My neighbor is having his roof redone, which includes skinning over the old 1" solid wood underlayment with ply, then purlins on that, and then galvalum. (New code requirement- have to skin with ply if redoing an old roof.) Eight men have been working on this project for over a week. They start early in the morning and spend two hours smoking and yelling at each other, then about an hour of work, much of which is removing the blue tarp. They break during the heat of the day (no criticism for that part- normal for roof work) and come back. Two more hours of smoking and yelling at each other, then an hour or so of work, most of which is putting the blue tarp back on. They wear no hearing protection as they cut galvalum with circular saws. It is so loud that literally as I write I am wearing hearing protection- inside my house. I feel so bad for these guys' ears. Right now they have the ply and purlins up after well over a week of work for 8 men. Well- technically 7 men and one woman, but all she does is cuss and complain to the men. I'm assuming she is some sort of supervisor. She has quite a mouth on her. She is very talented at combining multiple words, very similar to the German language, except with greater vulgarity.
Meanwhile, the other neighbor has two old West Indian guys that in the same amount of time have completely replaced the roof on their detached building, built and painted a trellis connecting the two buildings, scraped and painted the smaller of the two buildings, and replaced some shutters. These poor guys worked through the heat of the day. My kitchen porch almost touches their roof, so I kept giving them water. These men have no vehicle. They show up at 7AM tools and ladder in hand, and work until dusk.
Quite the contrast.
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