A beautiful gate that the local joinery shop made me from green oak I cut them. Really finishes off that job. Yes, I know the spring is installed wrong- you can't get the staff
Then a factory job cleaning out the waterjet pit. Always a pain in the arse job- garnet sand is the worst thing to work in, and when you couple it with birds nests of copper strips and a filter system that you need to get out as undamaged as possible... The sand is a total nightmare in any kind of coupling- the threads all jam, the adjustable spanners seize up straight away, the pressure washer quick couplings jam solid and any steel exposed to it and rpessure washing rusts in seconds- my poor Irwin vice!
This is the fourth year we've done it, they used to do it with idiot labourers and a domestic pressure washer. I take along a decent pressure washer and jetting gear- you simply can't clean the pipes out any other way. Amazingly, for an engineering factory producing a decent percent of the worlds MRI scanners, they have nobody on staff who can do even basic welding. So sometimes we take it back to the yard and straighten out/weld on more nuts. This year only one filter got snapped off, so we were able to re-install with that in the corner.
A little bit of hedge reduction with the loader making life super easy
Then reduce the other (garden) side severely from ten feet wide to three/four feet, and some garden clearance- managed to pass the gear over the deer fence which saved an awful lot of time running up the garden, along the road and then down to the bottom to dump it five feet the other side of the hedge, which we'd done for a lot of the other waste in this job- still quicker than chipping or handballing down the steps through the gate. Spent a few days here, more to do yet, plus their woodland to clear (I was a recommendation from the neighbour who's woodland I cleared, who in turn was recommended me from another guy down the road). Surrey back gardens, all houses £1.5m +.
Finally, a bullshit oak post and softwood rail knee high fence. Under construction, didn't take any finished photos but we did it both sides. Both customers over the moon, myself too as I couldn't believe the profit levels! Took a bit of care, weathertopped all the oak, added topsoil and grass seed round the bottoms and cold lay the other side, ran the sander over the rails etc. Still a very easy day including milling the posts with one labourer, £800 after wages and materials.
It's been a very profitable week, mainly because I've been on the tools myself. It knackers me out a bit, and although I make very good money after wages I have to be careful not to burn myself out. Thursday was a 'no money made' day- spent sorting the yard out (was raining anyhow). Plus we had a diesel delivery, sharpened all the chains, changed the Iveco brake pads. All the stuff you don't get paid for but would otherwise have to pay someone else to do. I quite like just pottering around the yard and sending the guys out, but every time I go out on the tools you realise how much more profitable it is with you on site 'cracking the whip'. The trials of running a business eh?
10 mins in and I'm already pissed off.
