My final piece for college.

[MSX]

Haha, about 2 months into my apprenticeship I started thinking the exact same thing about my house! I live in a Barratt and hadn't really clocked onto any faults until I noticed that every aspect of ironmongery on the upstairs doors was dog rough - plates not flush, splits/cracks that had been painted and eventually dried etc. My mum and dad got possibly the worst joiner in to replace the downstairs doors (equally as bad) and he made them worse. I'd put pictures up but most of the joiners on here would explode because of how bad his work is, lol.

You got any tools yet?

[CarpenterChris]

Most of the small things around the house I've repaired (It's my parents house) silly stuff you'd hope they'd get right like fitting the door so it doesn't bind against the frame, fitting the windows properly, fit all the skirting (I completely replaced all the skiritng in this house, it was cheap Bullnose sh*t and it wasn't fitted right) even stuff like fit the plinth in the kitchen properly (They just put it in, I kicked it with my foot one day and it all came out, the things that attach to the cabinets had all be snapped off)

I've got a fairly decent but pretty basic tool set at the minute, my overall goal is to go Self Employed so it makes sense to get tooled up early on.

I've got a plane (Block & Jack) and an electric plane, set of Stabilia spirit levels, dewalt drill, makita bits, estwing hammer, panel saw, tenon saw, about 40,000,000 screws I've discretely 'forgot' to return to the college and various other small bits.

My Uncle is a retired cabinet maker and he said he's going to leave most of his tools to me (he was self employed all his life, and has amassed so many tools, enough that he built a workshop in their garden) which is great, personally I think Old Tools are so much better than newer ones myself.

[MSX]

Fair enough! Bullnose skirting is p*ss easy to scribe yet on the site I worked on until this week (having a week off at the moment, pretty sure I'll be going back on the same one) the agency joiners the site manager got in mitred every internal corner. It's probably more effort to mitre them than it is to scribe them. People whine about walls being out (when are they ever right?) etc, but before I start skirting I cut a straight scribe then cut it square from the bigger piece (so it's literally just the scribe in my hand). I just put that up against every scribe I've gotta do to see if I've gotta offset the chopsaw at all. Most of the time I offset it by about 3 mil to get a tight fit because the walls on new builds are always sh*t lol.

I haven't thought of going self employed to be honest. Have you considered site work if it ever gets quiet for you? My apprenticeship is dedicated to site joinery so that's what I've done for the past year. I'm with a really good firm at the moment and they're taking me on if I can maintain a good standard of work until Christmas. It's all price work for a subbie but the fella in charge is sorted, he'll buy you tools if you need them and take a tenner out of your wages per week etc.

[CarpenterChris]

Yeah, To me Scribing is so much easier than mitered corners (especially bullnose) but it's all bish bash bosh as fast as you can get it in, painters will fit it. "Filler and Paint makes a job what it aint" is most of these companies mottos.

I'm more than likely going to go on sites at some stage, its a really good way to get in with a lot of guys that'll inevitabley have work for you, and vice versa.

I'll be doing my CSCS test fairly soon as well, so that'll help.

[joinerjohn]

CSCS test is sooooooo simple. I reckon a 7 yr old could pass it.

Anyway, talking of new builds, my older brother moved into his "mansion" (5 bedroom ,4 en-suite bathrooms ) Newly built about 7 or 8 yrs ago. First time I visited, he'd been in about 6 months. When the house was built, he'd supplied some engineered wood flooring for his hallway and dining room. The company supplying the flooring had fitted it, but the builders had left all of the skirting off (they said they didn't want to risk damaging the flooring) He didn't have a clue about fitting it.
His kitchen , although looked quite nice, had loose handles, loose hinges and an infill panel at one end that looked like a 5 yr old had been let loose with a blunt saw.

[MSX]

Yeah the CSCS test was simple when I last did it. At the risk of sounding stupid here, get the answer book for the latest test and bash it for a few days before you sit your test. Most of the questions are common sense but they do hazard/risk perception, asbestos etc and it's always worth being safe than sorry. There's also this dodgy question about working at height in a cherry picker above water - asks you what PPE you'd have out of a harness, a lifejacket or something else lol. Good luck if you go on sites! You'll be lucky to get day work on them because it's all price work (well in Liverpool) but the prices here aren't actually that bad! I got put on price work to see what I was like two weeks back. Think it was £1.70 for a metre of skirting and £21 for a doorset. Made just under £130 in a day, more than I get for a whole week on my apprentice wage

[182michael]

Wish I got £21 for a doorset. Could easily do 10 a day lol.

[CarpenterChris]

Can bosh out a doorset in about an hour, 7 a day for me.

[MSX]

Yeah mate, an hour is our average even though I don't do them that often because I always start off too slow! It's £6 to swing the door and £15 for the furniture. Not so bad when you're doing a deadlock (with a fingerplate) and/or mortice lock, handles and a receiver but the ones we've been doing recently have been awkward as hell. We're doing student accommodation, the mortice lock itself isn't so bad to drill out but you've got to drill atleast 6 different sized holes for the handles, they're really bulky electronic ones where batteries, cables and pins have got to be linked through otherwise it won't work. Just a pain really lol.

Don't really like doing doors where I haven't done the lining or atleast helped with it. Every frame we did last week, we had to take 3mm off the top of each door and a run or two along the side (sometimes a leading edge was needed too)

What price are you getting for a doorset now 182michael?

[joinerjohn]

MSX, when I was subbying on sites I used to hate going to a plot I hadn't done the first fix on. I always set the door frames so they were 30 3/16th" wide, plumb and true. Hanging the door was bloody easy. Got some plots others had first fixed and found the door frames either dead on 30" (If I was lucky) or even 29 7/8th", not plumb or level across the head.
One time I was helping putting roof trusses on a row of 5 or 6 terraced houses. When we got to the other end, we discovered there was an extra brick in one side of the row. Brickies hadn't picked up on it when they were building them. Nightmare for the roof tilers though.

[182michael]

MSX, when I was subbying on sites I used to hate going to a plot I hadn't done the first fix on. I always set the door frames so they were 30 3/16th" wide, plumb and true. Hanging the door was bloody easy. Got some plots others had first fixed and found the door frames either dead on 30" (If I was lucky) or even 29 7/8th", not plumb or level across the head.
One time I was helping putting roof trusses on a row of 5 or 6 terraced houses. When we got to the other end, we discovered there was an extra brick in one side of the row. Brickies hadn't picked up on it when they were building them. Nightmare for the roof tilers though.

Do you fit your standards at the first fix? We just get door kits pre hung and fit them. On the barratt jobs we have to fit the cills at first fix. Must be an English thing

[joinerjohn]

Never heard of pre hung doors for internals. Externals, yes where they have a cill as well as a head. Internal door frames are usually two sides and a head. Usually fixed to internal block work walls or stud partition/ paramount partitions.

[philprime]

I have heard of prehung interior door but they usual are from across the pond as they Americans use them quite abit