John Bleasby
From commercial pilot to general contractor: (2) Oh, the things you can’t control!
Canadian Contractor Commercial innovation ProductThe second in a series of posts by John Bleasby, a retired commercial pilot now doing his first "solo" as a general contractor building a house north of Toronto.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Meet John Bleasby. John is a retired commercial pilot attempting to transition to life as a general contractor. There was obviously a time when he had to do his first solo, as a pilot. Evidently he took off and landed safely. And did it thousands of times, thereafter. Now, as he attempts to do his first solo as a general contractor, building his family home north of Toronto, he has kindly offered to share his experiences with us, weekly, in Canadian Contractor online. Veteran contractors, go easy on him – but all comments are most welcome.
This is John’s second post. To view his first one, click here.
By John Bleasby
Scratch the surface and it’s not very hard to find the little boy in almost every man. The arrival of the big machines and the start of excavation were definitely exciting. Although I had hoped to start on April 1st, the weather had the last laugh. The winter of 2013-2014 forced a two-week delay or we would have had a quagmire on site. Day 1 saw the excavator arrive and scrape away the remaining snow and move the topsoil to the side. Day 2, the surveyors came in to plot the excavation outline, enduring the last of our blinding snow squalls of the season. This extra six inches of snow meant that when the excavator returned for Day 3, the new snow had to be scraped away again! Nature can be a Mother!
Powerful engines and big scoops of earth are one thing, but Andy, the excavator operator, was a true ‘artiste.’ With his assistant Kim holding the laser level, Andy carved out a flat, perfectly smooth excavated floor for the foundations in a matter of a few hours.The surveyors returned to ‘pin’ the footing locations right after the Easter Break, and the Nadura ICF product was delivered the same day. Forming for footings began immediately.
Laying out the footing forms was done in coordination with the trades so that required pipes and conduits could run under the basement and garage floors
However, here’s where my early contracting of trades and inter-trade coordination was going to pay off, aka ‘Foresight versus Hindsight.’ The plans call for a mechanical room in the very centre of the basement for the furnace, water heater, well pump, sump, overflows and electrical panel. All need conduits leading under the basement floor. The building’s flat roof and resultant internal water drainage system requires multiple ABS pipes to carry the rainwater down from the roof, below foundation level, and away from the building. Since each trade had examined the drawings previously and came to the site prior to the footings being poured, we were able to work together to develop a splendid plan to deal with the network of piping. And, as I had suspected, if you pick the right tradespeople and give them the opportunity, they will be happy to use their innovation and skills.
The Pour: Brian (left) and Randy (right) handle the concrete hose and finishing while the operator (in orange) controls the pump by wireless remote control. Note the conduits behind Brian leading to the mechanicals room.
Then more bad news I could not control: The long winter forced the extension of the half-load restrictions on our township roads to May 15th! That impacted the timing and execution of work for the next few weeks. I’ll tell you what decisions I had to make, next time.
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Those guys need hard hats on John, no ifs, no buts, no exceptions.
Don’t buy into the “nothing can fall on us excuses”, just had a guy clipped in the head with an excavator bucket recently – thank God he was wearing one.
If they have a problem with it they go home. Period.
This day and age pretty much all sites mandate fluorescent vests, and safety glasses as well.
Joe, are are you saying the vests mandated by the contractor, MOL, WSIB. Who is mandating the vests?
Not sure if it is an explicit green book requirement but I can’t recall the last project I worked on where it wasn’t required – would be at least a decade back. In my experience any large contractor – the ones with full time health and safety and legal resources that have been conveyed the real liability of bill C-45 will always mandate standards like this.
The difference between a contractor that cuts corners and one that is trying to make a buck?
Perspective.
IMHO that is also the problem with bill C-45.
“217.1 Every one who undertakes, or has the authority, to direct how another person does work or performs a task is under a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent bodily harm to that person, or any other person, arising from that work or task.”
When the government introduced the bill it was very clear
“the criminal law must be reserved for the most serious offences, those that involve grave moral faults… ”
This was the Westray Bill, created as a result of the 1992 Westray coal mining disaster in Nova Scotia where 26 miners were killed after methane gas ignited causing an explosion. Despite serious safety concerns raised by employees, union officials and government inspectors at the time, the company instituted few changes. Eventually, the disaster occurred.
There was no legal recourse against 3 mine execultives that were most certainly guilty of an appalling disregard for human life. Bill C-45 fixed that.
In practice though it isn’t corporate executives that are being prosecuted, years on the bill is being used at a much lower level – for example a backhoe operator convicted after a tragic crush accident – his conviction in part stemming from being unable to produce proper maintenance records. Construction site supervisors, auto service managers, crane operators – all charged under this bill, all guilty of poor judgement – but was it willful criminal negligence?
Which brings me back to that point on perspective.
You might not think that vest is necessary, but when your employee gets pancaked by a bulldozer and you are charged under bill C-45 do you want to defend yourself in front of a judge admitting that yes you knew a vest was a good idea and no you decided not to use them. You may feel innocent, don’t bet on the law to share your perspective.
Vests and safety glasses are cheap, may save a life, just use them.
Minimum standards don’t cut it.
How is a vest going to prevent someone from being injured. You are stretching the probabilities. We can do that with anything.