How many of you guys that do construction work do alot of work on the weekends ? I realize you have to work when the weather is good !
We do clearing on weekends...I even do some stuff at night with floodlights...have been working on a few small jobs this week..gotta get it done when ya can..obviously dangers increase at night but I only do light clearing work not tree felling or anything like that
I work weekend sometimes. Sometimes you have to catch up after bad weather or sometimes I work a weekend and then next week end I take 4 days off and go on a little vacation.
I try and only do some quoting and maintenance on Saturday mornings but it always seems there is a zillion things to be done. I figure there has to be some compense for being an O/O so I guard my "off" time fairly rigourously.
More often than not, we work weekends. Our landscaping crew is comprised mostly of high school kids, so during the busy time of the year (April-June) when they're still in school, we work until dark on week nights and work full days on the weekends. My dad gets pretty run down during this time as he starts at 7AM on the weekdays with our foreman and one helper, and then 2 guys come on at 3PM and our foreman goes home for the day. When I was still working on the landscaping crew, I would run a crew on the weekends sometimes to give him a day or two off, our foreman only works M-F. Excavation wise I was working every day of the week during the summer, I don't recall taking more than about 5 or 6 days off in a 4 month period. Typically the days were at least 10 hours, if not 12. I remember spring last year I was working weekends only as I was going to school 160 miles away during the week. I remember one day I had a certain amount of acreage I absolutely needed to clear otherwise I was going to be behind schedule. It was a 19 hour shift, finished at midnight.
From April Till December We are available 7 days a week, if needed, and able to work(by-laws:sleeping :shf :guns :idontgetit ). Last year I worked a streach of 4 weeks with no days off. The year before I went 10 weeks. The problem is my employees only want to work 6:beatsme. I have to be around 24/7 for the farm so it really doesn't matter to me. As they say you have to make hay when the sun shines. Jan, Feb, Mar I do no excavating just farming(calving, feeding, cleaning etc.), and a little snow plowing, so I call this my vacation time for the long Summer hours.
We do a lot of out of town work. When were out of town we work 7 days a week, 12 hours a day. When were on a job in town we like to work 6 days and 10 hours a day. If were doing fill in like working on equipment we usually work 5 days. As far as working at night, We get down to around 5 hours of daylight here in the winter so thats a given.
With me it depends on the work load and the weather during the week. If we've been able to work a full week, then I try not to work Saturdays, and Sunday is only in an emergency. If we've lost a few days during the week, then I'll try to catch up a little on Saturday. I don't like hearing machinery run on Sunday when I'm home, so I try to avoid working Sundays as much as possible.
6 days a week no matter what, can't remember the last saturday we didn't work.......some sundays in an emergency
Same here. I don't know how you can't work 6 days a week in this business.
I used to do the 6 day routine, but it seemed no matter how much I worked I would always remain behind. I began to realize this and also realized my family life was suffering as a result so unless I'm really behind the eight ball I take weekends off.
Have yet to work a saturday, it's been monday to friday from the get go. The longest day i've worked so far has been 7am to 8:30 pm.
monday-friday, 10 hour days. On prevailing wage jobs i get my 40 hours and take a 3 day weekend, they dont want to pay OT at that payrate.
Sometimes there is no choice but to do demolition on the weekends--especially if it involves closing busy streets in the downtown areas. The drivers love it, however, as there is usually no traffic on Saturday or Sunday.
You have to watch about getting burned out because it will cause you a accident eventually. There is more to life than work especially if you have a familly and especially so if you have kids because they grow up fast and before you know it they are grown up and move out. If you got homeowners on your back pushing you to get the job done tell them tough luck. If you let homeowner/clients getting too pushy you have to stop that if they do start charging them extra. If they want you to work on the weekend your rate per hour for everything doubles. If you have weather delays then make exceptions but otherwise no job is that important that you need to be working on it 7 days a week.
7 days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. been doing it for 34 years. only time I tak time off is if I can't work or don't have any work to do. I am not saying I work thoes hours but I am avalable if realy needed. Wife works in the winter right along side of me in her own plow and durning the spring she also runs a sweeper or is helping me strip parkinglots. We take turns hydroseeding durning the summer months when I am not running the excavator or driving dumptruck. Fall it rains a lot so I spend a lot of time in the shop working on the business instead of for it. Like the grader overhaul. i realy like my work. biggest mistake I have made latly was to buy a motorhome, still can't figure what made me do that. I figure I don't need to work anymore but I get to work and I like that as long as I am able.
I work every other weekend - Saturday and Sunday. Every once in a while I take a day off during the week - like tomorrow I am off doing some maintenance on the dump truck. I am probably "off" six days of each month. However, my wife and I have a horse ranch and I really never have any days off. Any free time is spent on the ranch with the "chores". A lot of times I will get home late from a grading job and have a bunch of ranch chores to do. Most of them get done in the dark, especially in the winter months. It is a good thing I like what I do.
I work 6 days a week. Sunday night through Friday night. Been trying to get back to my old schedule which was 5 days a week, Sunday night through Thursday night. One of these days.....
Slightly 'on topic"....but we are legislated out of working on Sundays here in the metropolitian area...start that machine and you could be in trouble. How many of you guys have this type of restriction??? We also have a heavy machinery movement curfew which is a PITA 5.00 pm to 7.00 am is no go for roading your loader. Although I often see all those Katos and Tadanos heading out of the crane hire at 5.30 am and for whatever reason they don't seem to be subject to the curfew.....strange characters those politicians and their anti-noise laws ointhead
We have curfews in place within our Town and most surrounding towns, but they are rarely enforced unless someone complains. I've never complained as I believe in things going full circle, what goes around comes around.
I usually work 5 days and Saturdays to maintain the equipment usually. I did a job that had to be done in 5 months and they figured it for 9 months at 50 hours a week. We worked (6) 14 hour days to get the job done. I told the customer it was T&M and he told me he'd make it worth my while if I got it done in the 5 months and he did. I was working in a completely industrial area so we didn't ahve to worry about neighbors complaining.
During the summer I work mostly every weekend, especially at the company I currently work for. Last summer I worked every day from the third week in May until the second week in October with only three Sundays off. I averaged 79 hours per week. We're still 3-4 months behind many deadlines despite the long hours. Supposedly this summer we'll be running double the number of ADT's, three new 345's, two new dozers, a new blade, etc. The hope being we'll get caught up and make all of this year's deadlines. I'm skeptical. I foresee a repeat of last year. I will say that there are some decided advantages to working weekends though, with Sundays being my favorite days. The superintendents I dislike rarely work Sundays.:thumbsup There's not such a ball-to-the-wall pace, a little more laid back as a way of saying thanks for working. The superintendent who is on-site typically buys lunch for the crew. And I often get left alone in a grader to go do my own thing... good times.
I had never work less then 50 hrs. a week except for the weather before I moved to Socal. Now unless the GC will pay the overtime they don't hardly work any out here. I'm happy when I make more $$$ in overtime then straight time and would rather work 10-12 hr days then Sat and Sun but overtime is overtime.