Thought it might be a bit of fun (and maybe educational) for members to share a few stories of characters they may have worked with or come across over the years. It's probably best if no real names are used just in case.
I'll get the ball rolling with a few that I have remembered.
The first was a tiler who was tiling the changing rooms at a local swimming baths for his brothers company.
He worked on it for a week or so and then booked in his work with his brother and was paid for it straight away.
The following week the brother gets a phone call from the main contractor complaining about the lack of progress. Bemused he visits the site only to find all the tiles still on the pallets, not a single one had been laid.
After a few days of trying to track down his brother he found out he'd been offered work in Germany and used the free money to finance his trip.
The next was a tiler who had a special tape measure he used for measuring up at the end of the week.
Every Thursday the boss would come to site to book the lads work in. They were doing a lot of work in factories and schools at the time so the areas were pretty big. Anyway the boss not trusting the lads to read the tape correctly would take the tape of the tiler and ask them to hold the end while he read the tape and wrote down the measurements. Little did he know the tiler had cut away the first couple of feet of tape and reattached the end. Every week he got paid for work he had never done.
The last one and my favourite is about a tiler who done some tiling on the external wall of a shopping centre.
The wall had been tiled in quarry tiles and was at least six metres high. Upon completion the architect and the clerk of works came around to inspect it. Not happy with the job they told him to sort out several tiles that were lipping quite badly, the early morning sun was shinning diagonally across the face of the tiles and not doing the surface any favours at all. Not the slightest bit offended the tiler apologized for the poor workmanship and told them he would attend to it at once and for them to come back in a few hours and check it again.
Just after lunch the architect and clerk appeared around the corner and seeing the wall congratulated him on the efficiency and skill of the corrected work and moved on, happy to sign off the finished job.
In reality the tiler hadn't even picked up a trowel never mind a hammer and had simply waited for the sun to move around in the sky and was face on to the wall and all the lips had disappeared.
You might not approve of this behavior but you have to admire the cheek.
I'll get the ball rolling with a few that I have remembered.
The first was a tiler who was tiling the changing rooms at a local swimming baths for his brothers company.
He worked on it for a week or so and then booked in his work with his brother and was paid for it straight away.
The following week the brother gets a phone call from the main contractor complaining about the lack of progress. Bemused he visits the site only to find all the tiles still on the pallets, not a single one had been laid.
After a few days of trying to track down his brother he found out he'd been offered work in Germany and used the free money to finance his trip.
The next was a tiler who had a special tape measure he used for measuring up at the end of the week.
Every Thursday the boss would come to site to book the lads work in. They were doing a lot of work in factories and schools at the time so the areas were pretty big. Anyway the boss not trusting the lads to read the tape correctly would take the tape of the tiler and ask them to hold the end while he read the tape and wrote down the measurements. Little did he know the tiler had cut away the first couple of feet of tape and reattached the end. Every week he got paid for work he had never done.
The last one and my favourite is about a tiler who done some tiling on the external wall of a shopping centre.
The wall had been tiled in quarry tiles and was at least six metres high. Upon completion the architect and the clerk of works came around to inspect it. Not happy with the job they told him to sort out several tiles that were lipping quite badly, the early morning sun was shinning diagonally across the face of the tiles and not doing the surface any favours at all. Not the slightest bit offended the tiler apologized for the poor workmanship and told them he would attend to it at once and for them to come back in a few hours and check it again.
Just after lunch the architect and clerk appeared around the corner and seeing the wall congratulated him on the efficiency and skill of the corrected work and moved on, happy to sign off the finished job.
In reality the tiler hadn't even picked up a trowel never mind a hammer and had simply waited for the sun to move around in the sky and was face on to the wall and all the lips had disappeared.
You might not approve of this behavior but you have to admire the cheek.
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I was still young
