So you might have had a bad day at work, not everything has gone your way, or you are having your lunch sitting in a cold van eating chips out of a paper and hoping the afternoon is going to be better than the morning, welcome to my world.
For twelve years I was the programme leader (Head of Plastering) at Burnley College, during my theory lessons I would tell my students of some of the disasters that happened to me, they would be rolling around the classroom in fits of laughter saying Dave how can you teach us, to which I would reply it’s because of the cockups and disasters that I can.
If you have read my previous posts, “You will never make a plasterer as long as you live”, and “Louie the Lip”, you will agree that my career as a plasterer did not get off to the best start.
It was coming to the end of the 1970’s I have always enjoyed listening to music on the radio whilst working, and it HAD to be radio 1, Disco was coming to an end, punk rock had taken over the airwaves and people were walking around in clothes full of zips and safety pins with multi coloured Mohican hair styles. (this is nothing to do with plastering just trying to set the scene for you ) LOL.
By now I had got a job for a local builder I was the only plasterer, and to be honest I was a arrogant cocky little shit Lol, and due a fall. I was given a job of going to this hotel where they had been having trouble with a leaking roof and the ceiling below had a big bow, I was told to go and sort it out.
I arrived at the hotel it was very posh, I reported to the manager, he took one look at me then looked me up and down several times I could see he was not very impressed by my appearance, must have something to do with the multi coloured Mohican hair style I had, but to be honest I thought I looked cool, ok follow me he said and he took me to the bedroom with the water damaged ceiling, there you go he said, ok I will sort it I replied.
The bedroom was beautiful, twin beds, plush carpets en-suite and ornate dressing table with kettle, tea and Coffee, it was all very nice, so off to my van to get a pair of steps and a hammer, returning to the bedroom I thought I will just give the bulge in the ceiling a tap then sheet up , what a knob I was , as soon as I tapped the bulge in the ceiling with my hammer the ceiling gave way and came crashing down on me and all the furniture in the room , over one hundred years of soot and pigeon shit all over the place, the room was black I could not even see the beds let alone the carpet, once the dust settled I could see what damage I had caused , oh fuck me, I said, I was covered from head to foot in the black soot, my multi coloured hair was now just black the room was also covered in a layer of black soot, as was the beds, pillows, sheets, carpets and the dressing table, panic set in oh fuck , fuck fuck fuck !!!!
Ok let’s start to clean up, I managed to get all the debris off the floor, and wipe over the dressing table but when I started taking the bedding down to be washed the manager clocked me, look at the state of you he said, wait till you see the room I thought, what are you doing , to which I replied taking down the bedding to be washed , I could see his face darken, what have you done, he said, he went to the room and could see the state, the carpet was ruined the beds were covered in black soot and ruined , get out of my hotel he shouted at me, go on get out, he did not want to hear my explanation but to be honest I was a knob, my only explanation could be insanity.
I arrived back at my firm’s office only to be greeted by a very angry boss, who for some reason did not sack me, instead I had to pay towards all the damage that I had caused. The firm had been kicked off the job, the hotel sued the firm for a total room refit, decorations, beds, carpets dressing table etc. That was one expensive lesson to learn but guess what after that time I became one of the best plasterers around at sheeting up.
But as the saying goes if it does not kill you, it will only make you stronger.
Lath and Plaster 