Carpenters work situation?

[garyandelaine]

Hi everyone, we are new to PIA and think its a great forum,

I am a carpenter (Gary 35) wife (Elaine 34) and Connor 5 and Dylan 1

We are hoping to be in Adelaide early next year and would like to know

what the work situation is like, Is it as bad as here at the mo?

Do the companys use subbys like here?

Is there more sites (developments)in the north or the south?

Are 110v tools OK

And most inportant what are the wages like?

Any info on the above would be great as i am getting a bit nervious now,

 

THANKS GARY.......

[pablo]

Hi everyone, we are new to PIA and think its a great forum,

I am a carpenter (Gary 35) wife (Elaine 34) and Connor 5 and Dylan 1

We are hoping to be in Adelaide early next year and would like to know

what the work situation is like, Is it as bad as here at the mo?

Do the companys use subbys like here?

Is there more sites (developments)in the north or the south?

Are 110v tools OK

And most inportant what are the wages like?

Any info on the above would be great as i am getting a bit nervious now,

 

THANKS GARY.......

I can only say what i found on our reccie in april/may,there is deffo more work there than here altho it has slowed down,yes you can go paye or subby,BUT i THINK you need a license to be a subby?( others who are over there will know the details on this better than me)as a bricky i would initially work under the companys license.from what i know the south has more housing developments,but a lot of the work advertised was for the north( if you can work that one out! )wages for a bricky were from $30 to $35 on hourly rate.didnt bother asking about 110 volts as it obviously isnt a concern to me. anyway...good luck and hopefully someone who is over there will come and advise you properly

[garyandelaine]

Cheers for the reply pablo, I read your reccie report and it sounded great ,

When are you planning on heading over? Gary ..

[pablo]

Cheers for the reply pablo, I read your reccie report and it sounded great ,

When are you planning on heading over? Gary ..

God knows mate,got to sell hse first anyway,were hoping to be over there in about a year gary

[pablo]

Btw gary have you had a look on pomsinoz.com? theres more members and sometimes its easier to get info,simply because theres more people on there,LOL its just dawned on me that i never done a reccie report on PIA so you must be on PIO!! too much whisky over the yrs that!

[garyandelaine]

Hi pablo thaks for that , was your report about a scouser you met selling hot dogs or something along those lines LOL......

[Guest sandar1]

My son worked here as a carpenter had plenty of work living at Victor Harbor lots of new construction in that area and great place to live with kids. Hickinbotham are building about 1000 new homes there from what I hear. It is very hard to get a tradie there as they are all extremely busy. You will need a license for which you will have to sit a test. That should not be a problem however. I gather the test was quite simple. Glen had a bit of a problem because he had lived and worked in the US for ever and of course the test was in metric which he had no knowledge of, but he passed okay. I would look more to the south for work lots of new construction and nearer the ocean. Your tools should be okay but maybe someone else can confirm. I'll check out my drill today to see the voltage, but I believe it is 110

 

Any more questions let me know.

[garyandelaine]

thanks for your advice , much apprieciated. was the test your son took the skills assessment by vetassess ? this gives the australian equivelent of a qualified carpenter

thanks gary

[Guest sandar1]

Not sure will check with him he now iving in the US. Check out victor harbor on the net

[pablo]

Hi pablo thaks for that , was your report about a scouser you met selling hot dogs or something along those lines LOL......

Well it wasnt "just" about that! LMAO,but yes all the way down to cape jervis ( realy remote) and when i asked the old fellah in the hot dog van could i have a tea and a coffee he said......"not with that f###### accent you cant"! he was from anfield originally!owned 26 acres right on the coast,been there since 1976,still charged me tho!

[Guest guest569]

Although you need to be good at what you do and Never have a " that will do " attitude. It is a very much who you know to get you up and running. I earn more here than i did in the Uk. when are you arriving and what experience do you have ??

[Guest GAFFBAM]

Hi Gary & Elaine I have sent you a 'pm' check you inbox!

[garyandelaine]

hi , we are hoping to be over early next year if house sale all goes well,

I have 19 yrs experience and have been self employed for the last 11 years

I have mainly done 1st fix , chambers , roof work (trad ad trusses) and the odd

few timber kits, but done more 2nds lately due to recesion , fitted windows and

doors for a while last year so almost anything realy but prefare 1st,s and roofing.

Any contacts you could pass on would be hugely appreciated

thanks Gary,

[Guest tubbycuster]

Hi, I'm finding this thread very interesting. I too am a 35 year old carpenter on my to Adelaide in October, can't wait! Work started to dry up here about six months ago so I've been killing time fitting signs around London for a sign company and am desperate to get back to some proper carpentry work.

 

With regard to power tools, I was in Australia last November and found that while you can use 110v tools through a transformer (just change the plug on the trannie) they are not sold in Aus, so if you're transformer breaks you can be stuffed. Australian tradesmen seem to use 240v tools with a circuit breaker.

 

I spent the last eight years working as a site manager/carpenter for a relatively small contracting firm on projects as varied as listed period property restoration to office and Studio space fit outs for Nickelodeon TV. I do everything from first to second fix, pitching roofs, both trussed and hand cut to plaster boarding and fitting kitchens, windows, doors etc. If anyone knows of any work that will going from November onwards I would be very appreciative, definately be worth a barbie at our place!

 

Good luck with the house sale Gary, we just got a buyer for ours and they're looking to complete quickly so we're pretty excited.

 

Cheers,

Tim

[Guest chillyanna]

Hi all

to the chippies still in the uk here is my story and take on things here so far.

i've been in adelaide since march and still in my first job.

my background is mainly in shopfitting, was a subby for10 years in england with occasional spells doing 2nd fix on new flats/houses.

after arriving in adelaide and getting settled for the first month i took copies of my c.v to shopfitting companies i found in the yellow pages. got 2 offers out of 6 tried for. mainly working in the work shop making cabinets/cupboards. boring! supposed to be a fitter/installer but i dont get out of the factory much. when you start a job you are taken on a casual contract i.e 3 month trial in which time they can show you the door if you are not upto the job. seen it done twice already. but you are paid 25% more to make up for not having hoilday pay or sickpay or RDO's rosterd day off.

WAGES.working for a company pays about $20 p/h upto $30 p/h. subbys and contractors $30 to $40 maybe more. and here nobody works more than 40 hours p/w and almost no weekend work.

working for a company you do get overtime of time and half for first 3 hours then double time.

i took this job for stability in the beging now i am wanting to get my contractors license so i can job around. this cost's $600 and a short course on keeping books and running a company, check out ordering materials. if you want to do structual joinery then you will have to get the carpenters license, dont know the cost of that. it's like going back to college as you have to learn about weight loading and timber stressing and all the do's and dont's. then you are free to work for your self or as a subby on building timber frame houses.

there is a chance you could get in with a construction company and build under their license and public liability insurance.

as for 110v tools. i brought all mine and my paslodes. it's true 240v tools are the norm here but if you work for your self there is not a problem using 110v, i have already and i heard of another guy using them. but if the tranny goes bang then your out of action till you ship over a new tranny from england. if you sell up and buy 240v here it will be costly. im glad i brought all mine with me. no tools cost under $120 really and can cost upto $300 for the good stuff.

vaxhall combo's sell for $8000 or more and transits $15.000. most tradies use ute's with lock-up boxes. they sell for about $5000 upwards. all prices are used prices. check out www.drive.com.au for work vehicles and cars.

To get the ball rolling with finding work before you come over i think it a good idea to search out the type of companies you would like to work for then email them your c.v and telling when you arrive what work you have done and if possible can you go to see them when you arrive. this is what i wish i had done.

websites worth looking up are www.ocba.sa.gov.au they deal with contractor licenses. www.mbasa.com.au

sorry if it is a bit rambling, i wrote it as i thought it. any questions can be posted on here or PM me.

everything i have wrote about are from my own findings. if anybody knows better please feel free to say.

cheers

chilly

[Guest karyn1]

Hi everyone, we are new to PIA and think its a great forum,

I am a carpenter (Gary 35) wife (Elaine 34) and Connor 5 and Dylan 1

We are hoping to be in Adelaide early next year and would like to know

what the work situation is like, Is it as bad as here at the mo?

Do the companys use subbys like here?

Is there more sites (developments)in the north or the south?

Are 110v tools OK

And most inportant what are the wages like?

Any info on the above would be great as i am getting a bit nervious now,

 

THANKS GARY.......

Great questions Gary, we are wanting the same answers. We seem to not be able to get a staight answer about wages so if anyone could clarify this for a carpenter we would be very gratefull!

[Guest nickynleemc]

hi paul you did ramble a little but it's interesting to know about being able to bring over my husbands tools, He's are Joiner(carpenter) also. I've also been looking on the net about the licence that he needs to enable him to work onsite, it looks like he could get this before we get over to Aus. By the way my name nicky and my husband is lee we both live in Heywood.