Old School Roofing

[nod]

[ProDave]

What could possibly go wrong?

[Bonner]

Looks like a very old school 🙄

[sgt_woulds]

Yes, when I first got on roofs this was how my then boss expected us to work.  'That's just how everyone does it...'

 

He also liked to make 'ladders' out of any bits of timber that were lying about.

 

I politely told him to do it himself and I would watch from the van and take photos for the H&S investigation.  

 

Pretty cocky for a 20 year old rookie I know, but we were both in the TA and he knew that one day I might be standing next to him with a rifle and I'm sure he'd like to know which way I'd point it when it counted.

 

Even back then a roof ladder cost peanuts; he bought a Youngmans ladder the same day for less than £200 and it saved his life a couple of days later when he was overreaching and the slate he was standing on slipped.  He only just managed to grab the ladder, but it held, and so did he.

 

 

 

 

[nod]

1 hour ago, sgt_woulds said:

Yes, when I first got on roofs this was how my then boss expected us to work.  'That's just how everyone does it...'

 

He also liked to make 'ladders' out of any bits of timber that were lying about.

 

I politely told him to do it himself and I would watch from the van and take photos for the H&S investigation.  

 

Pretty cocky for a 20 year old rookie I know, but we were both in the TA and he knew that one day I might be standing next to him with a rifle and I'm sure he'd like to know which way I'd point it when it counted.

 

Even back then a roof ladder cost peanuts; he bought a Youngmans ladder the same day for less than £200 and it saved his life a couple of days later when he was overreaching and the slate he was standing on slipped.  He only just managed to grab the ladder, but it held, and so did he.

 

 

 

 

Yes up and til 1990 most sites had no scaffolding for the roofers Joiners would us two pill ladders and take the trusses up that way 

[Nickfromwales]

I shudder to think back to the days when I just did things without a real consideration for impending death etc.

 

Climbing up the flat roofs one by one on the rear of a 4 storey house set into a steep slope, 20m of 5" kopex flue liner in one hand, whatever I could grab on to in the other, and then balancing on my tip-toes on the very top of the ornate ridge tile, and then uncoiling and sending the new flue liner down the chimney.....only to then look the other side of the building and see one sloping slate roof, realise I'm over 5 storey's high, and staring at a distant pavement with 'crunch' written on it in my blood.

 

My then boss (self-serving tosser) shouting up at me to hurry up, we haven't got all day....from the rear patio.

 

Not sure how I am actually still here tbh, but it's probably largely due to my refusals to ever go on a roof in the rain, unless there was a scaffold.

[sgt_woulds]

Isn't it strange how the bad bosses seem to have all the luck?

 

I had one, who used to call us all 'see you next tuesday' every other word. Vile man, but he could turn on the charm when he wanted to and most people who didn't work with him thought he was just a 'rough diamond'.  He always got away with things that would see the rest of us in hospital or prison.

 

Typical example:

 

Overloaded van

Torrential rain

No seat belt

Holding phone to ear with a shoulder

Because he was rolling a fag with his hands and steering with his knees

Over 90 mph

(Me with my head in a book trying not to see what the idiot was doing and silently praying as he swerved in and out of lanes...)

 

We get pulled over by a jam sandwich and he comes on with the cheeky-chappie cockney sparrow routine.  Much laughter all around.

 

Then they ask his date of birth and realise it's his birthday.

 

'So which one of these offences would you like us to charge you for then...?'  The fact that it was hissing down with pets and they wanted to go off shift probably helped.

 

Only got done for using a phone.