Having been in manufacturing most of my life and dealing with hundreds of trade suppliers, I can assure you of one thing. If you want to get things done without losing your mind, you had better know what things are called. And as the world becomes more specialized, this applies to most things - medicine, food, technology or stationery. If you walk into a real lumber yard in NYC, look right and call things by the popular, proper colloquial name used in the trade, you will garner respect and perhaps get decent service. Otherwise you will be seen as the typical do-it-your-selfer, even a nuisance. Depending on the mood of the salesperson, you will be given the simplest thing to get you out of the store and not necessarily the best or correct item for the job. This is not to mention the difficulty in attempting to get what you want by using a combination of sketches, descriptions, hand gestures and other sad, inaccurate and ineffective ways of trying to communicate your needs. It's like being a contractor in France and not speaking the language.Today's photo shows how drywall (or sheetrock) is delivered to a highrise building through a window opening (windows are frequently removed) by using a drywall boom truck (other variations of articulated lifts and their names include: cherry pickers, bucket trucks, boom lifts, basket cranes, scissor lifts, etc.). This method of delivery is a huge improvement over unloading sheets from a truck by hand a few at a time, carrying them into a freight elevator and then off into the job site.
So, perhaps your exercise machine is broken and you need a Delrin wire rope pulley with plain bronze bearings. Or you're assembling a piece of furniture, a screw is missing and what you actually need is a flange button, socket cap screw with hex drive in plain steel with a black oxide finish - oh, and you'll need to know the size and pitch (such as 1/4-20). Of course one solution is a sample - if you have one and can carry it - but if you want to rent a boom truck, it's just best to know what it's called ...
Photo Note: Location was a new residential condo development at 151 Wooster Street in SoHo.
6 comments:
that's got to cost a fortune, that boom lifting all that sheetrock.
scary, too.
I miss having good neighborhood hardware stores where you could talk to people and try to figure stuff out with them. Now it is all big stores and you do have to know everything before you get there, or else they will sell you the Brooklyn Bridge if you are not careful.
Regardless, seems like nothing will stop a New Yorker on a mission.
I'm screwed...
Very nice capture. I've learned something today on how they get a load of sheetrock up several flights the easy way.
I have something for you on my blog today about New York that you did not know about.
and if you buy a grand piano......:)! wonderful capture!
Electric versions of scissor lifts are available that use battery power to relocate heavier and awkward items farther distances. You simply have to stand on the platform and move the levers to move the equipment.
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