Brickies in London

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Seems there's a shortage of brickies in London, so according to tonight's BBC1 local London news 'they're' bringing them in from Portugal and paying

1000 quid a week.

Of course being TV news, a story isn't a story without pictures so they showed what appeared to be a foreman or boss or whatever laying some bricks. In a finished opening for a window on a new building. With no string line. And starting from a half brick in what was the finished part of the wall. And the ones he laid were all over the place. Obviously going to be removed after the filming. The bricks he was using also appeared to be a different shape - sort of tapered - although the correct colour.

Worth a look if you can find it on iPlayer, etc.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Dave Plowman (News) laid this down on his screen :

They fudge lots of things for the camera, more so in films and get it so badly wrong.

Yesterday they showed volunteers putting Christmas lights up in a Yorkshire village and showed one of the volunteers testing what looked like a seriously dangerous installation. Clamp meter in hand, he had it round a flexible 2 or 3 core. Anyone who has ever used a clamp meter, will realise putting a clamp meter around a flex, it will record nothing - the flow and return currents cancel out. The clamp meter needs to be fitted around a single core of the circuit in order to record.

In films, they often have lifts go crashing down the lift shaft, because the wire ropes have been cut - impossible. Cut the ropes, the brake is applied locking the car against the rails.

Knowing just a little on technical subjects, makes you very sceptical :')

[CB]

Was discussed on the Radio 4 PM program with the obligatory "both sides of the debate". One saying that the reason we had a bricklayer shortage was that current apprenticeships were only 18 months to 2 years and you weren't properly trained in that time and the other (I think a college lecturer) saying that we cant teach all the skills in college a lot have to be picked up on the job.

Anyway they had a long debate about standards and one thing they both agreed on was that UK bricklaying standards are higher/different than most of Europe and that these guys coming in weren't bricklayers but block-layers.

To educate me what is the difference between a bricklayer and a block-layer? (And if it simply the size of the units being laid what is the difference in skill-set required?)

Chris.

[Dave Liquorice]

At a guess a bricklayer knows the different bonds and when/where to use them. A bricklayer can lay bricks with uniform (but variable depening on what is required) mortar thickness, minimal wastage and no mortar on the faces of the bricks, by eye.

AFAIK blocks don't have bonds and are generally rendered or otherwise covered so variable mortar thickness and mortar smeared all over the faces etc doesn't matter.

[Andy Burns]

I heard that section on 'PM' too, I assume the Portuguese building trade uses those hollow multi-celled clay blocks, and that a block-layer doesn't have to worry so much about neat joints and pleasing setting-out as everything is going to be rendered, plastered or plasterboarded over as the final finish ...

The two interviewees seemed to agree the day rate in London was £160 rather than £200, but do we really need an extra 30,000 brickies as one of them claimed?

[Andy Burns]

Speaking of which, having typically seen them on $FORRIN programmes, they seem to have crossed The Channel now

Don't know whether they'd end-up making a project cheaper or not, those large format thin jointed lightweight blocks don't seem to catch on, presumably as brickies aren't familiar with them, I can see the same being true for the clay blok, unless you get a cheaper gang of Portugese/Spanish/Italian blocklayers ...

[Adrian]

And £160/day, if you work Saturday, is near-as-dammit a grand...

[Adrian]

Ah, good ol' "Not-invented-here" syndrome.

I've not used them. So I'm not familiar with them. So I won't use them.

[Ian Jackson]

In message , Harry Bloomfield writes

I saw that. It was only on for a brief couple of seconds, so I didn't have time to decide if he was doing it wrong. Although it was a pretty chunky cable, is it possible that the go and return were separate?

[Andrew Gabriel]

I remember thinking that as I went up the lift in the Empire State Building. Two days later, the lift broke and the cage dropped 10 floors before braking, injuring several Japanese tourists inside.

It's a shame there's no real science/engineering on the BBC nowadays, and no scientists/engineers presenting, except for the Royal Institution Christmas lectures once a year.

[Andrew Gabriel]

There are a few buildings going up around me, and they're all delayed because the developers can't get brickies, and apparently bricks too are in short supply.

[dennis]

Its the old union job protection scam. It doesn't work anymore but they haven't worked it out yet.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The best brickie I've ever seen (in a limited experience) was a self taught landscape gardener who hailed from NZ. He loved doing brickwork, and it was always a thing of beauty - despite often using reclaimed bricks which were anything but regular. And did the foundations etc correctly. All the garden walls etc he did for me some 20 years ago are still perfect. Neighbours ones done by others all seem to have cracks. ;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

They could have said they were demonstrating just how bad it was without a decent brickie. ;-)

[damduck-egg]

Can't we just stick to the modern tradition and blame Microsoft. If they hadn't set up in Ireland then youngsters over there wouldn't have decided that the only way to earn a decent wage was to come to over here and build things in the wet and cold.

On an allied point and now being a little more serious if the proposed road improvement schemes ,new railways etc all go ahead getting a workforce together while tackling the thorny problem of immigration will be an interesting conundrum.

G.Harman

[Adrian]

This year's Reith lectures, going on at the mo, might be of interest.

Last scientific-focussed ones were 2005, 2009, 2010, all still on iPlayer via the same link.

[whisky-dave]

BBC Four last night presented by Jim Al-Khalili last night.

if that's not real science then what is, unless of course if your not watching it in which case it never existed. :0

[Capitol]

Those hollow clay blocks were used in the uk in the early 60's. gave in effect a double cavity with better insulation. Haven't seen them used here since.

[Scott M]

Reminds me of past shortages of plumbers and PAT testers. Money to be made, lads! If only for the ones running the training courses....

[Tim Watts]

Ah - well you might think so...

I've used one of those - well an earlier model. They are extremely good.