www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Some fitters are qualified sparkles and plumbers?? 4 years to qualify as a spark,4 years to qualify as a plumber. This is before learning to tile or fit a kitchen. In Poland maybe....

We're going to agree to disagree on this one I think.

That is all down to setting out and traditionally who has always been the best at setting out............carpenter/joiners. First on site setting it out and last off site and doing lots of setting out whilst there.

That is the big reason most site agents evolved from carpenter/joiners. They work with all trades, know how they work and how to integrate with them and also keep them in check.

CR,,,,,,it is down to client budget too lol

What you doing ROC!!! I just come back from sticking my jim jams on ready to settle in to this debate and you come and push your knowledgeable snout in the troth

Going back a little way through the posts.................

I have to agree 100% with CR and his statement that some can excel in more than 1 trade.

I worked for a builder years ago who was City and Guilds in Carpentry/joinery, plumbing, electrics and brickwork.

He was one reason why I started City and Guilds in brickwork after doing the carpentry/joinery.


I also excel in various dropped ceiling systems and partition systems. Oh yeah, forgot, that isn't a trade lol.

Agree with ROC, most site foremen/agents come from a joinery background. I can only put this down to the fact that joiners work hand in hand with other trades and probably get more cross trade experience. When I was working the sites, I only came across one site foreman who was a brickie, by trade. All the others used to be joiners before progressing upwards.

you mean gynurrs surly

Colour Republic wrote:however you don't need to be a seasoned heating engineer in order to plumb a kitchen, you don't need to understand 3 phase to run a kitchen ring or be a victorian geometric specialist to tile a splashback.

Agree 100%

I can't argue that ex carpenters make up the majority of foremans, it is just kinda fact. Is it because they integrate with most other trades on site?

I'm not sure. Maybe it's because they tend to be the calmest of all trades because they don't spend some of their day with head and hands shoved down old soil stacks, or working every hour outside in wind and rain like brickies or roofers, they don't have to refer to a handbook double checking this weeks changes to the regs ala sparky, or be down trodden 8 hours a day being told if you can p*ss you can paint... No chippies get it pretty easy on site for some reason and in the most part don't walk around site wanting to kill someone else like the rest of us, about the worse that happens to them is somebody borrowed their eswing or used that new saw for plasterboard.

royaloakcarpentry wrote: I also excel in various dropped ceiling systems and partition systems. Oh yeah, forgot, that isn't a trade lol.

Funny you should mention that. As I spent some early years purely installing office partion systems like clestra and komfort, then later moved in to raised access flooring working for propaflor (now defunct). I haven't done it in years now but what trade would that come under?? It doesn't it's a specialist area.

It comes under office refurbishment as a trade or partition fixer or ceiling fixer. I do believe it is a trade but not a craft. Well it can't be a craft because there are not (or wasn't) any college or city and guilds qualifications. Just the manufacturer courses.

No doubt, that would be where you acquired your setting out skills.

Pays dividends to be inch perfect when setting out offices, otherwise come Monday morning one director has a tantrum because the other directors office is half an inch wider! That was the only time setting out from the centre of window mullions or columns didn't work.


Hmm carpenters being the bulk of site agents.....I think is just down to being first on and last off site and witnessing all that goes on and being involved with each trade. I doubt they have site agents any longer. Probably some nob who has been to college.