Lessons

The Baptist project was a great learning experience for me as it refined my supervisory skills. I watched the general contractor in action and learned a lot from him. He rarely lost his temper and never yelled at his crew. Yet he was very much respected. I thought it was because he respected them as well and so I emulated him as best I could. It was a good lesson and later I was told by some of my crew that they felt the worst when they knew that they had failed to meet my expectations. I hadn’t yelled at all, never said a word, but they knew. And they tried to make certain it didn’t happen again.

And I also learned that you could get more done with less people if you could break up your crew into single units and doing solitary tasks. This was something I had actually learned for myself when I was a piece-worker. There was no reason for two people to install a 4x12 sheet of drywall unless it was over 8’ high. And at the same time this created some competition as everyone became quite aware of how fast the others were working.

After the Baptist tower was complete, I moved on to many more projects throughout the Los Angeles area. And working for many more contractors. I had gained a good reputation and was often called to run a project. For awhile I could pick and choose where I wanted to work and for how much. And my “crew” always came along with me.

If I were to go back to Los Angeles now, I could drive for hours as I showed you all of the places I worked during the 14 plus years there. Also, I used to place my name and date on the inside of walls or elevator shafts wherever I worked. A little something for posterity?

It might have been early 1973 when I took a Superintendent’s job with Pacific States Plastering. Now I was stuck in an office for an hour or so each day and learning another side of the construction business. I had been an estimator (trainee) before and that helped in this new position, but as always, I enjoyed the field work more than office work. And now I had 4 or 5 jobs that I could visit each day and enjoy myself.

Now, back to the 70's

And back to the Baptist Home for the Aged.

And right across the street from the construction site was a Baptist church; where we held the weekly progress meetings. The superintendent explained that we were meeting in the church because, “Maybe you $#?#@?}&’s won’t lie to me here when I ask you when you will finished.” Actually, I don’t think anyone was brave enough to lie to him. This project was fast tracked and we were all making money because of it. Even the meetings lasted no more than 15 minutes and then we were told to get out and get back to work!

Another memory; one morning it was noted that the concrete trucks had to make two turns instead of one when backing in to the site. A car was parked (legally) in a space that made a second turn necessary for the big trucks. I was with the superintendent at the time he noticed it, up on the 10^th floor. He used his radio to call the crane operator and a man on the ground. In a few minutes, the crane swung over and the trolley went out to a spot directly over the offending car. The hook was lowered and attached to a sling around the rear of the car. Signals were given and the car slowly moved away from its parked location and out into the street. Hook and sling were removed and the trucks began moving into the yard much faster. Yes, the owner of the car got a ticket for being improperly parked.

Back to the Future

I missed it! I had been watching the downtown University area location where Turner Construction was building something. I had watched the pile driving and the pouring of the footings. I had seen the electricians and plumbers doing their underground work. What kind of building was going up here? I didn’t know and didn’t really care; I was simply interested in the work itself.

A retired construction worker. A sidewalk superintendent. That’s what I am. And I had missed the arrival and the erection of the steel frame. Darn! Back in the day; the steel arriving meant that the job was really on its way. There would soon be form and substance to the project. And so there is and I missed it.

There are still some miscellaneous pieces to be placed, but the substantial frame work is complete. The building has been ‘rattled’ and the decking spread and pinned. Edge angle and support clips will be welded into place pretty soon. Nelson studs will be welded through the deck and into the beams. Once the deck has an edge and all of the mesh and utilities are in place; concrete will be poured.

This is the stage of construction where I was usually called to get a crew on the site and get busy. There would be support clips to weld on the outside edge of the frame. And once the concrete was poured on the floor of the second story, our fireproofers could begin to spray Monokote on the beams and columns that supported that floor. We would follow the concrete on up the building, always just one floor behind.

Obviously I need to pay more attention...

Back to the Baptist Home for the Aged…

Since I wanted this to be a very profitable job, I tried my best to change the way we normally worked. I knew that you could always get more done when working by yourself and so I assigned my crew to tasks that could always be done by just one person. As the foreman and the one doing all of the layout work, I had a special obstacle to overcome. Who would hold the ‘dumb’ end of the tape measure and who would help me snap a chalk line to mark the location of walls? Ordinarily this was the assignment given to an apprentice. I had no apprentice and since I was also the foreman, I was often going to meetings with the superintendent or fixing problems somewhere on the project. If I had someone working with me, they would be idle while I was away. So I had an idea and I asked the plumbing contractor to pour me a large block of lead. With a groove cut in the bottom of it, the block of lead became my ‘apprentice’, holding the end of a chalk line or a tape measure. For all of the overhead work, I would stand on a bucket and sight down a plumb bob line to mark the location of the walls on the concrete ceilings. Then I used a modified spring tension pole lamp to hold the chalk line again while I snapped lines on the ceiling.

My framing crew, all from Argentina and Uruguay, had a great work ethic and would work by themselves without complaining. And with the walls only 8’ high, the drywall crew had no problem working alone either. It wasn’t long before we were on schedule and putting out a floor a week without fail. One week to layout the floor (me). One week to frame the floor (4 framers). One week to hang the drywall (4 rockers). And one week to tape the floor, (3 tapers).

And after I had finished the layout on a floor, usually within 3 days, I would work on the elevator shafts. There were three small shafts and by laying planks across the openings I could do the framing and the hang the drywall by myself. I would have to leave a small opening in the wall where the plank passed through and when I was finished, a flap I had made would fall down over the opening as soon as the plank was pulled out. Later in the job schedule there would be time for me to go back into the shaft, on top of the elevator and ride up and down, patching any holes that were left.

And one day, as I was working while standing on a plank, laid across the opening on the 7th floor, I felt the plank move! I turned and saw a guy walking out to meet me, his hand outstretched to shake mine…giving me his name and asking if I needed anyone? He was looking for work; had his tools draped over his shoulder. It only took me a few seconds to realize that I had a real find here. Here was a guy willing to walk out onto a narrow plank over a hole that was about 80’ deep and ask for work. I hired him right then and told him to take over what I was doing.

I used to tell apprentices this story whenever they complained about how hard it was to find a job. And the first thing I asked them; do you always carry your tools with you when you ask for a job? For that was actually more impressive than just walking out into the shaft. That guy wanted work and was ready to be hired. His tools weren’t out in his car or truck or at home in the garage. He was ready, now.

Memory. The tower crane rose up through the building, occupying a square hole left out of the concrete on each floor that it passed through. And as the crane moved throughout the day, turning, lifting and lowering loads, the metal tubing structure of the crane gave off creaks and groans of stress. I would sometimes stand next to the crane and touch the tubing to feel the vibrating tension contained within it. It would sway back and forth slowly and I tried to imagine how it might feel to be high on top of the crane and operating it. Awesome!

What's Normal?

With New Jersey safely behind me, it was time for some “normal” work. Unfortunately the job market was slow and Modern Drywall had very little work for us and we had to make do with just a few days of work each week. Finally it was time to find a ‘regular’ job and I quickly found one with LA Drywall, a rival company to be sure, but working was always better than not and I was promised my old job back when things got better.

Of course I was no longer a foreman and so there was a pay cut. But that didn’t last long and I was soon a foreman with LA Drywall, making more money and running small projects all around the Los Angeles area. This turned out to be quite profitable in a different sense as I was being introduced to new people in the industry and these contacts would lead to even better jobs in the future.

Recap: I worked for Modern Drywall for about 7 years, or until they went out of business. During that time I worked for other companies during the slow times but always returned to Modern Drywall, my first and favorite employer.

And one of the jobs I ran for LA Drywall was the new Baptist Home for the Aged, a 17 story, poured in place concrete structure, near Vermont Avenue, in the heart of Los Angeles.

This was my first experience with a “flying form” project. A tower crane was erected next to the building and permanent concrete form structures were built on top of the first floor. These forms would be jacked up to the proper height for the following floor and then after the concrete was poured and set, the forms would be lowered and then rolled out to the sides of the building, hanging out of the building where the crane could pick them up. Then ‘flown’ out of the building by the crane, swinging out over the street and then up to the next floor to be reused to form the floor above that.

Jones Brothers was the General Contractor on the job and their superintendent was quite intimidating. Short and bald with a full beard and a commanding presence. I remember him telling me that he wanted a floor completed each week. I agreed and then the first week went by and I didn’t have the framing completed on time. He told me that everyone was allowed one mistake and I had just had mine. There would be no others. His schedule was not to be ignored. I saw proof of that when the electrical contractor’s foreman had to wear boots one day and wade through the wet concrete, trying to get some of his missing electrical connections made.

And since this was a concrete job, the scheduled pour was never delayed for any reason. Twice, this superintendent was placed in a LAPD squad car for disturbing the peace when starting to pour concrete before the 7 AM legal start time in a residential neighborhood. Even with him in the backseat of the police car, the concrete continued to be poured, his workmen coming up to the car and getting their instructions through the window. Good laughs for all of us as the police weren't sure how this should be handled? After all, there were concrete trucks filled and waiting in a long line to be emptied. The crane never stopped moving and basically, everyone ignored all attempts to stop the work. Should we all be arrested?