Diary of a Building Surveyor
How it all began….and my first crucial lesson…
“Always wear a plastic bag on your head, David”
I knew that I wanted to be a Building Surveyor from the moment I heard about it, which was (without giving too much age related data away!!) exactly as it was established as a new Surveying discipline.
Much to the horror of Parents and elders in general, I decided that University was not for me and took a summer job on a local golf course, chopping trees and scything meadow grass until a phone call from a Surveying Company that had received a letter from me and would like to have a chat!!
These were the days of being ushered into a timber paneled cellular office to be interviewed by the Head of Surveying himself. A new experience for me and one I shall always remember as it was explained that if taken on as a Trainee, I would be carrying Surveyor’s ladders, taking their notes, hand tracing site location plans (no such thing as CAD or even a computer then!!) and navigating Surveyors to their appointments by the good old printed A to Z!!
I said YES….They said YES and so started the first three years of my career, as I worked for four days a week in the office or out assisting Surveyors and one day a week at Manchester College of Building for day release studies.
The College was actually demolished a few years ago for Commonwealth Games development and what a tragedy to loose another institution such as that. My Construction Lecturer was Head of Architecture for Manchester City Council; my Structural Engineering Lecturer was (well, slightly odd springs to mind!) a Senior Engineer in a leading Practice; my Construction Law Lecturer was a leading Barrister…and so on….what a wonderful font of knowledge and what a genuine shame in my opinion that such routes to qualification have now almost vanished.
Anyway, I digress (as Ronnie Corbet used to say for those who remember)….each morning the Head Of Surveying, Mr C, would come through to the drawing office and announce, almost with a fanfare, to Ian and I (Ian was a Trainee who had been there for several months before I arrived) who would be accompanying him on surveys that day.
For over a week all was well, Ian was selected and I got to go out with one of the younger Surveyors (who took a good six months to see me as anything but a complete nuisance……but useful for collecting their dry cleaning!!)!
After about ten days it happened! Mr C came through, looked at me and announced that I would be going out with him that morning on a survey. GULP!
Mr C drove a huge Rover saloon and liked, as I gradually learned, to listen to classical music while simulating conducting…rather disconcerting that first morning when both of his hands were off the steering wheel but who was I to comment?!!
Our first survey together was a large house in a very upmarket area called Caldy, which Mr C very much liked. Towards the end of the survey I brought in sectional ladders and set them up under Mr C’s watchful eye, ready for him to inspect the loft. Mr C donned his overalls, got out his torch and then….took the Tesco plastic carrier bag that his torch had been in, neatly turned up the ends and placed it firmly on his head as a hat! (Well I say ‘hat’ but there’s no getting round the fact that a plastic bag…is a plastic bag!)!
I’m still not sure over 35 years later how I kept a straight face….even more so when I then received my first lesson/advice from Mr C, on what was to become a three year masterclass of inspirational knowledge, mixed in with a delightful English eccentric quirkiness….
“You must always respect people’s homes and not get yourself dirty while inspecting them. Always wear a plastic carrier bag on your head, David”.
As time progressed, Mr C (and the younger Surveyors), passed on knowledge, experience and advice that I soaked up like a sponge.
Was this initial pearl of wisdom, spoken by a rather portly older man as he headed off up a ladder advertising Tesco on his head, something soaked up and complied with over the years?
Only those who have had me in their homes to carry out a survey will ever know……….
April 2020
David Barrington FCIOB CEnv Dip NDEA