Working steady

**jimbo1873** · 22-01-2010, 11:09 PM

I'm working hard every day and all the jobs i do look great but just seem to take me forever to finnish jobs anyone got any tips to speed me up(3 bedroom house standerd size 16 working days).
And what counts for extra's on jobs.
CHEERS

**TonyM** · 23-01-2010, 12:24 AM

That's a long time Jimbo. Even a week for a 3 bed house is a lot. I would guess that most of your time is spent on beads and internals, so can only suggest that you get yourself a Mudrunner or a corner box to speed things up a bit.
Regarding extras. If you are working on crap boarding, ie big gaps and screws sticking out everywhere, then any pre-filling and time spent making good should be paid for. This is why i'm keeping away from house bashing, because if the boarders are getting shit money, they're going to leave a bad job, which makes the tapers job harder.

**saleen836** · 23-01-2010, 10:00 AM

As Tony said, 16 days IS a very long time! where do you think your time is being lost? do you machine or hand tape? and how long have you been taping? (didn't mean the last question to sound rude but the more experiance the quicker jobs get done)

**TonyM** · 23-01-2010, 10:20 AM

I'm surprised a builder/contractor would let you take that long in one house. Do you always work alone?

**turrican_007** · 23-01-2010, 06:25 PM

16 days is a long time mate, you smoking weed or sommit?

**amestaper** · 25-01-2010, 06:17 PM

You should manage this easy enough in 5 days without breaking a sweat Jimbo. Are you charging for corner beads/tapes?
Everything that has been mentioned so far is correct, you should get extra cash for backfilling gaps, banging in screws, and fixing anyone elses f*ckups that is not your fault like plumbers pipes, sparks cables, and radiator dwangs not in partitions, wrong places etc. Charge a hefty hourly rate for any changes of plan, alterations and extras (dont be shy +£20 per hour) and just watch how few and far between the problems become once the main contractor bills these other guys for their mistakes they shouldnt be leaving for you to fix. Otherwise, just tape it as normal and leave the screws and dont try to hide the bad boarding etc (then the painters will also have a good moan about it to the contractor)

If you really take 16 days to finish a house I would speed it up before your main contractor starts looking elsewhere if deadlines and penalty clauses happen to become an issue later on. Good luck wth this mate.

**DMS** · 25-01-2010, 06:22 PM

definitely get some form of automatic tools, flat boxes, taper, corner finishing tools. depending on your budget. the bottom line is automatic taping tools will speed you up by a factor of 2-3, and should pay for themselves within a month of using them, so it is a rapid return investment without any bad side. If you have steady work it is worth putting them on the credit card and you should be able to pay them off by the time your second statement comes around and then be making twice your monthly income with less work.
I have northstar in stock, you can contact me on 0786 795 3014.
Dan