What's the hardest days graft you've ever done!
Discussion
I've done fencing, decking, landscaping in the past and these occupations can throw up some pretty back breaking and sweat inducing jobs. However, yesterday I had to dig a trench between by front gate and my garage, around 13 meters first busting up the crazy paving with a demolition hammer and then, by hand, digging a 500mm deep trench into solid chalk and flint with just an extended drainage spade. Luckily the weather was perfect....dry and around 15 degrees which helped but I can say that I was completely fooked at the end of the day and I can hardly move as I write this the morning after. Was the hardest I've ever worked!
So over to you, I'm talking physical GRAFT, not pushing a pen around a desk or spending hours on the phone!
So over to you, I'm talking physical GRAFT, not pushing a pen around a desk or spending hours on the phone!
When I was 16, I got a job through and agency at a concrete statue factory. 6am start working to mid afternoon.
I would finish every day, be completely exhausted and the next day be stiff as a board. Did it for about a month over the summer though and it got massively easier. Lugging heavy concrete moulds, getting covered in concrete dust and sweating to death in a heated warehouse at the height of summer truly sucked though.
I would finish every day, be completely exhausted and the next day be stiff as a board. Did it for about a month over the summer though and it got massively easier. Lugging heavy concrete moulds, getting covered in concrete dust and sweating to death in a heated warehouse at the height of summer truly sucked though.
One summer in the 1970's In the Persian gulf on a VLCC when a joint blew on the deaerator at top of engine room.
Whole plant needed to shut down and joint changed - long day flogging 50+ 36mm bolts and then replacing joint
and flogging back up. Then plant restart.
it was over 60c and could only work shifts with 15 minutes on and then a 15min break. I will never forget that day!
some beer got drunk!
Whole plant needed to shut down and joint changed - long day flogging 50+ 36mm bolts and then replacing joint
and flogging back up. Then plant restart.
it was over 60c and could only work shifts with 15 minutes on and then a 15min break. I will never forget that day!
some beer got drunk!
Did a Summer job between uni in a bread factory, which every day involved lifting by hand around ~1000 x 25kg bags of flour and chemicals into a giant blending machine, working from 6am to 6pm four days a week. Stupidly early starts, long hours, heavy lifting, awkward lifting, flour dust everywhere, no masks provided, it was chaos. Proper back-breaking, British incompetence. No machines to do the lifting, just low-paid working-class scum slaves pressed to work as hard as possible until they broke and then be replaced by some other disposable sucker. Something from the 1950s? No, the year 2000.
I've got a garage base to break up 4 ton of hardcore to barrow through the house into the back garden and 2 more post holes to dig (concrete post weigh a f
k ton!). That needs to doing before Monday.
If you ever watch a genuine old skool Irish fella dig a trench it's memorising how they can turn a shovel into a precision instrument. They don't make labourers like they used to, machines do it all now.
k ton!). That needs to doing before Monday. If you ever watch a genuine old skool Irish fella dig a trench it's memorising how they can turn a shovel into a precision instrument. They don't make labourers like they used to, machines do it all now.
Could be when I was a youngster and we were converting some steadings in Abderdeen to houses. We had to knock holes in the old granite built walls which were over two foot thick, and then remove/roll/dump the huge granite boulders out of the way.
But, the more recent one that resonated with the OP was digging out the garden a few years back to make room for the foundations of a decking 'feature' round the side of the house. That basically meant digging about 2 foot down into solid chalk and flint. Not a huge area but it took days of loosening with a mattock and crowbar and than picking out by hand all the lumps of flint. My fecking back was in turmoil for weeks after that.
But, the more recent one that resonated with the OP was digging out the garden a few years back to make room for the foundations of a decking 'feature' round the side of the house. That basically meant digging about 2 foot down into solid chalk and flint. Not a huge area but it took days of loosening with a mattock and crowbar and than picking out by hand all the lumps of flint. My fecking back was in turmoil for weeks after that.
Lordbenny said:
I've done fencing, decking, landscaping in the past and these occupations can throw up some pretty back breaking and sweat inducing jobs. However, yesterday I had to dig a trench between by front gate and my garage, around 13 meters first busting up the crazy paving with a demolition hammer and then, by hand, digging a 500mm deep trench into solid chalk and flint with just an extended drainage spade. Luckily the weather was perfect....dry and around 15 degrees which helped but I can say that I was completely fooked at the end of the day and I can hardly move as I write this the morning after. Was the hardest I've ever worked!
So over to you, I'm talking physical GRAFT, not pushing a pen around a desk or spending hours on the phone!
Hugely gratifying isn't it - a true hard day of physical work!So over to you, I'm talking physical GRAFT, not pushing a pen around a desk or spending hours on the phone!
Five months as a plasterers labourer in 1995, following redundancy from nice exec job with company car etc etc.
Every day start at the merchants - load van with x bags of hardwall, finish, browning, cement (all 40 or 50kg back then), get to site for 08:00am start (if in London a 06:00 depart). Hump bags from van to job area. Go fetch water from bowser. Mix - by hand - in large tub, then carry tub to spread and dump on the spot board (spot board often above 1.5m because he's doing the ceiling and that's where he needs it).
Keep the gear coming until he's finished that layer - could be 30mins, could be 2 hours for a bigger job and multiple spreads to keep busy. Get shouted at for being too slow or wrong consistency. Half hour for lunch, then mix up skim coat. Clean off all the tools, clear up the empty bags, load van, get home before rush hour. Maybe another cash job straight after...work until 20:00.
Floor screeding was worse - mix tons of sand and cement in cement mixer (wrong m/c for the job but that's all anybody had) and barrow it in to keep the guys busy, if you were lucky they were less than 10m away, but on bigger sites they were >100m and that barrow gets heavier and heavier. Sometimes it had to be mixed by hand - a pile of sand (1000Kg min) plus bags of cement turned over with a shovel for 20 minutes. Bliss.
Modern sites needed plasterboard walls - Oh Joy! Transport each sheet - by hand - across the unmade site battling wind/rain other trades and all that scaffolding, without damaging the fragile board. Then lift into position for someone to fix - holding a 20Kg+ panel overhead while they line it up gets heavy very quickly. Repeat for another 10 boards, perhaps 20 in a big room (once did 35+ in a hall). Better still when you miss your footing on the crate and slip off, still carrying a sheet overhead to keep intact. No wonder builders get back problems.
Get home filthy, knackered, hungry. Paid £30.00 per day. Fitter than ever!
Nearly all these jobs can be mechanised to a greater or lesser degree, but very few contractors invest in the kit to make it safer. Even a pair of cheapo plasterboard handles - <£20 pair - would alleviate many problems. Ask me how I know...
Every day start at the merchants - load van with x bags of hardwall, finish, browning, cement (all 40 or 50kg back then), get to site for 08:00am start (if in London a 06:00 depart). Hump bags from van to job area. Go fetch water from bowser. Mix - by hand - in large tub, then carry tub to spread and dump on the spot board (spot board often above 1.5m because he's doing the ceiling and that's where he needs it).
Keep the gear coming until he's finished that layer - could be 30mins, could be 2 hours for a bigger job and multiple spreads to keep busy. Get shouted at for being too slow or wrong consistency. Half hour for lunch, then mix up skim coat. Clean off all the tools, clear up the empty bags, load van, get home before rush hour. Maybe another cash job straight after...work until 20:00.
Floor screeding was worse - mix tons of sand and cement in cement mixer (wrong m/c for the job but that's all anybody had) and barrow it in to keep the guys busy, if you were lucky they were less than 10m away, but on bigger sites they were >100m and that barrow gets heavier and heavier. Sometimes it had to be mixed by hand - a pile of sand (1000Kg min) plus bags of cement turned over with a shovel for 20 minutes. Bliss.
Modern sites needed plasterboard walls - Oh Joy! Transport each sheet - by hand - across the unmade site battling wind/rain other trades and all that scaffolding, without damaging the fragile board. Then lift into position for someone to fix - holding a 20Kg+ panel overhead while they line it up gets heavy very quickly. Repeat for another 10 boards, perhaps 20 in a big room (once did 35+ in a hall). Better still when you miss your footing on the crate and slip off, still carrying a sheet overhead to keep intact. No wonder builders get back problems.
Get home filthy, knackered, hungry. Paid £30.00 per day. Fitter than ever!
Nearly all these jobs can be mechanised to a greater or lesser degree, but very few contractors invest in the kit to make it safer. Even a pair of cheapo plasterboard handles - <£20 pair - would alleviate many problems. Ask me how I know...
As a teenager I worked at for a horse breeder at his stables, he had 9 eventing horses that I helped the head groom look after.
The fateful day the head groom had shifted their day off to this day, despite normally having Saturday's off as they liked to get drunk on a Friday night. Normally they stayed on premise as well, but this morning they had gone out before I got there, which was more than a little unusual as I had to get there for 6am. About 7am I found out why, we had the delivery of a year's worth of hay, which for 9 horses filled one very large barn from floor to ceiling.
I spent 7am till 3pm just unloading from the farmer's trailer into the barn. As soon as I'd emptied the trailer he'd shoot off to get some more while I stacked the hay up to a good 20 feet high. Shifting 18kg hay bales all day completely wrecked me, I have never worked that hard before or since.
The owner of the stables was not impressed, he had to muck out the horses as I simply didn't have time.
The fateful day the head groom had shifted their day off to this day, despite normally having Saturday's off as they liked to get drunk on a Friday night. Normally they stayed on premise as well, but this morning they had gone out before I got there, which was more than a little unusual as I had to get there for 6am. About 7am I found out why, we had the delivery of a year's worth of hay, which for 9 horses filled one very large barn from floor to ceiling.
I spent 7am till 3pm just unloading from the farmer's trailer into the barn. As soon as I'd emptied the trailer he'd shoot off to get some more while I stacked the hay up to a good 20 feet high. Shifting 18kg hay bales all day completely wrecked me, I have never worked that hard before or since.
The owner of the stables was not impressed, he had to muck out the horses as I simply didn't have time.
The Don of Croy said:
Five months as a plasterers labourer in 1995, following redundancy from nice exec job with company car etc etc.
Every day start at the merchants - load van with x bags of hardwall, finish, browning, cement (all 40 or 50kg back then), get to site for 08:00am start (if in London a 06:00 depart). Hump bags from van to job area. Go fetch water from bowser. Mix - by hand - in large tub, then carry tub to spread and dump on the spot board (spot board often above 1.5m because he's doing the ceiling and that's where he needs it).
Keep the gear coming until he's finished that layer - could be 30mins, could be 2 hours for a bigger job and multiple spreads to keep busy. Get shouted at for being too slow or wrong consistency. Half hour for lunch, then mix up skim coat. Clean off all the tools, clear up the empty bags, load van, get home before rush hour. Maybe another cash job straight after...work until 20:00.
Floor screeding was worse - mix tons of sand and cement in cement mixer (wrong m/c for the job but that's all anybody had) and barrow it in to keep the guys busy, if you were lucky they were less than 10m away, but on bigger sites they were >100m and that barrow gets heavier and heavier. Sometimes it had to be mixed by hand - a pile of sand (1000Kg min) plus bags of cement turned over with a shovel for 20 minutes. Bliss.
Modern sites needed plasterboard walls - Oh Joy! Transport each sheet - by hand - across the unmade site battling wind/rain other trades and all that scaffolding, without damaging the fragile board. Then lift into position for someone to fix - holding a 20Kg+ panel overhead while they line it up gets heavy very quickly. Repeat for another 10 boards, perhaps 20 in a big room (once did 35+ in a hall). Better still when you miss your footing on the crate and slip off, still carrying a sheet overhead to keep intact. No wonder builders get back problems.
Get home filthy, knackered, hungry. Paid £30.00 per day. Fitter than ever!
Nearly all these jobs can be mechanised to a greater or lesser degree, but very few contractors invest in the kit to make it safer. Even a pair of cheapo plasterboard handles - <£20 pair - would alleviate many problems. Ask me how I know...
Hat's off to you mate. Exec job to labourer. You must have been superbly motivated and willing to work, and I salute your work ethic. Every day start at the merchants - load van with x bags of hardwall, finish, browning, cement (all 40 or 50kg back then), get to site for 08:00am start (if in London a 06:00 depart). Hump bags from van to job area. Go fetch water from bowser. Mix - by hand - in large tub, then carry tub to spread and dump on the spot board (spot board often above 1.5m because he's doing the ceiling and that's where he needs it).
Keep the gear coming until he's finished that layer - could be 30mins, could be 2 hours for a bigger job and multiple spreads to keep busy. Get shouted at for being too slow or wrong consistency. Half hour for lunch, then mix up skim coat. Clean off all the tools, clear up the empty bags, load van, get home before rush hour. Maybe another cash job straight after...work until 20:00.
Floor screeding was worse - mix tons of sand and cement in cement mixer (wrong m/c for the job but that's all anybody had) and barrow it in to keep the guys busy, if you were lucky they were less than 10m away, but on bigger sites they were >100m and that barrow gets heavier and heavier. Sometimes it had to be mixed by hand - a pile of sand (1000Kg min) plus bags of cement turned over with a shovel for 20 minutes. Bliss.
Modern sites needed plasterboard walls - Oh Joy! Transport each sheet - by hand - across the unmade site battling wind/rain other trades and all that scaffolding, without damaging the fragile board. Then lift into position for someone to fix - holding a 20Kg+ panel overhead while they line it up gets heavy very quickly. Repeat for another 10 boards, perhaps 20 in a big room (once did 35+ in a hall). Better still when you miss your footing on the crate and slip off, still carrying a sheet overhead to keep intact. No wonder builders get back problems.
Get home filthy, knackered, hungry. Paid £30.00 per day. Fitter than ever!
Nearly all these jobs can be mechanised to a greater or lesser degree, but very few contractors invest in the kit to make it safer. Even a pair of cheapo plasterboard handles - <£20 pair - would alleviate many problems. Ask me how I know...
Well just yesterday I had to put some numbers from one spreadsheet into another for a cost submission... our company standard is different to their company standard.. took me a few hours of mouse clicking and keyboard pressing!
But yes, like many I had some hard working days in my youth, earning a few quid an hour to do menial, but labour intensive jobs. Hay stacking for a local farmer for a couple of days in his huge barn.
I used to do some gardening work for an elderly neighbour on a Saturday morning, which paid for my driving lessons. He had a lovely property and was rightly proud of the grounds he had, plenty of space for his grandchildren etc, but wasn't able to do all the heavy stuff as he had before. Plenty of mowing, weeding, digging etc.
One week he asked me to come wearing some clothes that wouldn't mind getting really dirty, but also, to be available all day instead of just the morning. Extra money, so yes please Turned up in the morning, and was directed into the large pond to clean out all the weeds. This stuff did not smell good and required a lot of bending down far enough to reach it, but I couldn't crouch down properly to be more comfortable as the water was just that bit too deep.
The afternoon was then spent, in these now wet and smelly clothes, moving about a thousand bricks that had formed his old patio area from said patio area, to the front of the driveway because he had found someone else who wanted all these bricks. He only had a small wheelbarrow that could carry about 20 bricks at a time, so I made around 50-60 trips from the front of his house to the back carrying all these bricks and piling them up on his driveway.
On the plus side, my clothes all dried out and the pond smell seemed to disappear, And I got an extra £20.
On the downside, the pond smell was replaced with just a nasty sweaty smell
But yes, like many I had some hard working days in my youth, earning a few quid an hour to do menial, but labour intensive jobs. Hay stacking for a local farmer for a couple of days in his huge barn.
I used to do some gardening work for an elderly neighbour on a Saturday morning, which paid for my driving lessons. He had a lovely property and was rightly proud of the grounds he had, plenty of space for his grandchildren etc, but wasn't able to do all the heavy stuff as he had before. Plenty of mowing, weeding, digging etc.
One week he asked me to come wearing some clothes that wouldn't mind getting really dirty, but also, to be available all day instead of just the morning. Extra money, so yes please Turned up in the morning, and was directed into the large pond to clean out all the weeds. This stuff did not smell good and required a lot of bending down far enough to reach it, but I couldn't crouch down properly to be more comfortable as the water was just that bit too deep.
The afternoon was then spent, in these now wet and smelly clothes, moving about a thousand bricks that had formed his old patio area from said patio area, to the front of the driveway because he had found someone else who wanted all these bricks. He only had a small wheelbarrow that could carry about 20 bricks at a time, so I made around 50-60 trips from the front of his house to the back carrying all these bricks and piling them up on his driveway.
On the plus side, my clothes all dried out and the pond smell seemed to disappear, And I got an extra £20.
On the downside, the pond smell was replaced with just a nasty sweaty smell
I've got a tipper coming this afternoon to drop 4 ton of mot 1 on my drive that tomorrow I need to wheel barrow about 60 meters up to the back garden... so I think it might be that...
I had a holiday job as a student in a packing factory where it was my job to lift up boxes of soap bars and tip them into a hopper where a dozen women repacked them into other smaller boxes. The hopper was about head height, the boxes were 20kg and after each box I had to tear the sellotape off the bottom and fold it flat, I seem to remember the daily record was something like 1600 boxes, and you got shouted at by a big strapping northern lass if you let the line stop working. That factory used to be one of the probation services preferred contacts to help offenders get back into work when they came out and they had a very very high staff turnover, eventually even the probation service stopped sending people there because it was so old school, I saw my one and only serious work place accident there when a girl got dragged into a machine after her hair got caught in a conveyor belt, even whilst she led unconscious and quite badly injured the supervisor was barking to keep the line moving...! I did buy my first decent car with the money I earned that summer though.
I had a holiday job as a student in a packing factory where it was my job to lift up boxes of soap bars and tip them into a hopper where a dozen women repacked them into other smaller boxes. The hopper was about head height, the boxes were 20kg and after each box I had to tear the sellotape off the bottom and fold it flat, I seem to remember the daily record was something like 1600 boxes, and you got shouted at by a big strapping northern lass if you let the line stop working. That factory used to be one of the probation services preferred contacts to help offenders get back into work when they came out and they had a very very high staff turnover, eventually even the probation service stopped sending people there because it was so old school, I saw my one and only serious work place accident there when a girl got dragged into a machine after her hair got caught in a conveyor belt, even whilst she led unconscious and quite badly injured the supervisor was barking to keep the line moving...! I did buy my first decent car with the money I earned that summer though.
Spent 10 weeks of a uni summer break working in a saw mill. We did 2pm til 10pm Monday to Friday. We were working on one of the older machines that had not been fully automated yet. So basically for 10 weeks I either fed this 5 blade cutting machine big 100mm square 3 metre lengths of wood or picked off the cut wood it spat out.
These were all loaded onto big pallets which, when full, were at eye level so you had to lift all this wood up quite high or bend quite low when filling a new pallet.
Despite this the job was probably more mentally tiring as you had to spend the whole time with ear defenders on constantly watching this machine relentlessly consuming wood!
To think some guys had worked there for 20+ years..
These were all loaded onto big pallets which, when full, were at eye level so you had to lift all this wood up quite high or bend quite low when filling a new pallet.
Despite this the job was probably more mentally tiring as you had to spend the whole time with ear defenders on constantly watching this machine relentlessly consuming wood!
To think some guys had worked there for 20+ years..
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff