Light for light checking

cazna

Your prob right about not checking with a light 20years ago, standards were not as high then as they are now, customers expect better than that today so most of us have met that demand.

And as for suggested manufactures ways of application, Well how often does that work out, are you wet sanding your work as well, they recommend that so i hope you are.

Manufacturers are all about leaving a little out and recommending or warning about certain things so if something goes wrong they always have a cop out, and/or makes you buy more of there product.

Painters dont plaster houses we do, most painters just blame the plasterer if there is something not right, they show up get a brush or roller and paint, very few painters will stop and fix a dent/scratch or chip, thats down time for them and there costs are usually screwed down so then they claim thats an extra or just dont bother so i would not feel comfortable not checking with a light and leaving it for them.

If your not checking with a light then i need to come and do a weeks work with you becouse i am doing it all wrong then.

2buckcanuck

gee mudstar which part of the great white north do you live in, cause I'm moving there.hope it's not nunavut where it's dark 6 months out of the year and always cold and snowing. When did you guys start taping igloos

Capt-sheetrock

I try this one.

I went to a light after years of refusing too. Why ???

Cause it finally dawned on my dumb arse, that it was more profitable to spend an hour (while I was already there) to check it, then to have to get up in the morning and drive an hour to point up 10 mins work, then have to drive an 1 1/2 to the job I should have been on at 7 am cause I screwed up and didn't catch that little bitty scratch left by my angle head cause it picked up a bit of trash.

Whooo, I feel better now, thanks for letting me share !!!

Mudstar

Why did you not see that scratch left behind?

Where you working in the dark or did you have your eyes closed not to see the trash damage happen during the application?

Depending on positioning of the light to show you what your tool is leaving behind can also be a problem seeing what you would see in normal lighting conditions. I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about how that could happen.


JS

Mudstar

If you have bad eye for detail, lights not going to help you do any better in this trade anyways, especially if the consumer vision is better then the taper or painter, besides that matter. I think maybe why you light holders in the trade can't see as good as the person inspecting your work is your both using abnormal lighting conditions to inspect and all I have to say is you better have held the light in the same position J.S.

I use my vison and feel the wall to perfect a job and I do use a light in the rooms that are dark that I can't focus on the wall, but as soon as you start going beyond that and start moving the light around to much things start looking different.

Infractions create deseption and over reaction to quality and some use that as ther excuse for not seeing there inperfections, dam lights!

You all know where I'm coming from and know if you can't see the wall you get a light and don't forget to focus on the wall and if you can't go see an eye doctor. Also this light swingin around has to stop and looking into a 500 watt halogen is damaging your vision to do a good job in the first place so be practical but productive at the same time.

Like I said before, get back to work you slackers

Capt-sheetrock

I felt the same way for years, but now my life is easier since I went to a light. Works for me. I never was good enough that i didn't leave a scratch or poc mark somewhere. I guess we all can't be that good.

cazna

Yeah Capt, im not that good either. Pass me the light thanks, im not coming back for a little dent/chip/scratch i missed first time around, if the owner sees it then its to late.

We dont spend 24hrs a day looking at our work under different lighting as the owner will, all those evenings glancing at the wall with the uplight on that we were to tired to check with a light in the first place.

Mudstar you are welcome to move to my town and be my competition any day, i wish other drywallers didnt use a light, would bring me more work, not that its need at the moment anyway.

Bevelation

Believe it or not, we are the ones with the trained eye to see the imperfections. Seldom are the homeowners. Before I got into this line of work, I never came to notice or acknowledge minor nicks, humps or scratches in an otherwise normal finished wall. Never once.

__________________
What do you add to powdered water?

Capt-sheetrock

Its your lie,,, you can tell it as big as you want too

2buckcanuck

from what I find were living in that so called world of information .people google ,youtube and come to sites like this to educate them selves and go nicks ,scrapes ,lines a no no and checking with light sounds good,standards keep getting higher.
Most builders will tell you that most home buyers dont notice the tape job till they move in,but it's that one out of twenty buyers that will make a stink and want it fixed.more than three touch ups on a wall,patch and re PAINT, well home owner lives there.that cost $$$$$$ better to be safe than sorry.
home owners trust lawyers more than construction workers,because of the tv shows and things they read on the net.They take way more interest in their homes than they use to

Bevelation

The painter "sees" different imperfections than we do, as well. That doesn't help considering it's mostly just dirt picked up from their own roller.

Just to clarify, I light-check too.

__________________
What do you add to powdered water?

cazna

The best time to pick up on the touch ups is after its sealed/undercoated with the light, but we are not around then most of the time, and most painters just blame the drywaller and keep on pushin the paint, sometimes if you get lucky the painter might check with a light, mark with a pencil and give you a chance to touch up, Im right on the painters tail with this, they tend to get the point if you push it enough.

Steve

On the commercial side of things, we usually have decent temp lights hanging which is enough for most of the work. I will usually pole sand with only the temp lights, then I carry a small halogen and a sanding sponge around and do a little detail sanding. I immediately have a superintendent approve my work before other trades come back in and start trashing my work. That way I can get paid to fix any damage. There is always damage or a last minute architectural change to go back to.

I prefer a 100 watt incandescent bulb to a halogen, but they break too easily.

2buckcanuck

no way cazna,you dont go back after they paint do you,the whole purpose of the taper is to hide the joints and fasteners with as little imperfections as possible.how many tape jobs have you seen where a taper can't even hide a joint ?I'm ready to kill if I get sent back to fix a couple of nicks and dings.A damn good taper will invest 5 to 10 thousand dollars in tools ,and now he's going to go back and FIX !!!!! stuff with a plastic knife and pan he could buy from toys "r" us,screw that !!!!! ,
A contractor said to me once,"Only one out of a hundred tapers is any good,and when you find one thats good ,don't let him know it !"stand your ground,if you are good you wont be going back to fix bull sh*t .If you are going back to fix major taping errors ,time to look at a career change ,But something tells me your a good taper cazna ,you fix alot of things from dry wallers and framers don't you?painters can FIX things too!
Bottom line ;there is absolutely no money in the word FIXX when your a contract/piece work taper (hr work different) painters getting a freebee from you.just trying to save you some money,then you can get more beer cheers

cazna

That was good little rant yeah go you must have pushed a good button on that one ha ha.

Well Mr 2buck its a bit hard to cover everything typing short phrases like this but i will give it a shot to defend my honour, now its my turn.

Im in a small town so going back is not much of a problem most of the time, and im not going back to fix any of my seams, i get them right and light check when sanding.

On my last job i got the cupboards, garage, laundry, bathroom toilets, finished and sanded up first so the painters could come in and get these sorted for fit out so i carryed on finishing bedrooms, hallways, so then they could have that while i finshed living areas etc, so its not much bother to check over it once they have sealed it when im still there is it.

My House before this i completed it fully before the painters started, checked over it often and even went back to light check at night, this house was a high end home and the builders left the apprentices to board it out and they beat it to death, they walked on the sheets while they lay on the ground with there stone covered shoes, used the butts of there hammers to hold ceiling sheets up while screwing off, cut the face paper of the board realised they screwed up the measurement, re cut the board and then used this sheet with the wrong cut anyway, even in bathroom.
Put the battens up the wrong way so then the board had to run with the battens not across, so then one edge of the board was not held by much and cracked in a main living area, on and on i could go, anyway i thought i had it all sorted, the painters came in and spray sealed it, passed a light over it and it turns out i missed around 100 sratches and bruses, my seams where perfect but i did not see these. So back i went make sure these were sorted.

Plumbers cut holes, kitchens scratchs wall, Electricians cut holes, tilers damage walls, vanities dont fit, the wallboard sometimes is not put close enough to door frames then they trim with small trims and these dont cover, they install cavaity sliders/kitchen doors and dent the ceilings and so on.

Now i could moan about this to everyone and it wont change a thing, it will just piss the home owner off, waste my energy, and all the other subbys wont want to deal with you, Or i could allow a couple of days extra on the price to fix all these things, not moan about it, sh!t happens, not upset the owner as they have enough to stress about and look what happens, all the subbys love you, the owner thinks your awsome and tells everyone, then you get repeated work at higher prices than your compition becouse all they do is winge about a little fix up.

So if you have a problem about going back to sort these things out and generally be a helpful person to have around then maybe you need to change your job becouse these things wont stop happening just becouse you get pissy about a fix up, or the other subbys wont call you becouse they cant be bothered with your sh!t and leave it unfixed for the owner to see.

Now look how much you made me type and time i have wasted pointing out the obvious, lets just say i love other plasterers that wont fix up or annoy the customer for extras. you guys make it easy for me to make a living. Thanks.

2buckcanuck

not fighting with you cazna,big difference between us is your contracting and I'm sub contracting.I did what you did before ,fix this ,do that ,make them love you ,but I found love dont pay the bills.
where I live there's three big drywall contractors that employ over 100 hangers,tapers,insulators,each,your not going to beat them so you half to join them.you tape behind good dry wall work ,you can back charge if it's bad. you work for a set rate,extras for bead ,bull nose ,height,cathedral ceilings etc,work load sq ft is any where from 7,000 to 15,000 ,(depends on what house they give you)all level 4 work,level 5 extra,heat and water supplied ,finish your house? get on phone call for next one,were piece workers but were unionized (weak union) our wages are still going up ,pay day every two weeks,and a pension one day,sound good
here's the bad, you half to be really really good,if I get sent back to a house thats painted,I'm on the sh*t list,do it again ,I'm sitting for the winter,and you better be damn fast, one house a week no matter what size ,for get weekends off,basically it's a company your in and you compete to be #1 or stay #1.gets harder to do when your 48 (got 28 yr old helper) I under stand what your doing ,were night and day though ,plus we have repair guys for those bad guys who put holes in walls lol
may be you should move to Canada cazna,do you like snow

SaskMud

Cazna SO well said!

Here in my area I'd say about 75-80% of finishers are either massive alcoholics or substance abuse addicts or have the work ethic of 4 year old with ADD.

I train guys that are worth my time and we walk away with usually 30-70$ an hour, depending on the job, we DO the small jobs, someone calls me with a 8x4 ceiling that is damaged from water, match the texture, takes 2 guys 3-4 days 30 min-1 hr total of 4 hours of work for $800... HELL YA! We do get that small contract and where did he find out about us?? A REFERAL CAUSE WE DID IT RIGHT THE 1ST TIME!!!

Make it done right the 1st time, make everyone happy your working around, have good dress and deportment, don't swear with clients around, and make that client LOVE YOU & WHAT YOU DO!!

Referals is what gives your business a spine when the market is flooded with ads from some random taper teams that do not want a boss, and doesnt have real overhead like insurance, etc.

2buckcanuck

gee ,I went back and re read some of these post and Im having to agree with mudstar (half to kill my self now lol)if your going back to fix your own work then your doing something wrong,if your going back to FIX somebody else's work or mistakes I hope your getting paid for it !!
Here's a trick from a old timer,run around with a chord less light before you sand ,and right now every one thinks Im nuts,but think about it,when you do that your going to find that line from your box or angle flusher,that porosity that's in your butt joint (how that get there ?) the screw with one coat ,that nick,that ding ,that scrape ,why will you find this stuff ,CAUSE IT"S NOT FULL OF SANDING DUST,then when you sand guess what your looking for,sanding errors,and there should none if you know how to sand yet.oh my god !!! mudstar may be right
and saskmud ,cazna explained why he's going back (hope you get paid extra)because this is a thread about lights and checking,guess you were drinking or doing some substance and didn't notice that

SaskMud

I guess I got a little off track, I'm PRO light. Just saying doing it with a light you will not be called back. LOL, I get a little carried away sometimes...

2buckcanuck

thats cool saskmud,don't want to fight with a fellow canuck,....since us canucks are so friendly .....lets pick on some yanks instead
you keeping busy there in Saskatchewan ,can't keep up here in Ontario,hear their kind of slow down there in the states......stirring the pot tee hee