loaning tools to other trades ?

[Short.Circuit]

i have mixed feelings about this. fortunately most of the people i've worked with have been pretty cool. sometimes I've borrowed a really big hammer drill & even a jackhammer from the plumbers. I just hate it when something like a screwdriver, doesn't find its way back to me.

 

[celtic]

Hold their DL or CC as collateral ....and expect the "favor" returned.

 

[sgeers]

my all time favorite was loaning my new klein lineman pliers to a plumber and getting them back with the grips all mangled. learned that lesson quickly

 

[Mr.Sparkle]

I despise when other trades show up with no ladders and think they can take yours because at the moment you are not using them.

 

[charlietuna]

Too much liability to loan out ladders,cords or tools and take a nice new orange fiberglass ladder and loan it to the drywall finisher--it will weigh 10 pounds heavier due to drywall mud !

 

[brantmacga]

I despise when other trades show up with no ladders and think they can take yours because at the moment you are not using them.

I was on a job once where the homeowner on a new construction had contracted the "bulb installation" out to a company specializing in CFL's.

It was a new company.

The guy showed up in a brand new sprinter van well stocked with bulbs, and if i'm lying i'm dying, the guy didn't own a single ladder.

The look on his face when he realized he didn't have a way to reach the can lights 14' off the floor was frickin hilarious.

He wanted to borrow ours, but I remembered we had somewhere else to be and loaded up. I thought it was pretty insane for someone to start a business installing light bulbs to spend $30k on a van and not buy a ladder. What a spaz.

 

[LarryFine]

I thought it was pretty insane for someone to start a business installing light bulbs to spend $30k on a van and not buy a ladder. What a spaz.

I'm suprized he didn't carry one of those extendable bulb-changing kits they sell at the Home DIYpo.

 

[JohnJ0906]

I despise when other trades show up with no ladders and think they can take yours because at the moment you are not using them.

It's bad enough when my own coworkers take the ladder I was just using because I went to grab material.

I had a problem on an apartment complex rehab project, where the framer/drywall crews would just grab any ladder they could find when they needed one, and left it wherever they were done with it. I enjoy searching 44 unit buildings for that one missing ladder at the end of the day....

 

[jrannis]

Usually we chain up our ladders when not in use. I wonder if a club could could be used to lock a ladder closed?

 

[steelersman]

I had a problem on an apartment complex rehab project, where the framer/drywall crews would just grab any ladder they could find when they needed one, and left it wherever they were done with it. I enjoy searching 44 unit buildings for that one missing ladder at the end of the day....

You think that's bad? Try having to find your ladder in the Pentagon! PITA. It must be a universal characteristic with sheetrockers and finishers. The workers outnumber the ladders, so they seem to do this no matter what the job.

 

[bjp_ne_elec]

Depends on the contractor - but I do share tools with a few of the GCs that I have a good relationship with. The liability thing has me thinking a little more. I mean I have considered it, but it's generally been a ladder or a small hand tool.

Not too many plumbers I would loan something to, especially a hand tool - never know where their hands have been.

Two of the GCs always supply the temp power (including the gasoline) from their nice Dewalt Gen, so that's why I'm a little flexible with them.

 

[hillbilly1]

I loaned a 1 HP industrial drill to a plumber one day, he was using a hole saw for a 4" vent stack. He came back with it all bloody saying he would never use it again! The hole saw binded up beating him against the stud next to the hole.

 

[ceb58]

Usually we chain up our ladders when not in use. I wonder if a club could could be used to lock a ladder closed?

Install a LoJack system:grin:

 

[SEO]

Depends on the contractor - but I do share tools with a few of the GCs that I have a good relationship with. The liability thing has me thinking a little more. I mean I have considered it, but it's generally been a ladder or a small hand tool.

Not too many plumbers I would loan something to, especially a hand tool - never know where their hands have been.

Two of the GCs always supply the temp power (including the gasoline) from their nice Dewalt Gen, so that's why I'm a little flexible with them.

What do you do if they break your tool?

 

[480sparky]

Install a LoJack system:grin:

Stop it! You're keeling me!

I pretty much keep a very short leash on my tools. If it doesn't fit in my pouch or pocket, it's completely off-limits to others. Hand tools are a different story. I don't mind if someone asks me, "Hey can I use your pliers to loosen up this bolt right here?", as long as it will only take a second, and I get it right back.

The last time I loaned out a hand tools was a brand spanking new pair of Channies. Painters asked to borrow them for their sprayer. They seemed like nice enough guys, so I let them. End of the day.... no pliers. So I start walking the site, and find their job box with their sprayer chained to it. And my pliers..... laying on the floor..... taking a nice rust bath in ?" of water.

The next day,the first thing that happens is the painters ask for my channies again. I hand them my 2-day-old rusty pair, along with the receipt, and tell them they just bought themselves a pair.

 

[Sparky555]

A guy asked me for a 1/2" bit. I gave him a high speed steel bit, which he used on masonry. It would've been nice if he asked for a masonry bit. No more loaning tools.

 

[satcom]

What do you do if they break your tool?

If they broke the tool, the next thing is wait for their comp company to contact you and ask for the medical payments for removing the steel chips from his eye, I learned early on, never loan any tools or equipment, anything from missing tools to legal action can be the result, for those not in business, or just doing this work on the side, it may be hard for you to understand, the extended liability, that may result. And never, never, loan a ladder, unless you want to change the way you live for the rest of your life.

 

[charlietuna]

Had a mechanical contractor buddy of mine working on a job i recommended him for and a roofer fell off one of his ladders and broke his leg and arm. They found out the roofer was hung over from the company Christmas party the night before, carry a tray full of coffee causing him to climb the ladder with one hand. The guy sued the building and my buddy's company--each were found responsible 50/50 and each insurance company payed about $100k!!! The roofer had his ladder about twenty feet away but his employee decided to use the other one???? Attoney's !!!

 

[George Stolz]

I have fewer issues loaning tools to other trades than fellow employees.

In the past month I've had one file snagged from a guy who forgot to give it back before he was reassigned to another job; had another guy accidentally take home the replacement for that file the following week, and then not show up to work; and had the belt clip busted off my 12v Hitachi drill by a fellow who forgot to bring his own drill to work that day.

If I have something to gain by maintaining positive relations with another trade (which is almost always the case) I try to be helpful to them. Sometimes that includes loaning tools. But I try to be sure to get them back before I have a chance to forget they are loaned out.

 

[luckyshadow]

When I was on the contracting side of the trade I used to loan tools to those I knew or even those who were working were I was. But then I was on large jobs and could be on the same job for a year or two. You get to know who you can loan to or even borrow from.
I very seldom ever borrowed. The company did not want any other trade using any company ladder though.
As far as my ladder walking away when I wasn't on it I found a solution for that. I always had a material cart. I carried a 6' piece of chain and a lock that no one else had the key for. I would chain the ladder to the cart of to anything I could. ( door frames,window frames,stud walls, cast iron plumbing vents and so on)
I also would use this chain to secure my cart and ladder at the end of the day. Locked it where I was last working and would be starting work the next day. I hated carrying a ladder to a general location and locking it in the pile only to have to carry it back in the AM.
This also made it easy for me to keep a good ladder that someone hasn't written all over or "walked it" making it wobbly