Your tape measure

[Daydream believer]

Actually, if you are doing the job properly you should be working to BS 5750 (ISO now but I am too old to know) with your tape which will be listed in your register of tapes. Checked for accuracy.
There was a big fuss years ago when the quality management schemes were introduced. Building companies were expected to ensure that they were checked regularly.

One day we had a a large number of mis fitting components in my workshop. This caused an argument. It was also costly. I took the tapes off several employees & laid them out. We had Rabone & Stanley in the mix. Sources which one would expect to be accurate. The difference in length was amazing. As much as 10mm in 3 metres.
After that, all our setting out was done with a number of 1 metre steel rules. Each one checked against the one held in the office prior to use.

I purchased a wheel from Screwfix & was measuring a property about 50-60 metres long, with projections along one elvations. The other side was just flush. I added up the dims from the side with projections, to check for mistakes ( something I always did) & i was 1.5 metres out. I did the measure again & this time got different readings both sides.
In the end I took my glass fibre survey tape & spread it over the ground & ran the wheel along it. Each time the Screwfix wheel recorded readings varying by up to 1.2 metres in 30 metres.

I then purchased a tested laser unit(circa £450-00 at the time) from the RICS ( one of my professional institutes), which I still have & have found to be extremely accurate.

 

[Daydream believer]

Proper bricklayers should not use rulers for courses when laying bricks. The correct way is to make a pair of matched wooden rods. These will have various points set on them. Courses, cills, lintols, projecting courses etc.
Then they put a block on the wall ( piece of timber etc) at each corner. These put in level around the building.
The bricklayers then take the rods & rest them on the blocks at each corner checking their lines at the marks on the rods.
That way the wall climbs evenly. Using a tape the measure ments vary & it is easy to forget what course the bricky is on.

An example of this was a church extension we were building in Billericay. One
wall was long with a full height opening mid way.
I had instructed the site agent to ensure that the subcontract bricklayers had prepared rods. They had not.
So by the time the wall had reached the lintol to the opening one side was half a brick higher than the other. It turned out one bricky had put in one extra course. All because he was working to a tape hooked to a DPC lower down. It had a pig in it. So they knocked down all the work & started again. But one, thinking he had to put in an extra course & one thinking he had to put in one less course.
You can guess what happened. The lintol was pissed, but the other way. It still had a pig in it.
So down came the wall. I was somewhat displeased & the site agent was out of work.

But it gets better still. The part we were building was a large hall joined on to a corridoor off the existing church.
One day a Mr Powell turns up & announced that he was the head of the building department at Chelmsford where I studied. He was particularly interested in looking, as he was the agent that built the original church
When we went to join the hall brickwork to the corridoor brickwork the rods came in handy because it turned out that there was one more course on one side of the corridoor than the other. I would have loved to have told him.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Proper bricklayers should not use rulers for courses when laying bricks. The correct way is to make a pair of matched wooden rods. These will have various points set on them. Courses, cills, lintols, projecting courses etc.
Then they put a block on the wall ( piece of timber etc) at each corner. These put in level around the building.
The bricklayers then take the rods & rest them on the blocks at each corner checking their lines at the marks on the rods.
That way the wall climbs evenly. Using a tape the measure ments vary & it is easy to forget what course the bricky is on.

An example of this was a church extension we were building in Billericay. One
wall was long with a full height opening mid way.
I had instructed the site agent to ensure that the subcontract bricklayers had prepared rods. They had not.
So by the time the wall had reached the lintol to the opening one side was half a brick higher than the other. It turned out one bricky had put in one extra course. All because he was working to a tape hooked to a DPC lower down. It had a pig in it. So they knocked down all the work & started again. But one, thinking he had to put in an extra course & one thinking he had to put in one less course.
You can guess what happened. The lintol was pissed, but the other way. It still had a pig in it.
So down came the wall. I was somewhat displeased & the site agent was out of work.

But it gets better still. The part we were building was a large hall joined on to a corridoor off the existing church.
One day a Mr Powell turns up & announced that he was the head of the building department at Chelmsford where I studied. He was particularly interested in looking, as he was the agent that built the original church
When we went to join the hall brickwork to the corridoor brickwork the rods came in handy because it turned out that there was one more course on one side of the corridoor than the other. I would have loved to have told him.

In the late 80s I started work in the brick making industry as a company quality assurance manager when brick and tile makers were trying to become registered under BS 5750 at the time. Part of that of course was explaining to people in the company what it actually meant and part of those were the sales force and how they dealt with complaints and documented them. There was a great reluctance amongst them to get their hands dirty and do something like a 24 brick test when there was a size complain, common as I am sure DdB knows, they would much rather give credit for a few packs and be on their way.
So I started a program of either me or one of the regional QA managers or factory QA technicians accompanying sales reps to site complaints, went down like the proverbial lead balloon. On one occasion I was at a site with a size complaint and of course the bricks were within the 24 brick test spec but the site manager wouldn't have it so being armed with a little knowledge I suggested and we started to look at the setting out, it was all over the place across the site which was a small house building development. It turned out their was only one bricky that could actually set out and after that the others chucked the bricks down, but when he wasn't there any Tom Dick or Harry had a go. End of complaint.

 

[lustyd]

Proper bricklayers should not use rulers for courses when laying bricks

The tape markings aren’t just for courses, length of walls can be handy even for experienced people to measure in bricks rather than mm.

 

[Gixer]

This blew my mind when I found this out!

More interesting (to me) is I recently found out why the end is loose! The movement of the end clip is the same as its width, meaning if you push it against something the measurements are accurate but if you hook it over something the measurements are still accurate.

 

[Refueler]

Quite often the hose isn't long enough, as I know from experience plus the hose rubbing all overvthe bodywork isn't good

1 - you are being a pain to guy who wants next pump as you MUST be too far off pump unless you are a larger vehicle such as a van / truck etc. Even my Range Rover can do this well with thought.
2. Arrrrr .... the few occasions it happens ?? The hoses are rubber cased and don't damage bodywork ... I've been uising pumps corectly for over 50 yrs and I have never seen any damage from a hose ...

So lets agree we don't use same petrol station and all will be fine ...

I hate this matter so much that I will park my car in front of the offender and I aint gonna budge at all .... especially when most filling stations have a one way system ...

 

[Refueler]

Never use 2 tapes on a job, they are rarely accurate with one another.

Tapes are an important part of my Superintendents work and to avoid end errors - when checking a ships tape ... our tape will be used from the 10 mark ... not the end.

Its not seen now but in past - some certain vessels would have a tape for loading ... and a tape for discharge ... put together - you could have a cm or so different ... that means 'money' ...

 

[requiem]

Proper bricklayers should not use rulers for courses when laying bricks. The correct way is to make a pair of matched wooden rods. These will have various points set on them. Courses, cills, lintols, projecting courses etc.

My recollection is that using tapes and similar measuring tools on smaller-scale construction is a relatively new phenomenon, and prior to their wide availability you'd see things like story-sticks used instead. This also meant tools like dividers were also of greater importance when designing a project in pre-industrial times.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

An age ago now i used to help a roofer lay slate tiles. I have two sticks, still in a drawer somewhere, one about 2" longer than the other; can't remember the lengths. These were used to lay the distance from the lower row tile tip, by laying the new tile on the stick that was held on the lower row's tile edge. The shorter stick was where the tiles run along a flatter section requiring a longer overlap, longer stick was used after the flatter section was passed. This was on Scottish roofs where slates are secured to sarcking, as opposed to English style battens.

 

[ghostlymoron2]

Quite often the hose isn't long enough, as I know from experience plus the hose rubbing all overvthe bodywork isn't good

I've got a long estate car and can comfortable reach from either side. As for rubbing the bodywork with a rubber hose ???

 

[BobnLesley]

Never use 2 tapes on a job, they are rarely accurate with one another.

Some years ago a friend (who occasionally posts on here) and his wife were have great difficulty with the bimini/cockpit cover that they were making not fitting/lining up correctly, with the frame; having a background in measuring stuff I was called in to consult on the promise of a fat fee; well... a beer or two.
Having agreed that something wasn't quite right I got hold of his steel tape and his wife's sewing/needlework tape and compared them with each other and my own; the steel tape was near enough, but the sewing tape was ridiculously off, something like 3cm short in ninety. When I enquired as to where she'd bought this tape, the lady advised that "It came out of a Christmas Cracker."

 

[Refueler]

I've got a long estate car and can comfortable reach from either side. As for rubbing the bodywork with a rubber hose ???

I know - but they still do it ...

I asked our local station why they don't tell owners that its one way through the pumps .... they just said its waste of time - person gets car key and brain gets left behind !!

We actually have a joke over here about BMW owners ... because in Winter they are a menace on our roads and owners think they are Schumacher ...

Its said that buying a BMW involves money and handing over brain for the key !!

 

[Thistle]

1 - you are being a pain to guy who wants next pump as you MUST be too far off pump unless you are a larger vehicle such as a van / truck etc. Even my Range Rover can do this well with thought.
2. Arrrrr .... the few occasions it happens ?? The hoses are rubber cased and don't damage bodywork ... I've been uising pumps corectly for over 50 yrs and I have never seen any damage from a hose ...

So lets agree we don't use same petrol station and all will be fine ...

I hate this matter so much that I will park my car in front of the offender and I aint gonna budge at all .... especially when most filling stations have a one way system ...

No doubt you'll remember when the hoses had a number of rubber rings on them to get round exactly this (perceived) problem. Generally it's not the hoses per se that are the problem, but the hoses rubbing on the dirt and grit already on the car.

 

[Concerto]

A surveyor told me that folk who do groundworks have to be watched very carefully. His best expeience was a house that the foundations were out by 3½ bicks from front to back. They though the concrete was self leveling. The bricklayers were none too happy.

A neighbour recently decided to have some fitted wardrobes in their bedroom. Everything was measured and once the fitters arrived they found a problem. The ceiling was not level. Eventually they found out there was one more row of bricks at the front of the house compared to the back. The owners had lived there for over 40 years and never noticed before.

 

[Bilgediver]

Thank god we went metric on 1965 nearly 60 years ago!

Did you?????

 

[penberth3]

Did you?????

That was the official announcement. Rome wasn't built in a day. We did get decimal currency after six years. In hindsight, a bloody miracle that ever happened.

 

[penberth3]

Tapes are an important part of my Superintendents work and to avoid end errors - when checking a ships tape ... our tape will be used from the 10 mark ... not the end.

I always measure from 100mm for anything accurate, never trust the loops or the silly sliding hooks

 

[Daydream believer]

No doubt you'll remember when the hoses had a number of rubber rings on them to get round exactly this (perceived) problem. Generally it's not the hoses per se that are the problem, but the hoses rubbing on the dirt and grit already on the car.

Bit like fender socks then

 

[Refueler]

A surveyor told me that folk who do groundworks have to be watched very carefully. His best expeience was a house that the foundations were out by 3½ bicks from front to back. They though the concrete was self leveling. The bricklayers were none too happy.

A neighbour recently decided to have some fitted wardrobes in their bedroom. Everything was measured and once the fitters arrived they found a problem. The ceiling was not level. Eventually they found out there was one more row of bricks at the front of the house compared to the back. The owners had lived there for over 40 years and never noticed before.

My house is an old Latvian Forest house .... and there are no straight / level walls anywhere !! If a builder installs studding for wall laminates - I lose a significant volume of the room as studding crosses out of true areas ... so much - that I have told builders to laminate direct to the walls without studding ...

Most people have seen movies / TV where you see Soviet built apartment blocks. It was Sovietisation of all areas of USSR ...
Many were built by Army - nothing else to do .. cheap labour ... plenty of them.
Before building - a date would be given that such block would be ready.

It was not uncommon to run out of pipes / cables and even building blocks ... so the guys would improvise ! I have lived in various blocks over the years ... and every one had a non uniform section of stairs up through the building ... if you forgot - you could trip etc. The step(s) being out of synch with the others.
One block I lived in - we were 3rd floor and all heating / water supply etc was great to us .... but 4th floor and up - they struggled because pipe size had changed dramatically smaller after 3rd floor ... because they had run out of correct size - so married in whatever they could find.

OK ... I'm sitting in office in St Petersburg (Russia) .... phone rings. Spanish guy asking if we could inspect a container shipment coming into St Pete. No problem ... I give rate per day and ask him for access to container.
He advises he will call me back .... I go to my guys and ask who wants to do container inspection ... they all offer ... so I leave it till more info.
Spanish guy calls me and says container has already moved and is near Novisibirsk (that's deep in Siberia !!)
OK - I accept job ... I go to guys and say - ok who's up for triip to Novisibirsk ... they all point at Alexei !!

It took 3 days to get there .... on arrival - container was opened and inside was a total mess of smashed Bidets and Toilets ... all for a new hotel built there. Of course hotel had the date set in stone for openiong and had already confirmed orders ...
It opened without Bidets or Toilets !!

 

[Daydream believer]

That was the official announcement. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Might have been if I had been on the contract
Never leave anything like that to an italian