Where do you work (Not Creepy I Swear)

[dizmo]

2 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

I know your pain. I used to do drywall years ago.

 

How long have you been doing it? Because it only paid relatively well when I first started. Everywhere I'm aware of, the only way to actually pull profit from drywalling is if you also tape yourself, and that's a pitiful profit.

Not long, it's more of an interim thing right now. Finished school, went into accounting and ended up hating it so back to the drawing board. I did it years ago when I was 18 for about a year and another year when I was 25. Most drywallers aren't drywallers by trade. Here it's been a pretty big shift over the last year. It used to be 35 - 40 cents per board foot, now it's all the way down to 21. We get 23, but even some larger companies have shut their doors because it's just not worth it anymore. Though we have it easy. We just board. Taping is done by another crew. So an average house takes us about 3 days.

[Drak3]

Just now, dizmo said:

So an average house takes us about 3 days.

How many people? When I was doing houses, 3 people did a single house in a day and a half to 2 days. Garage and all.

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

Most drywallers aren't drywallers by trade.

In Idaho, they are. Only drywallers I know that aren't just drywallers are Propack, they also do framing and acoustic ceilings. Except they suck so much ass at both that the contractors that both we and Propack work for, straight up told Propack to not bother bidding on any framing or ceilings that they did, and we were worth the premium that we apparently don't charge.

 

4 minutes ago, dizmo said:

We just board. Taping is done by another crew.

Here, just boarding isn't profitable, at all. And Idaho tapers suck ass. So much so, that boss man is trying to talk his brothers into moving to Idaho and teaching a few people to tape well so that we can do more for more contractors.

[dizmo]

1 minute ago, Drak3 said:

How many people? When I was doing houses, 3 people did a single house in a day and a half to 2 days. Garage and all.

In Idaho, they are. Only drywallers I know that aren't just drywallers are Propack, they also do framing and acoustic ceilings. Except they suck so much ass at both that the contractors that both we and Propack work for, straight up told Propack to not bother bidding on any framing or ceilings that they did, and we were worth the premium that we apparently don't charge.

 

Here, just boarding isn't profitable, at all. And Idaho tapers suck ass. So much so, that boss man is trying to talk his brothers into moving to Idaho and teaching a few people to tape well so that we can do more for more contractors.

There's technically four of us, but my buddies old man is with us (who's pro, but getting older) and his useless brother (who literally just runs the screwgun). Haha, yeah but is that full 8 hour days? If we work more than 4, maaaybe 5 hours a day it's a shocker. A lot of the time the garages aren't poured by the time we're done the house, so we skip it. If it's slow we'll go do 2 or 3 garages in a day. How big were the houses you were doing? Ours average 10,000, 12,000 if you include the garage.

 

Here it's the only trade that's not ticketed. So anyone can do it. I think of all the people I've met so far that are other boarders, only 3 have been doing it as their chosen profession. Most are electricians, welders, etc that can't find work due to the slowdown. And it shows in the work they do. There are a few "drywall companies", but they just subcontract to crews like us. I have seen a few that pay hourly, but that's where you really make no money. Do they not may much for just board down there?

[Drak3]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

Do they not may much for just board down there?

It's been approx 20 cents, and you have to buy screws yourself if you subcontract under certain companies, for quite a few years. It pays the same numeral amount as it did in the 70's.

2 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Haha, yeah but is that full 8 hour days?

Once you get pass the whole 'start 30 minutes late because the boss liked to bullshit with his employees,' 15 minute breaks often taking 30 because they gauge time on how long it takes them to smoke a cigarette, it was more like 6.5-7 hour days.

 

4 minutes ago, dizmo said:

How big were the houses you were doing? Ours average 10,000, 12,000 if you include the garage.

Don't remember 100%, but 12,000 is ballpark without including the garage.

 

5 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Here it's the only trade that's not ticketed. So anyone can do it.

Here, one can become an apprentice without needing any certs, provided the mentor is on site. After a certain point, depending on profession, apprentices can be left alone if they get some fairly minor certification. The only things that can't really be done are plumbing and anything involving working heavy machinery constantly.

 

Hell, some things, you don't even need a brain for, as one group of electricians likes to prove time and time again.

[Lays]

@DisguisedDemise I can't really go too in depth, but I test overclocking features and make sure they work properly essentially.  If anything doesn't work I note it down and send it to the higher ups, etc.   It's kind of like OC beta testing in a way.

 

[Ja Krispie]

16 hours ago, DisguisedDemise said:

Nice, you little techie. End up doing anything super interesting?

Super interesting? Not particularly lol We just get lots of fun dealings with people who are complete morons. You can have the atm open, blocking the lane, modules racked out and get people ask you if it's broken...

Other than that's it's a rather straight forward job, just keep the ATM working lol

[Sacriledgy]

17 hours ago, dizmo said:

I'm currently a drywaller. So, it's totally random as far as job location.

It's pretty chill, though the money isn't nearly as good as it used to be.

I actually wonder why many American houses are using drywall instead of bricks 

[iamdarkyoshi]

3 minutes ago, Its Not Important said:

I actually wonder why many American houses are using drywall instead of bricks 

Because like everything else in america, its cheap and shitty

[smartroad]

I do product training for construction equipment so all over the south half of the UK LOL

[Real_PhillBert]

I'm a mechanical engineer for a major agricultural company.

[Sir Asvald]

No job atm I had worked before at a university for a while 6 months. I've done my CCNA and working towards my CCNP. 

[Ithanul]

6 hours ago, Its Not Important said:

I actually wonder why many American houses are using drywall instead of bricks 

Cheap, easy to produce, and max profits.  Kind of sums up a lot of stuff in the States.

[Nuluvius]

20 minutes ago, Ithanul said:

Cheap, easy to produce, and max profits.  Kind of sums up a lot of stuff in the States.

Don't forget oversized.

[Ithanul]

Just now, Nuluvius said:

Don't forget oversized.

Yep, got be super big too. 

[Nuluvius]

7 minutes ago, Ithanul said:

Yep, got be super big too. 

[Sacriledgy]

3 hours ago, Ithanul said:

Cheap, easy to produce, and max profits.  Kind of sums up a lot of stuff in the States.

But isn't it would be cheaper and will last longer if you use brick walls?

[Drak3]

9 hours ago, Its Not Important said:

I actually wonder why many American houses are using drywall instead of bricks 

Drywall is cheap, and with current framing standards, it better withstands earthquakes.

Plus it makes for easier demo and renovation.

3 hours ago, Ithanul said:

max profits

Nearly no profit in drywalling, unless you happen to do other things and drywalling gives you an edge over a competitor (ie. you're pretty shit but the other guy isn't good enough to justify the price difference or simplicity of doing less paperwork).

[Ithanul]

8 hours ago, Its Not Important said:

But isn't it would be cheaper and will last longer if you use brick walls?

By what I can find online, Drywall wage averages around $17.26/hr and a Bricklayer averages around $24.20/hr.

Considering a brick house takes a while to be put up, time equates to money.  Not to hard to figure out which wins out.

[cekkonen]

I repair electric mobility appliances, such as powered wheelchairs and electric mopeds. The appliances are owned and governed by the local healthcare district, and they are in loan to the end users. The users don't pay a dime for the utilities, nor repairs/service. In Finland it's required by law to have all such appliances serviced annually, so there's no end to the stream of work we have coming in.

The job itself is great, I get to fix things and tinker all kinds of stuff, and work with some really smart and resourceful people.

The only negative side in the job are the managers and executives in our company(that's owned by the city I live in). Most of them are lazy, cocky, overpaid morons who sit and browse facebook all day. 

[Badimir Putin]

I work as an Electrical and Control Systems Engineer for Pickering Associates, a full-path engineering/architecture/surveying firm.

 

Industrial plants contract us to do design engineering for any projects they currently have running. As one of the electrical engineers here, it's our job to design and draft the new electrical distribution (or make design changes to existing electrical distribution). As one of the control system engineers it's also my job to design and draft new plant-wide control systems (or make design changes to existing control systems).

 

Our clients also include commercial businesses that need electrical renovations or arc-flash analyses. We don't do anything residential.

 

It's a rewarding job. I work with a lot of awesome and incredibly intelligent people. I graduated from college with a BS in Electrical Engineering and a BS in Computer Engineering in May of 2016 and walked right on to my job here. I'm still learning, but it's turning out to be an awesome experience.

[Thunderpup]

Security clearance investigator.

Though I don't do many investigations myself these days as i am now a supervisor.

 

11 hours ago, Ithanul said:

By what I can find online, Drywall wage averages around $17.26/hr and a Bricklayer averages around $24.20/hr.

Considering a brick house takes a while to be put up, time equates to money.  Not to hard to figure out which wins out.

Also Brick is considerably more expensive material compared to drywall.  You need a lot of brick to cover the same amount of surface area as Drywall.

 

I hear in Iceland though they use concrete for their internal walls. 

[dizmo]

20 hours ago, Drak3 said:

It's been approx 20 cents, and you have to buy screws yourself if you subcontract under certain companies, for quite a few years. It pays the same numeral amount as it did in the 70's.

-snip-

Hmm, you can't make enough money to make a decent living? I'd be making $70k+ a year doing this "full time".

Screws etc are write offs. Really, if one was to do this they'd start their own company and just write off the supplies against their taxes, making even more. $17k is a lot of extra cash.

Ahhh weird, here there's no certs. Which is why there are so many non-boarders boarding.

Hahah, the things I've seen...for example in the last house they had the rough in for one of the bathrooms running into a closet in the hall. Really makes you wonder what you're getting when you buy a house.

4 hours ago, Its Not Important said:

I actually wonder why many American houses are using drywall instead of bricks 

Haha, that cost....

[Drak3]

Just now, dizmo said:

Hmm, you can't make enough money to make a decent living? I'd be making $70k+ a year doing this "full time".

With the exception being tax dodgers and illegal immigrant workers, drywall does not pay enough to run a company without doing other things to compensate for the fact that drywall barely covers the hours of the exceptional workers we've had, should we pay them minimum wage.

 

As it stands, I'm making $24K+ a year, and my only major bills at the moment are a $500 truck payment and $250 for the insurance, plus $60-100 for diesel a week.

 

3 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Screws etc are write offs.

If your boss compensates for it, or the contractor you work for pays the bill you give them for materials, yes, they are. Otherwise, they're supplied by the boss/contractor, which ever is applicable. Just like board, studs, ceiling grid, tile, etc. etc.

It'd be like you getting hired at Pixar, they only provide the render farm to you, you have to purchase an approved system every time you need an upgrade, and you're expected to do so on wages that obviously can't cover that and have anything left over.

 

[YedZed]

I'm interning at the John's Hopkin's IT department.  I currently get paid minimum wage to sit and do nothing cuz the system got fucked and an email is stuck in processing somewhere so in the meantime, I get paid to watch Youtube video. And I get to take free i7 3770/i5 3470 systems which I will sell on eBay for 150-200 dollars apiece.