Shoutout to the foreman who told me my gasket scraping was too rough

Last month on a job at a chemical plant outside Baton Rouge, my foreman pulled me aside and said I was gouging the flange faces with my scraper. He showed me how to use a plastic scraper and a wire brush instead, and I haven't left a single scratch since. I was just trying to get the old gasket off fast, but now I take the extra time. Any of you guys had a boss call you out on something you thought you were doing fine?

2 comments

2 Comments

anthonyhunt19d ago

That extra time thing is the part that got me. I used to rush through cleaning old adhesive off tile floors before laying down new stuff. Thought I was doing fine until my supervisor showed me I was leaving a thin film that would mess up the bond later. Switched to a solvent and a stiff brush instead of just scraping and sanding. Took me about twice as long at first, but I haven't had a callback on a floor job since. Sometimes you don't know what you don't know until someone calls you on it.

nathan19319d ago

Man that's the whole thing right there. People think they're saving time by rushing through the prep work but it always comes back to bite you. I've seen guys spend half a day slapping on a paint job only to have it peel in a month because they didn't clean the surface right. There's a reason the old timers say measure twice cut once. It's not about being slow it's about being right the first time so you don't have to do it over. Plus that callback nightmare where you gotta go back and fix your own mess for free that's the real time suck.