OK, have a very simple question for you N. Americans....did you EVER hear of putting on door hinges with NAILS??.....a little background to the question...I thought I FINALLY found a good "all around" handyman to be a good fixit person for the grounds. He is young but cleancut, humble, polite, respectful, and I've had him priming & painting grills for the last 3 days with no problem. He has work ethics, doesn't beg for things, & is honest ( we've left him here & left for several hours & nothing is missing)....honestly, you can just know, by talking to him that he is positive & upfull....really wanting to work to make a difference in his life. He is not yet 30 & has 3 kids & another on the way. He says that his kids are "his life". He has worked at several nice resorts, including Half Moon & Braco Breezes. He has worked in many capacities, including in the kitchen & also as security. He is bright, ambitious, & eager to learn EVERYTHING! I was so overjoyed to find him!

Back to my original question. He has told me that he has done almost everything & has made a point to try to learn to do same. This is just an example of peeps doing things the way peeps have always done things a Yaad & is no reflextion on him as as an individual....cause I really love his vibe & the way he moves!

We need to have our outside bathroom door replaced because some of the wood has rotten out & it is in bad shape....keep on mind, this is a bathroom we don't often use for guests, but since our own toilet is somewhat mashup, we do use it for ourselves & I, for one, would like EVERYTHING to get fixed properly.....been this way for MONTHS!!

I am not on peoples asses when they come to work here....that is a mistake on my part....I really need to be out there to see exactly what is going on.....learned that today (even though there was NO supervision needed when he was doing the painting)....he did, however drop paint on our back patio/bar tiled floor that needs to be cleaned up.....although he tried, even with a brush, he was not able to clean it.....so....it is what it is, right?

I did not "supervise" him when he was working on fixing the bathroom door....figured he knew what he was doing, because of our previous conversations, but that was my mistake, because ha had a basic knowledge of construction but he was "brainwashed" to think that everything should be put together with NAILS!!....fas forward....because of the fact that the door was not closing properly because of the nails not holding properly, I went out to see what he was doing. NAILS!!!!....gave him some long screws & now things are betta....not perfect, because some of the wood that is rotten out has not been addressed, but it can work still.....don't nobaddy tell mi , mi nah easy becau mi love dis yah werkman & know him a duh im bes, but God in Heaven....nails inna hinges????!!....the way mi figure it, that's just the way he's always seen it done so im ago same way.

I did let him know that dat can't work for me & why & he is open enough to listen so I'm grateful.....hope everything else goes well, because I've hired him as a "maintainance man" for a certain amount of $$.

JJ,

Can you or hubby show him how you want it done?

It is sometimes the only way. You must know more about the project than he does.

He sounds like he's willing....

lol! No matter the quality of the worker., they always need to be watched like a hawk. you know the saying if you want something done right..... I oversee what are suppose to be A1 trades people.even here they leave you shaking your head WTF.
a hinge should be screwed

Just wondering, were screws available, or supplied to him to fix the door, or did he simply choose nails? And the paint spills, were drop sheets supplied to be used, and he did not use them? The boss has to set the expectations, and along with that, the supplies to do the work, not true?
Maybe if some rotten wood was left in place, that kind of set the standard.

One of these days(yeah right) I'm gonna drag Smokey away from Negril and come and be your Bobette Vila-lol. Nail on hinges?? So listen-if using nails caused too much of a hole and screws don't want to hold now---- squirt glue in holes- insert dowl rods and break or cut off. Screws will then have something to grab on to.
Paint on concrete-if it is latex use a wire brush. I guess if it is oil based gas would take it off.

Oh- btw- what's wrong with your toilet?

Cher, this is too funny!
I was at my son in laws place the other day (he's Jamaican), here in Calif and I rehung a door for them that he had worked on and it was hung with nails as well.
I had to break off pieces of wood and used some wood glue to fill in the nail holes and rehung it using screws.
Some things never change, if you learned it one way, that's the way you know it to be.

BTW, I'm a handy woman as you well know, but when I have handymen in Ja work on the house, I'm always standing over them and ask ahead of time how they plan to execute the job. Some ideas and skills they offer are great, others, not so. Often I am amazed at their ability to get a job done without what we would consider proper tools. Like the time I watched a Ja man break a bottle, because he didn't have a plane to use while installing a window. And he did an excellent job. The opening was square and smooth when he was done with it.

JJ...many years ago I was told by a very great tradesmen "that a job that was over charged would be forgiven if it was well done but being over charged for a poor job would never leave your mind everytime you looked at it". we all make mistakes that's for sure ,we just try to avoid it as much as possible.I have NEVER !!!! asked anyone to do something I wouldn't do myself.Coming to work is a great start.But I don't buy into this I can do it and I am a proud worker.They don't stay long enough to prove that.In Canada you couldn't force me to hire someone like that !!!!!! I had this guy working for me onetime and I told him 4 times in one day to not smoke (cigs) on my time on a job.He lit the 5th one and I fired him.I said "go home and tell your wife why you got fired."

LOL@JJ......no sah

Back in my days (40+ yrs) concrete was a symbol of not only safety but wealth. The last house we built had a concrete roof, which I thought was taking concrete a bit far..lol! No matter how small the house, having it made out of concrete was an accomplishment.

I get cold at 75 degrees so I need the heat from the concrete.

Here on the Greek Islands all the houses are made from concrete. Flat concrete roofs too and all painted white. This is to keep them cool during the long, hot and dry summer. Perfect. During the Winter months when it rains, they are crap and so hard to heat bc concrete is poros making the houses damp. We use a concrete sealer which does help but not brilliant so each room has a humidifier. How do the concrete houses in Ja. cope with so much rain? Do they dry out easily as the rain is so quickly followed by sun?

My husband was shown a handy (for him) tool by a Jamaican. To scale a fish using a beer bottle lid. DH loves it and has ditched the fork he used to use.