Do you like to have spectators on your jobsite, provided that they are out of harm's way? What type of jobs attract the most spectators? What kind of people seem most interested? What kind of questions do they ask you?
I don't mind spectators, as long as, as you said, they are out of the way. Once I was doing a job that involved installing a leach field for a septic system that never had an actual field before. The original installer had just let the tank effluent run into a large hole, filled with large (1-2 feet across) rocks. Obviously, the system as installed, failed a pre-sale test by an inspector. The owner of the property stood there, right at the edge of the hole, with about four friends, all drinking beer, while I dug through a mix of rocks and raw sewage, looking for the incoming pipe. There was about 18" of sewage in the bottom of the hole, and more than once, a rock fell out of the bucket. I finally stopped and pointed out that if I happened to drop one from six or eight feet high, there would likely be quite a splash! They seemed to understand the implications of that, and moved a little further away. I do make a point of telling a true story to folks I see standing and watching with small children. I have very clear memories of standing with my Mom, when I was about 3 1/2 years old, and watching a highlift repeatedly pick up and drop a large chunk of concrete, trying to break it into smaller pieces. I tell that story, and then suggest that they take the kid to watch some brain surgery, or a lawsuit being tried. My Mom let me watch the equipment work, and look where I ended up! :wink2
city jobs are the worst everyone and their dog wanna look in the hole. gotta love shoveling my guts out around a watermain and providing entertainment for 20 people :yup most problems we have are kids its come to be so bad i'm just waiting till one gets hurt just the other day we had a kid on a bicycle cruising around the 450's counterweight while it was working no matter how many barricades you put up they still get in.
A few months ago there was a new house going in. The guys were out there digging the foundation and other stuff. Anyway heres this old couple from across (but not in there yard. In yard being worked) the street sitting in there loung chairs with a cooler beside them. Making a day of it I quess.
When I dug basements and footing for my dad I didn't mind them hanging around where I was working, but my since I went to work for someone else. I don't allow anyone one site that doesn't belong there, it's bad enough them standing outside the fences out here. Most all jobs out here have a temporary 6' fence around them, some contractor go as far as security 24/7 and putting a green mesh over the fence so you can't hardly see through it. I did some demo a few weeks ago at an elementary school it was bad and very unsafe IMO. I was demoing a 5' mono retaining wall with a slab on top. The wall was 3' from the temp fence on/ through the side walk 4' from the curb. Luckily there was little bar in there so I ripped up the slab, dig down along the wall undermining the footing ~1', and started pulling on the wall. It was all the 345C I was running could do break the wall, the pop from the wall breaking was setting off car alarms across the street. And I had kids and there parents lining the fence to watch, so standing as little as 15' away. I called the generals super and told him we needed to get them back, he told me its ok they do it all of the time. What a joke if one of those footing slipped out of my bucket and just fell on the ground in front of me the dirt and sticks, ETC kicked up could have hurt somebody.
We've got both a lookout point and a highway bridge crossing a haul road where people can stay for seemingly hours and watch the mountain get opened up. I've never been bothered by spectators for the most part. I was working a highway job once and had an old man and his grandson that would come watch the action every day. After a few days I stopped and signalled the kid to come over and let him ride on the Cat with me for an hour or so......poor kid probably will end up an operator himself!!
I dont mind spectators, we get alot of them here in So Cal specially near the end of a job when people are moved into the first few phases. Mainly children who want to see something crushed:bouncegri The only kind of spectators I dont like are the ones that sign my check:Banghead
I don't mind someone watching but if there in the danger area I quit. I will not work with any kids anyware on site period. this has been kind of a joke but it has sent many home owner away Hourly rate $125/hr. you watch $175/hr. you help $250/hr. No way do I want someone hurt on my watch.
I loved watching as equipment. Figures. I loved a video called road construction. At the end, the guy says, say out of contruction site, only go if you have premsion. I would always be the way the hell out of the way. But its got me my first taste, one guy who I watched for months, finally got me to ride with him in the cab of track hoe. Well that got me running track hoe by myself. Well you know the rest of that story.
Well I had to chime in on this one! lol My favorite movie growing up was Road Construction Ahead as itsgottobegreen mentioned, and I have always enjoyed watching construction sites. Thats how I got into this business anyway- just watching and learning. As I'm in the same position CascadeScaper is (college student trying to start excavating company), I've always appreciated any chances someone gave me to learn excavating- even if it was only standing behind a fence watching!:yup
^^I was the same way, always watching local guys when I was a kid. Living in a small town, most guys knew who my parents were, so they didn't hesitate to let me have a go on a machine. Actually, one guy we're subcontracting for put me in his 200 when I was about 10 or 11, first excavator I ever had the opportunity to run. I was talking to him the other day and we were reminiscing about my days as kid riding my bike for what seemed like miles to just get maybe 10-20 minutes of watching time. I have to say that those days put me where I am today, but now that I look back on it, I don't know how they could handle me being on the sites all the time.
I don't mind if people watch from a safe area, i like to watch whats going on at other construction sites myself.
Ya we get the peanut gallery watching doing some jobs it doesn't bother us the worst is the homeowner standing there watching.
Last week i was doing some clearing on our new development and there is 3 houses all owned by older retired people near by. I swear all they did for that week was watch me work. One of the guys asked for some firewood so i dropped a whole pile off for him, he'll probably be cutting on it for months at his pace.
I don't mind folks watching but a lot of times it can mean trouble if you don't know who they are.Some folks just love to cause trouble for you and you may be doing something that zoning does not allow such as burying stuff on a house lot or stockpiling material on a proposed leachfield temporarily among other things. I had some kids in one development I was doing that was throwing rocks at my laser while they were hidden behind a spoil pile while I was digging the cellar hole.I have since forgotten what alerted me to it as a self leveling rotary beam will take some abuse before it will shut down if you don't happen to be watching it all the time you will not see it reset itself.When I picked up at the end of the day there was a pile of rocks around the tripod and they got some pretty good hits as it took a while to clean it up but it didn't appear to have any real damage so you have to watch some people I have found.The cameras worry me the most )Ron G
As long as they aren't a hazard to themselves or me, (or an inspector:wink2) I don't mind much. I also was one of those kids that could sit in all kinds of weather for hours and watch. Some of my best memories of equipment watching are from going to the Leigh Industrial park near my grandparents with my grandpa and watching scrapers dig out for sediment ponds, excavators digging trenches or loading trucks, and more. In fact, for those of you familiar with the Bethlehem area, I remember going with my grandfather and dad and watching a big D10 (i think) ripping out huge limestone boulders during the site prep for the Walgreens Warehouse. I don't remember this, but my dad says the operator stopped and actually offered to let me up in the cab, I was pretty shy as a kid, and must have turned it down:Banghead :Banghead Ah well. Sorry, got a little sidetracked there... Point being, if the spectators aren't harming production, or themselves, I don't think it's a problem, if they are kids, they might be taking over when I retire in 2050 :bouncegri -Jim
WoodDucks we call them. Watching is one thing but when they come and start telling you how to do your job!!. We are currently working alongside a trailer park which is mostly occupied with retired permanent residents. yak yak yakketty yak...all day. You just get rid of one and another comes out. Skids have poor rearward vision and kids watching is my worst nightmare. I just couldn't live with it so I always remove them from the site. Makes me unpopular but thats not the point. I can live without the woodducks.
Mastodon skull When I found the skull of the mastodon in 2000,after the paleontologists built a wooden cradle around it 2 days later{yeah,those guys work real slow},I had about 200 people watching me lift it,carry it out to a truck about 200' away,including Discovery filming it.Thank god everything went good--how do you replace a 12,000 year old skull?I was so nervous,I bit my cigar in 2.Anyway,it was quite a thrill--anybody want to check it out--go to Hyde Park mastodon---2 hour documentary also on Discovery also when it repeats called Mastodon in Your Backyard
They just repeated that here and I saw a backhoe operating in some of the shots.
Squizzy---How will I get my John Deere hat on Mon.morning now that you told me I'm an international star--had no idea where that documentary airs overseas.That's my 510B that I'm trying to sell on this site.Thanks,regards:thumbsup