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Vertikal (471-481 King St E) | 23 & 19 fl | U/C
(05-14-2020, 12:04 PM)clasher Wrote: There's probably a lot of workers that are choosing to stay home and stay safe. There's not really any way to do construction and social-distance at the same time. The lunch trailer is the perfect place to sit and breath on each other for a while every day too.

Pretty easily addressed, istm.  Same with providing the workers with hand washing stations.  It would, of course, cost developers money, which is "impossible".
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You might think that it'd be easy to convince people to wear a mask for their own safety and that of others but it's not. It also seems from the places I've worked that had unsafe amounts of particulate in the air can't legally force people to wear the masks, they can only mandate one has it on their person. Going into the coke ovens at dofasco they give everyone a new respirator every day (rubber ones with filters, not n95 paper ones) and most people just carry them and don't wear them. I got called names for wearing mine when I was an apprentice.

In the winter I was working at a plant that had one of the highest rates of silicosis in North America and same thing, they mandate everyone have a 30$ respirator on their person but most people didn't wear them, even when it was dusty. I was welding stainless steel inside a kiln so I had mine on but those respirators aren't good for keeping your breath contained; it blows out the front and condensate drips down the mask in the right weather, they are also hard to wear while doing heavy, physical work. I dunno what the availability of those n95 dust masks are like but any decent sized site would be going through hundreds a day if everyone had to wear one all the time... and you're right, I don't see companies paying for it if they can get away without doing it, the margins in construction are pretty slim already and cutting corners on safety is still a major problem, dozens of people die every year in preventable accidents and it's still an uphill battle to get workers and employers to follow existing rules about safety... doing more on top of that is gonna be a fight.
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(05-14-2020, 12:04 PM)clasher Wrote: There's probably a lot of workers that are choosing to stay home and stay safe. There's not really any way to do construction and social-distance at the same time. The lunch trailer is the perfect place to sit and breath on each other for a while every day too.

Most construction sites have plenty of space to sit down and eat lunch, especially in spring/summer weather. But few construction workers seem to be willing to wear masks, based on my anecdotal observations of multiple construction sites.
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(05-14-2020, 02:29 PM)clasher Wrote: You might think that it'd be easy to convince people to wear a mask for their own safety and that of others but it's not. It also seems from the places I've worked that had unsafe amounts of particulate in the air can't legally force people to wear the masks, they can only mandate one has it on their person. Going into the coke ovens at dofasco they give everyone a new respirator every day (rubber ones with filters, not n95 paper ones) and most people just carry them and don't wear them. I got called names for wearing mine when I was an apprentice.

As long as they can’t sue their employer for the working conditions…

But seriously, that’s crazy. Since when do workers not have to do what their manager says (on-topic to the job, of course, not inappropriate “extra-curricular” requests, for example)?
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(05-14-2020, 03:05 PM)tomh009 Wrote:
(05-14-2020, 12:04 PM)clasher Wrote: There's probably a lot of workers that are choosing to stay home and stay safe. There's not really any way to do construction and social-distance at the same time. The lunch trailer is the perfect place to sit and breath on each other for a while every day too.

Most construction sites have plenty of space to sit down and eat lunch, especially in spring/summer weather. But few construction workers seem to be willing to wear masks, based on my anecdotal observations of multiple construction sites.

Jim Leff on the blue-collar "tough-guy" credo:

https://jimleff.blogspot.com/2020/04/exp...iners.html
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(05-14-2020, 02:29 PM)clasher Wrote: You might think that it'd be easy to convince people to wear a mask for their own safety and that of others but it's not. It also seems from the places I've worked that had unsafe amounts of particulate in the air can't legally force people to wear the masks, they can only mandate one has it on their person. Going into the coke ovens at dofasco they give everyone a new respirator every day (rubber ones with filters, not n95 paper ones) and most people just carry them and don't wear them. I got called names for wearing mine when I was an apprentice.

The OHSA says that employers have a legal duty to ensure that workers use appropriate protective equipment, and workers have a legal duty to use any protective equipment required by the employer. Maybe it's hard to enforce, but the law seems pretty clear.

https://www.ontario.ca/document/guide-oc...section-13
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(05-14-2020, 06:53 PM)jwilliamson Wrote:
(05-14-2020, 02:29 PM)clasher Wrote: You might think that it'd be easy to convince people to wear a mask for their own safety and that of others but it's not. It also seems from the places I've worked that had unsafe amounts of particulate in the air can't legally force people to wear the masks, they can only mandate one has it on their person. Going into the coke ovens at dofasco they give everyone a new respirator every day (rubber ones with filters, not n95 paper ones) and most people just carry them and don't wear them. I got called names for wearing mine when I was an apprentice.

The OHSA says that employers have a legal duty to ensure that workers use appropriate protective equipment, and workers have a legal duty to use any protective equipment required by the employer. Maybe it's hard to enforce, but the law seems pretty clear.

https://www.ontario.ca/document/guide-oc...section-13

I'm well aware of what the laws says. Employers have plausible deniability since they provide the gear and we all sign forms saying we're gonna work safe. The only time I've seen ministry people is after a big accident like someone losing a foot in an auger, or when a crane counter-weight slipped and crushed a man's leg.

I also worked with a guy that was at the 9/11 cleanup for a little while; he ultimately left after pulling out a beam and finding a body; still kinda messed up from that after all these years. He didn't wear a respirator when we were welding together either... it's funny things have changed a bit and a lot of the older guys will tell me now that it's good I'm wearing a respirator but they won't wear one themselves.
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(05-14-2020, 07:38 PM)clasher Wrote:
(05-14-2020, 06:53 PM)jwilliamson Wrote: The OHSA says that employers have a legal duty to ensure that workers use appropriate protective equipment, and workers have a legal duty to use any protective equipment required by the employer. Maybe it's hard to enforce, but the law seems pretty clear.

https://www.ontario.ca/document/guide-oc...section-13

I'm well aware of what the laws says. Employers have plausible deniability since they provide the gear and we all sign forms saying we're gonna work safe. The only time I've seen ministry people is after a big accident like someone losing a foot in an auger, or when a crane counter-weight slipped and crushed a man's leg.

Yes, although employers are supposed to enforce, it's probably too hard to do so in practice when nothing bad happens if the culture is a certain way.
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One issue with workplace equipment is that it isn’t just masks. I hate wearing a mask because it’s uncomfortable; I’ve done it a few times when removing drywall from a moldy basement or something similar that would be really bad without. But on a typical construction site it’s not just a mask; a hard hat is also required. Then if the job is loud, ear protection. Many tasks require safety glasses. Some workers will additionally require a headset for communication — so earphones and a microphone mounted somewhere. This gets us to 5 separate pieces of equipment, so even with no discomfort as such, just dealing with it all is a pain.

What is really needed is a full-head helmet almost like a space helmet which provides hardhat protection, eye protection, ear protection, breathing, headphones, microphone, and a music and communication systems all in one. I suspect this already exists but it sounds expensive.
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The job where I was welding inside a kiln I wore ear plugs and ear muffs since the grinding and hammering is just so loud inside a giant metal pipe. I could take the muffs off when I was just welding since that isn't nearly as loud as grinding is. We also had the kiln's fan on to remove the smoke and stainless steel fumes. On top of that I had a hardhat, safety glasses, my 3m half-face respirator and a welding shield... at least when we switch to fitting we can take off the welding shield so it's a bit lighter. The crews that do the refractory inside the kilns sometimes wear 3M full-face respirators that cover the whole face and are a bit like space helmet, but the hardhat isn't integrated. There are integrated welding shields/respirators but I wouldn't want to wear one at my job, they are expensive, bulky and hard to communicate in. I've gone through two auto-darkening welding shields in the last few years as well... they are more suited to shop work and lighter/cleaner work environments than I work in.
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For reference:

[Image: rendering.jpg]
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It looks like one of the student apartment buildings in Waterloo. There is zero harmony in the design.
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Wow I have not posted in a while, but couldn't pass this up. 

I knew this one was not going to be a show stopper but come on. 

Does Drewlo actually have an architect design for them or is it just in house? 

This is an awful design in all aspects. It is a good thing this building will add density and retail because other than that this is not a good addition to downtown kitchener. I know that not every building can be a winner. But look at the building on weber. Cheep precast with a little thought when it came to design and IMOP it is turning out to be one of the nicer buildings in downtown. 

The colours are atrocious., brown, black and white.  Most definitely an EIFS buildings, so if you think it looks bad now. Wait for the colours to fad in 1-5 years. I also don't understand why developers can't just build something with a uniformed shape all the way up? Why randomly change the for the last 5 floors? This seems to be a common theme in KW recently.

Still not a great design, but a little uniformity would have made these building a lot better in my opinion. 
 
[attachment=6995]

The podium is a joke. Not even sure how to handle this. 

How can we be so close to Toronto yet produce buildings that look like hamilton in the 80's? 

Sorry for the rant. Hope everyone is staying healthy and busy during the Quarantine.  
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(05-20-2020, 03:30 PM)westwardloo Wrote: The podium is a joke. Not even sure how to handle this.

What is wrong with the podium?
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In this latest render, the Madison Tower looks taller then the Cameron Tower.
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