Jonathon Speirs

In my role as a flat roofer I work alongside another member of our firm. I spend a lot of time stripping old roofs and getting rid of the waste, then we start from scratch replacing the OSB boards and any extra timber work that is needed and re felt the roof with a blow torch. We also chase lead into wall of upstanding houses and rebuild any brickwork back up, as well as plastics such as gutter and fascia. We have to communicate with the office who control our work schedule as well as keeping them informed of any questions from the customer. We work alongside scaffolders in this role to make sure our scaffold is in the suitable place when scaffold is needed.

In my role as a hod carrier I had similar tasks most days but they were very challenging tasks such as making sure 2 or 3 bricklayers always had their mortar boards topped up and had plenty of bricks to hand. I was required to order the mortar and bricks for our plots and communicate with the forklift driver who would bring any materials required to our scaffold bay.

In my role as a door supervisor, I had the responsibility of protecting customers visiting and passing the venue. We would watch CCTV at the end of the night to check if any incidents had occurred. I also worked along side the police when needed and helped with CCTV footage or helped to detain member of the public if needed.

As a labourer for a builder, my role was to assist the builder such as bringing materials, mixing cement, using a mixer or by hand, digging foundations by hand or with a mini digger. I was required to use my mathematics skills to work out materials needed to be ordered for the job. We would from time to time work with other firms in the building trade on bigger jobs and communicate in a safe way with them so we could prevent any possible risks.

My role was to assist the main engineers and supervisors working in the coke ovens at SSI. I was required to clean the pipes down below under the ovens working in a time schedule of when certain lines were off then we would clean, fix and tighten them back up and go on to the next line. These were very testing conditions with the heat and tight space so PPE such as hard hats and gas masks were required.

In my role as a labourer with Gantrail i would mix a resin base cement and lay to help build a track for a large crane to sit on to move containers over tilbury docks.

In this role I worked for Redcar and Cleveland council on the clean and green side doing such jobs as strimming, litter picking, painting, laying plants working alongside a large team.

As a site labourer i worked on many sites learning small things up about a lot of trades on the way speaking to many people and picking up ways of how to carry myself in the workplace. Such jobs as moving barricades to help traffic in and out of site and basic cleaning duties.