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Wind wind go away!
Nope, not eaten a huge vindaloo in the last 24 hours, I’m annoyed with Mother Nature herself. She mocking me! 😮 😮
This morning is the 4th attempt at fitting a sign, but again the weather has made it impossible. The property the sign is being fitted to is an end terrace shop which unfortunately for me has a lovely wind trap, right where I need to fit the sign.
So, another Sunday morning, up at 7am! Another day of business this next week lost (I’ll try every morning til I get this sign 👿 ) This has to be one of the most annoying aspects of the job that I’ve come across. I thought with spring on its way, the weather would be a little milder, but then you know what thought did, he followed a dustcart and thought it was a wedding 😉
Cheers, Dewi
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17 Replies
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It must be a nightmare fitting almost anything in this kind of weather. Vinyl stuff included. I can imagine myself getting all tangled in bits of vinyl and someone having to cut me free.
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Ay its a hard life mate, but I know you, you will stick at it until it is finished.
I remember trying to stick a letter template (paper) to a rendered wall, on a pier here on the west coast of Scotland. Render is not the easiest stuff to stick to, but with a wind blowing it was a nightmare and tourists all around to laugh at you as well 😳 👿 Still I am determined like yourself and I finished the job and it looked great. Of course since then I have learnt (from this board)to make a template out off something stiffer (Correx)to ease the operation.
If I lived closer I’d be there to share the fun.
Cheers
Dave
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I carried a couple of 4 foot correx sheets out to a customer’s van yesterday and I was nearly taking off. Mental wind. One thing I always do though, when the weather is like this, is to have a scout around for wind damaged signs. I know it’s a bit like ambulance chasing, but it’s all work.
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I sympathise as this has happened to me often.
Last summer I set out to put up two large signs on a factory unit. It was a little bit breezy – (but didn’t seem too bad) so I phoned the local hire shop and arranged for a cherry picker (powered access platform) to be delivered to the site.
By the time I was organised and got there, the wind had picked up substantialy. I made one attempt at trying to lift a panel into position and realised it wasn’t going to happen that day.
Not only had I wasted a morning of my time – I was also out of pocket having to pay the cherry picker hire charges for one day.
Nowadays – if the weather is 50:50 I prefer to do something else and wait for better weather. The customer has to understand that large panels cannot be handled safely in strong winds and just needs to be patient.
On another note – I remember one particularly stormy day (we were in the middle of a real gale) – the phone rang with a request that someone came out immediately to fix a sign that was in danger of blowing down. This wasn’t even a sign that we had fitted – simply a shop that had got our number out of yellow pages and decided to phone us. Alison explained to the caller that it was too dangerous for anyone to try and do anything about the sign in the middle of a storm. Presumably they thought I would be invulnerable to the dangers of dealing with a loose sign in a gale force wind. 🙄
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True, the wind is the signmakers nummber one enemy. One thing about it though, it shows who are the good and bad fitters the day after the storm!!
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Round 5 to Mother Nature I think! 👿 👿 Its fair play, I’ll get my own back! I won’t mow the lawn all summer, see how ole cloud-sitting, wind-bringing, imaginary person to blame likes it! 😛
Its annoying me more atm because I’m booked virtually solid with work and if this sign comes down any day this week, I’ll be a day behind with my orders 😕 I guess the only answer is to work some overtime today, get the work done in advance 🙁
Completely different note, but everyone who told me before I opened “Make sure you have done everything you need to the shop BEFORE you open it”…. well, a month in, how I wish I’d listened! I’ve still not got my shop looking right, there are bare walls galore 😕 My outside sign still needs a bit more attention, my backyard is full of debris from when I moved in with all the stock and my lil kitchen still doesn’t have a plug socket! Thankfully I bought the recommended 25m power reel 😉 I’ll always admit when I’m wrong, and blimey, did I make a boo boo. Mind you, the work is coming in, so if I can keep it up I’ll be able to pay someone else 😉 😉 😆
Round 6 tomorrow no doubt 😕
Cheers, Dewi
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Could be worse Dewi – I live on a large estate and my house and the one next door act as wind breaks for the rest of them and guess who’s lost a quarter of his roof tiles – one of them smashing into my newly signed van?
– Just call me lucky! -
Ner ner na ner ner, I beat mother nature!!!! 😀 😀 😀 😀
The sign went up today, with alot of huffing and puffing! It came down at 11:30am, was stripped bare by 2pm and with a lot of help and assistance from Mrs Dewi, it went back up at 5:30pm 😀 😀 😀
One side of the sign isn’t lit because the customer only told me he had new tubes once the sign had been refitted, and it wasn’t coming back down today!!!! 👿 😉
Cheers, Dewi
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CONGRATULATIONS DEWI (hot)
Looks great Dewi worth the struggle eh, you won’t forget that one in a hurry.
Well done mate
Dave
Thought I would do a Dewi and ask what kind of charge you made for this job?
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Thats the only downside to it Dave, I charged £170 🙁 In hindsight, it should have been more, but this shop is about 6 doors down from mine and the sign doesn’t look that big when its up, but when you get it in the workshop, blimey! 😮
After saying that though, its all a learning experience, and I now know what not to do and to charge for the things I do 😕 😳
Thank you for the Congrats though, I do feel relieved to have finished the job. Customer paid me on the spot with a big beaming smile, thats what I like 😀 (The smile and the cash 😉 )
Cheers, Dewi
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(hot) brilliant mate.. i had every thaif in you..
wind, rain & snow.. you will hit them all many times over in this game..
the good bit about it is everytime you pass that sign you will remember all the fun you had. 😉 -
well done dewi!! 😆
bet yur glad that’s over, you’ll look forward to other signs know!!did they give you a free curry!! 🙁
Nik
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Looks realy good Dewi, and yes did u get a free curry?
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My inlaws are coming up for a short stay, so they will be babysitting Mini-me so that Mrs Dewi and I can go for a meal at the restaurant and no doubt paint the local tiles a lovely shade of blue 😉 I’ve made that many red signs, I’m beginning to see everything in red, so I need a change 😉
I am pleased its done and I already have my next job lined up, a 3m x 3m gable end. Its an off-license/convienience store this time, so lets hope I get some free beer to go with the curry 😉 😉 Thoroughly enjoyed my first 4 weeks in the trade, onto my 5th week now. I’m going to get some decent piccies of the big sign I did the week before the weather turned. It looks a bit wierd though, as the customer put a border around it. Still looks very smart and it does exactly what they wanted it to do 😀
Cheers, Dewi
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Well done Dewi. You’ll sleep better tonight knowing that one’s done and dusted 😀
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Hey good one Dewi,
It’s really great to see you come jumping out of the blocks the way you have. Congratulations.
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If you’ve seen the film ‘Snatch’ you’ll know that gypo’s always throw in a dog with the deal. Well, if you work for a takeaway or restaurant and don’t get a meal thrown in for you and the misus, well you gotta be doing something wrong. I’ve had more rank curries and warm beer than I care to remember.
😀 😀
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