesterday, the normal high is 96). I took the remote thermometer out of the attic six weeks ago as it was hitting 120 (and recommended max is 125-130). That's my sign (thanks, bill i) to stay out of attics . . .
You have to condition yourself to any climate. if you "feel" the conditions getting to you, usually that's well after when you probably should have stopped.
Whenever the circumstances do not permit me to work safely, efficiently, comfortably, and with at least a minimum of enjoyment, I bag it. This can be due to heat, cold, wet weather, not enough sleep, inadequate plans, the wrong tools or materials, the owner looking over my shoulder, a coworker giving me a headache, a sub using a tool that makes too much noise, a desire to go ride my bike instead, or whatever! Most of the time I can get into a good groove and work well, but if I can't I leave.
Today I quit work around 2:00, damn painters kept leaving the door open when they came or went, letting all the cool air out, or the warm air in, dont know which but I went home rather than figure it out!
Doug
Gee, they apparently weren't raised by people like my parents, "Whataya tryin' ta do, heat (cool) the whole outdoors! Close the door!" Must 've been raised in a barn. ;-)
Paul,
The weather very rarely effects my schedule. Course I'm still fairly young, so I imagine things will change in time. I seem to work best when it's really cooking outside. I like high eighties or low ninetys with a dew point around 75, best. Pair of boots, pair of shorts, and tool belt. With a good slick sweat going, guzzling plenty of water....you really feel alive. Only time I remember calling it off due to heat was two years ago. Everytime you grabbed a gun by the hose, the fitting would let go cuz the hoses were getting so soft from the heat.
I very rarely wear gloves in the winter, while most of the guys do. I'll warm my hands up on the generator or compressor exhaust from time to time. If I can handle it with no gloves, I figure the guys can usually hang in there with their gloves on. The winter is all about dressing properly though. I think I called things off twice last year cuz of the cold. Icicles forming on my goatee and all. It's usually more because production and morale go down the tubes and it's no longer worth working because nobody is making money except the guys that don't want to be there anymore!
Course I live in New England so, despite the sudden changes, the weather is fairly reasonable. We're not framing in Canada in the winter or down south in the summer, so most of the time things are bearable. The thing I love the most is framing in a snow storm. Again, really makes you feel alive. Around here the temp is usually reasonable (30 ish) if it's snowing. Only bummer is I know that the call to go plowing is coming sooner or later.
I'm with you. My ticker and heat dont get along too good. You gotta take care of yourself. I try to tell myself when it's so miserable I'm going to throw up, it's Gods way of telling me to go do paperwork in the AC for a change.
"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain
"at what point do you guys "
When the work is heavy ... or hard ... or yucky ....
Jeff
Buck Construction, llc Pittsburgh,PA
Artistry in Carpentry