First Day At My First CCU

Construction
21

Yeah,

Manager called, wasn’t pleased with the amount done.

She was expecting 2 floors done in 2 days, but all the debris made it practically impossible within the timeframe.

I feel like an idiot, my whole body physically hurts, and I feel bad for the manager, who will probably hate to find a larger company that will quote her at 2000+ higher than me.

I have to type a long detailed report as to why her request wasn’t possible.

I’d sure love to appreciate the learning experience, but I sure as hell don’t feel that way right now.

3 Likes
22

Yup, it probably doesn’t help right now, but just know we’ve all been there.

6 Likes
23

Don’t lose a moments sleep for the manager. She should have known from your initial bid that you were in over your head. If she honestly thought that it was worth 800 when someone else will triple that bid, then it’s a learning experience for her as well.

Finally, remember that we all learn to walk before we can run. Sometimes, when learning to walk we fall. We may even cry like a baby. But just learn from it all - don’t even think of running until you have mastered the basics if walking.

10 Likes
24

One question I have would be is it ethical to bill her for the 16 hours of work I did, as feel I really deserve the money for the work, but the issue is it was verbally agreed

1 Like
25

Yes you can bill for services rendered, even if you two are parting company before the whole job is complete.

1 Like
26

She’s sending me my works worth, thanks, and I’m not touching CCU again for a long time.

Back to residentials!

5 Likes
27

Failure happens; learn from it.
Quitting solves nothing.

Just try not to “bite off more than you can chew” next time, but stay in the game.

Learn from failure

3 Likes
28

Personally, I would offer to finish the job at the agreed rate, regardless of the time involved. If you don’t want to do that, and are walking away, I wouldn’t feel right asking for money. That seems unprofessional.

If, however, she is telling you to stop and that she will find someone else to complete the job and that she will pay for your hours, it doesn’t seem as bad.

Getting paid when the job isn’t finished just doesn’t sit too smoothly to me. Imagine your mechanic getting partway through a repair, then deciding it was over his head. How would you feel about paying him for his labor, paying for a tow truck to get to another shop, then paying full price for them to do it correctly? That’s how this looks to me, if I’m seeing it clearly.

2 Likes
29

She actually reached out to me after I explained why it couldn’t be done without more time, and said that she’s reaching out to a company with a ton of washers, probably fish, Idk if they do CCU, and told me I didn’t need to finish, and is mailing me a check.

They wanted the washing done before furniture for the rooms started coming in, funny enough that the lift broke, and lift repairs would exceed the date they need the rooms finished.

5 Likes
30

When you said they wanted it done in 2 days, I didn’t think you were going to be able to comply being solo. That is a LOT of work solo. Even a decent sized two story house is hard to get done in a day if the windows are in crappy shape.

Glad you are supposed to get paid. Hopefully they follow through.

You need to know what you are doing, and have your ducks in a row before tackling ANY CCU. Many times in my area, there is no film on construction jobs.

6 Likes
31

Wasn’t some of your delay waiting for a scratch waiver that never came through? If that’s the case her delay and not getting you the waiver if you talked about it ahead of time is kind of her fault things took longer you proceeded with a procedure that was not as efficient delaying job.

5 Likes
32

I’m new, beginning to learn that first time store front cleans brings many surprises and using a pole and squeegee is just scratching the surface.

Also the thing I hate most is what I can not see. because of the different angles and sunlight hitting the glass…smears, spots and debris show up that you didn’t see the first two times you looked at the glass. So you end up going back and forth, going inside and out of the store to clean up all the missed spots. This takes up a lot of time. I end up using a microfiber towel to clean up all the somehow missed spots.
I’m learning it’s takes more time to clean first time store fronts even if they are small. Also cleaning all the inside of the frames from construction crap.

33

Take a CCU and I guarantee youll go back to store fronts at least 3 times more efficient(Don’t do it).

I called one of my storefronts today and upsold interior cleaning, and she was surprised at how much higher I quoted, but I was able to depict the exact reason for the quote, and she accepted.

I hit the ground running, and should’ve been mastering walking before taking this CCU.

My hands are cut all over, bruised fingernails from slamming them while shutting windows while exhausted, but I’m definitely more adament on what exactly my services entail, how long it’ll actually take, and to quote properly, because when 7pm hits after you’ve been taking care of other tradesmen sloppiness, and you are expected to finish 5 times quicker than what you can provide, you’ll get quicker.

One thing I like to quote, that I don’t follow to a T is “Smart people learn from their own mistakes, geniuses learn from other’s mistakes”.

Take my advice with a grain of salt, but just keep in mind that the more you clean, the more efficient you’ll have to become, which is what this job gave me, even though I couldn’t finish it.

My First day dealing with this monstrosity, one window with all these problems:

20180124_103434
20180124_1034342138×2851 1.72 MB

20180124_103426
20180124_1034264032×3024 2.69 MB

20180124_103420
20180124_1034203024×4032 2.52 MB

It took me an hour, solo, to figure out what the hell I got myself into for one window to look like this on my first day:

20180124_111229
20180124_1112292138×2851 2.35 MB

My advice wouldn’t be the best to take for obvious reasons, I’m just trying to relay what I’ve taken so far with this.

EDIT: Photo uploads are being slow, my internet is shot right now

5 Likes
34

Would you like a signed copy?

My-Autobiography
My-Autobiography429×640 81.7 KB

2 Likes
35

Sign me up!

36

Crawl, walk, run! Definitely more difficult when you are a solo operator and learning on the job but it is doable.

1 Like
37

Were the windows covered with poly sheeting?

38

Definitely not.
I don’t know the exact material used, but it was 2 stickers that were each a pain to peel off, that didn’t cover the edges, only the middle of the glass, allowing building material to cake on the edges of the panes.

In fact, the first picture in my last post shows an overlapping of the protectors.

39

Yes isn’t that polly that is on the windows leaving only like a 1/4" Of glass showing around the edges to remove debrus from?

Those really simplify a ccu, your time was probably spent cleaning the tracks?

Would better tools have saved time?

Maybe a brush and vacuum for tracks before washing window. Looked like you washed the wibdow then track. That just gets the debris in track wet and tougher to remove.

2 Likes
40

I could have missed it but mentioning the poly on the glass and you were cleaning the tracks would have really changed this job in giving assistance to you

2 Likes