HEPA vacuumed the floor of five rooms and restarted by Corsi Rosenthal boxes (because of construction dust EVERYWHERE).
My son says: "why bother, they are going to create more dust"
But, my thought is the more removed the less that sticks to the ceilings and walls. I'll have to change out the filters though (for both the vacuum and the Corsi Rosenthal boxes)-- drywall dust clogs them up! (better the filters than my lungs).
Finally, the moment you've been waiting for: Sally's Guide to Getting And Keeping a Job in Construction! Focused on USA rules/regulations/culture and aimed particularly at people seen as female or feminine, especially queer kids. Construction was a lifeline for me during a dark time and it could be for you. If you're desperately trying to get out of your parents' house, but don't want to get into college, this could be helpful! Could be in 4 or 5 parts, sincere there is plenty to cover.
ADVANCE PREPARATION:
Figuring out if it’s really for you. OK, one big skill you should have is an awareness of 3D space, but how can you know if you have that? Well, did you like playing with legos? Are you into fiber arts such as knitting, crochet, or sewing? Those give you some good skills to build on, e.g.: counting to 10, measuring, cutting, comparing sizes, etc. Are you good at stacking dishes? Good at packing a suitcase? Into Tetris? These are all good signs. Also, cleaning is huge on a construction site. The ability to quickly survey a space and prioritize tasks for getting or keeping it organized is super helpful.
On the people skills side: just have good communication and the ability to ask clarifying questions. Working in a male-dominated field can be frustrating because they downplay the value of communication skills, then spend so much time arguing about pointless shit. Cultivate patience and a sense of humor for this.
Another helpful communication tip: learn conversational Spanish. Doesn’t matter where you are, you’re bound to have some coworkers whose first language is Spanish.
Another SUPER helpful thing to learn is the technical lingo! Just being able to identify a lintel or tell the difference between a rafter and a joist, for example, will give you far more credibility than such trivia really deserves. Watching youtube videos of people doing the type of work you're interested in is a good idea, especially if the videos are made somewhat locally to you.
I lied, I'm not done! I remembered this cool trick I should really tell you about. An excellent way to gain respect and credibility in the trades is to be able to estimate measurements accurately at a glance. While there is a degree of innate aptitude that informs this ability, you can get better with practice, and you can use some shortcuts. My main shortcut (and I'm sure other people have plenty more) is this: I measured my body parts. The distance from thumb to pinky with fingers splayed, for me, is 7 inches. From elbow to fingertips is about 18 inches. My wingspan is about 5 feet (which makes sense because I'm about 5 feet tall--most people's wingspan is about the same as their height). My pace is 2 1/2 feet at a relaxed stride. Etc.
So measure your body parts and practice estimating. The width of the sidewalk. The height of your door. Check it with your tape measure. You'll quickly get the hang of it. It's worth it because it will help you show yourself as someone competent, which, if you're not a cishet man, is disproportionately important for you as a new worker on a construction job site.
Hi all. Hope everyone is doing well. It's about to be 3:00 AM here, and I'm about to get some sleep, but before I do, I wanted to ask for #advice from those who might know more about #technology, creating #websites, and #accessibility than I do. My mom runs a #construction#business and has a website she designed herself with drag and drop on #GoDaddy. She owns the #domain it's on and wants to move the site for a few reasons: it keeps getting hacked and she's getting a lot of spam and scam messages, customer service is poor, and GoDaddy isn't very #accessible with #ScreenReaders, so I can't help her manage her website at all. I've done some research and seen that other recommended no-code website builders are #Wix, #Squarespace, and #Weebly, but I can't find a lot of information on their accessibility. I've seen posts on #Reddit recommending hiring someone to design your website, but we don't know anyone who could do that, and our budget probably wouldn't be high enough. My mom isn't great with #tech and really needs a no-code solution. Does anyone know about the accessibility of website builders like the ones I mentioned, or can you suggest another one that might work? Thanks. #blind@mastoblind
I've been thinking about doing a little explainer/how-to for youngsters especially, on how to get into the construction business, and how to protect your health while you're in it. (Because those fuckers will ruin your body for $15/hour if you let them.)
There's a few things to discuss, and this is just me brainstorming.
This could be a game-changer for a queer kid in a conservative family who doesn't want to go to college.
Construction workers are DESPERATE for new workers. Some of them are even raising wages (others are hiring cut-rate subcontractors, but that's another story). It's one of the few areas where automation can't take your job for quite a while and you don't need a degree.
The trick is getting in the door and making them think you're going to fit into the culture there. The main thing for getting in the door is showing up and having some tools. Which tools, and how to get them, and how to use them--that's a big topic of conversation.
Not gonna lie: as a woman, I know I lost out on roughly 50% of opportunities compared to a similarly situated man. But it still saved my life when I was in a really dark place.
Exciting news: A recent trail camera video from southern #Arizona reveals a #jaguar never before seen in the state.
The images, captured in December by a wildlife enthusiast and analyzed by the Center for Biological Diversity, confirm the eighth jaguar documented in the U.S. Southwest in the past three decades. Every jaguar has a unique pattern of rosettes — those signature spots — so we can identify individuals,
but we don't yet know whether this one is male or female. So far all the jaguars coming in from #Mexico have been male.
"It's a moment to celebrate," said the Center's Russ McSpadden. "After being nearly wiped out, these majestic cats continue to reestablish previously occupied #territory despite border-wall #construction, new #mines, and other threats to their habitat."
A route connecting #KualaLumpur and Bangkok will make it possible to link it to other regional #HSR lines to form larger networks that will reach Laos and China.
Problems:
"The overseeing team had no experience managing a tram project;
The design provided to potential contractors was incomplete and changing;
The contract to re-route utilities was poorly managed and delayed;
Inexperienced negotiators allowed unchallenged price rises;
Mediation: a drawn out mediation process halted work and led to higher prices and cuts to the final length
[Lack of] Government oversight"
…so brick imports via bunker-fuelled ships travelling thousands of kilometres are just one of the many incredibly stupid ways in which, bit by bit, we are bricking the environment which sustains us.
I just learned that vinyl siding exists in Sweden and is called "PVC-fasad": poly-vinyl-chloride facade. Evergreen forest covers 68% of Sweden, so wood is not an expensive option here.
Paid a visit to Place-des-Arts yesterday, and it strikes me how whilst the surrounding area is now looking super modern giving me Tokyo vibes, the arts venue itself has some brutalist design going on. It reminds me a lot of a mini version of the Barbican Centre in London. #Montreal#architecture
@jfmezei@heliomass
In Canadian #construction, masonry, wood and structural steel are all according to old Imperial/US sizes, with #metric names; concrete and reinforcing are actually metric sizes (e.g. a 15M bar has a 200 mm^2 cross-section and a minimum yield strength of 400 MPa).
Highway plans are done in metric. Building plans for the private sector are in Imperial; I don't know if the government requires metric for their buildings or not.