How do tradesmen charge ?

[dennis]

bigger van?

They managed OK when they built a neighbours extension. Almost nothing came in the van, it all came from a builders merchant.

[Bill Wright]

Higher overheads then. And in any case, you just can't carry a mixer, a variety of drills, a kango, a generator, a stilsaw, a lot of ladders, a scaffold platform, a big stepladder, a lot of handtools, all the necessary nails, ties, and other fixings, buckets, hosepipes, etc everywhere you go. Ludicrously inefficient.

So what you're doing here is generalising from one experience, and pitting your opinion against people who have a working lifetime of experience.

Bill

[harryagain]

Drivel. He will have scaffolding, cement mixer, sand, aggregate, cement plaster, plaster mixer plaster board, timber, common bricks, concrete blocks ironmongery and a huge number of bulky and expensive tools.

Including angle grinder.

So he will have a large shed and probably a yard.

[Lobster]

On 22 Feb 2014, Bill Wright grunted:

I agree that as a profession they have a very poor rep. I remember coming across a roofing firm somewhere or other online (maybe via this ng?) whose USP was that they provided a before and after video of the job; which struck me as a brilliant idea for a decent firm to adopt, to reassure punters.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've never known a small jobbing builder have his own scaffolding. It is a specialised trade requiring special training, skills and insurance.

I'm speaking from knowing several small builders who have no premises other than their dwelling. They have all materials delivered as needed to site. And hire in any necessary large equipment.

It goes without saying there are larger ones with their own yard. But it isn't essential - unlike garage premises are for working on a car.

I would have thought this obvious.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I have a mate who is a self employed roofer, and for many a year he's taken pics of any problems when assessing a job for a quote. Certainly from before the time phones with cameras arrived.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd guess Tony isn't classing the likes of Behringer as 'pro gear'. He'll be thinking Neve, etc.

[tony sayer]

Don't really think Behringer as Pro equipment, suitable for home studios and the like?.

Nope don't do lighting..

They don't sound like "Pro" desks either, we work with sometimes older Neve's, Audix broadcast and Sonifex and EELA equipment's for mixers..

Misc. other studio and broadcast kit such as SBS, Audemat-Aztec, Orban, Harris broadcast, BW Broadcast, Mosely Microwave, Inovonics etc..

Mainly see QUAD 405,s and 520's and some other makes, but not that often...

AV amps?, wot are they;?...

[ARW]

She went ballistic when I decided to store the cement mixer in the lounge.

[tony sayer]

In article , Dave Plowman (News) scribeth thus

Ummm not that difficult, one of their best designers lives opposite;)..

[Tim Streater]

You mean as in "I, harry, am about to post more drivel"?

no he won't have scaffolding.

Funny, none of the blokes who've worked here don't. They make do with a van. The bloke who's doing the paving here makes do with a small tipper truck.

[tony sayer]

In article , Arfa Daily scribeth thus

Which company are you referring to Arfa?. Martin was at Neve from 75 thru 85 quite some time ago!...

Neve of old is now AMS-Neve a different company completely!..

Of did you mean,

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The likes of Neve would have had no sales to the BBC etc if they wanted to keep their schematics as some sort of secret. Since broadcasters and larger recording studios normally keep maintenance and repair 'in house'. They can't risk equipment (like a mixing desk in a studio) being down for the time it would take to send something off for repair, or get a factory man in.

Behringer almost fits into the disposable bracket. ;-)

I recently contacted Linn wanting to buy a copy of the schematic for a long defunct piece of equipment. Only to be told they only supply such things to authorised dealers. My feeling about that is they don't want the great unwashed to find out easily just how little their products cost to make. ;-)

[tony sayer]

Ah!, they Rupert Neve that is or was, were building pro mixing desks for all the big studios and broadcasters since 1970 odd.

Then Neve sold out/were amalgamated with AMS to become AMS-Neve.

Rupert Neve is still involved in his own company and started IIRC Focusrite which is a similar sort of outfit to Behringer...

[jkn]

Hi Dave

On Sunday, 23 February 2014 15:22:21 UTC, Dave Plowman (News) wrote: [...]

FWIW there is a fair number of Linn Schematics out there - I have a few myself, for things like the Valhalla. Keep hunting, I suggest...

Cheers J^n

[tony sayer]

Indeed.. I almost got a job as field service engineer there many years ago now. It was put that if Madonna or Michael Jackson couldn't record as a desk was down then hop onto the first Concorde out to wherever and "sort it"!..

All the nice places mind, not like that other job a mate of min had going to the Sudan and such like;(..

Well what can you do with equipment like that from the service POV?

I wonder what Phil Addision would have to say on that;!!..

[dennis]

I'm not pitting against anyone, its one way to do it. There isn't any need for a builder to have a yard and can work out of his garage with ease.

There really isn't any reason why they need to hoard bricks, sand, cement or anything else.

[Bill Wright]

I guess the model you have in mind is the one-man-band rather-amateurish not-very-ambitious I-only-do-small-jobs one. Not someone I'd employ.

Bill

[bert]

Same here when I moved in the motorbike.

[Capitol]

Training failure. The wheelbarrow and the cement have been stored in the kitchen. I went off for a week and left her with a tap on a copper pipe, a bucket, no sink and 3 youg children. She coped!