Apprentice of the Month – November

Jamie Pottinger, a second-year apprentice from Canterbury, realised that teamwork really does make the dream work during a recent roofing job

Jamie and his foreman were in charge of installing a large, flat roof and some internal guttering. Working on an architecturally designed, high-end new build, it wasn’t a simple task to turn the homeowner’s dreams into reality.

“There were multiple falls and changes in gradient that we had to navigate, which didn’t make it the easiest job in the world! Between the foreman and I, there was a lot of problem solving to do.”

Despite the amount of problem solving required beforehand, Jamie reckons the trickiest part of the job came during installation.

“The most difficult part was all the blocking we had to nail into place – we had to nail in 300 blocks, while kneeling on 45mm wide bits of timber! It was hard on the body after three days, so the foreman Tim and I were both trying to find ways to get the other person to do it,” laughs Jamie.

While there’s no doubt the physical part of the job was tough, Jamie says watching Tim figure out ways to deliver exactly what the designer asked for was a brilliant learning experience.

“Transferring the information on the plans to the real world and seeing how Tim made the design work in practice was interesting to observe and something I learned a lot from. That’s where having an experienced foreman, who could implement exactly what the designer and customer wanted, is incredibly useful.”

The outcome was a flat roof that had the correct falls and worked within the design constraints.