While we were telling you about our new intake of trainee Fine Finishers in last week’s blog, our sales team were working flat out with the phone lines ringing virtually non-stop as new and existing clients called in needing our specialist repair services. In fact, they booked over 3,000 hours of work in the week as housebuilders and contractors in the commercial sector discovered those chipped worktops, dented doors, split PVC profiles and scratched sinks which all prevent projects being handed over.
So with the holiday season looming, the prospect of having eight more pairs of skilled hands is reassuring to say the least, for although 40 hours is the standard working week, many of our Finishers put in even more when the schedules call for it. But the return of full order books did remind us of the fact that Plastic Surgeon is such a close knit organisation – with the sales teams, regional managers and front line Finishers working as a team. It also got us wondering what an appropriate ‘collective noun’ would be for a group of Plastic Surgeon’s employees all pulling together.
It’s one of the joys of the English language that it offers us such colourful and often obscure names for groups of different creatures. You know: a pride of lions, a slaughter of crows, an eloquence of lawyers and a shuffle of bureaucrats. Pushing further into the professions we discovered there were a handful with some resonance for the work we do, though not all were attractive. You can for example have a ‘curse’ of painters, and a ‘rabble’ of remedies.
A ‘disguising’ of tailors might be getting somewhere closer to it, while in the medical field you can apparently refer to a group matrons as a ‘riches’; and the internet reveals some whimsical words being proposed for various specialists. An orbit of opthomologists, a colony of bacteriologists, and my personal favourite – a clot of haematologists. They do all make you think about professionals all working for a common goal though.
One of the inimitable facts about team sports such as football, cricket or rugby is that the successful sides are the ones which manage not just to play as a unit, but perform better than is the ‘sum of their individual parts’; which is probably why the Germans have a better track record than England or the Dutch.
I am afraid the best offering we could come up with for a group of plastic surgeons was a ‘tuck’, but we’re open to suggestions. Tickets for England’s World Cup matches are unfortunately as difficult to find as hens’ teeth, but Plastic Surgeon’s MD, Rob Mouser, is keen enough to come up with an answer that he is offering a bottle of champagne for the person who comes up with the best suggestion by the end of the month.
Down the years, many man made objects have been referred to as the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’ because of their size or majestic appearance – the Taj Mahal, Sydney’s Opera House and, in its time, even the Crystal Palace used for the Great Exhibition of the Victorian era.
The truth is though that most of us involved with the construction industry ply our trade on far more humble projects, even though every one represents a significant investment of finances, time and effort for the client and all involved. And for the eight new recruits starting out with Plastic Surgeon this week, they will be learning some very basic skills to begin with: like sanding, polishing and filling.
Billeted at The Cromwell Arms in Bovey Tracey (how many job opportunities start with an all expenses paid two week stay in a character Devon pub?) the eight have arrived from all parts of the country, having been recruited from our southern, western, eastern, north-western and north-eastern regions.
Interestingly, while a good proportion of the Fine Finishers have a background in building or maintenance, and this intake includes one bloke who has been a foremen and another who worked as a timber frame joiner, we also welcome a former electro-plating engineer and someone who worked for an adventure training company. Meanwhile, filling the role of coxswain to the eight man crew, and making sure they pull their weight for the duration of the course will be regular instructors Ian Richards and Chris Gardner.
What is necessary for someone to become a Fine Finisher – apart from good colour perception – is physical aptitude and the right attitude. The vision requirement is because all of the pigments used to make repairs blend in invisibly are matched by eye, and there is also a lot of dexterity involved in making good anything from a cracked basin to damaged window profiles or scratches in doors, floors and pieces of furniture.
The right attitude is essential because Plastic Surgeon is all about providing a proactive service to the construction industry, and in most cases our Fine Finishers are the first face that customers see after the call centre takes an order. They need to be able to think on their feet and respond to whatever challenge comes their way, as quickly and effectively as possible.
Its going to be a steep learning curve for the eight new faces, but a rewarding job awaits if they make the grade. And as they progress through the various grades which Fine Finishers can attain, they will learn all of the wonders it is possible to work with filling knives, grinders, paint brushes and even heat guns.
By the way, for any of you still struggling to remember what the Seven Wonders of the World are (or perhaps I should say were as most are no longer standing) the ‘gimmes’ are the pyramids, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Colossus of Rhodes; plus the Mausoleum at Halicanassus, The Temple of Artemis, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, and the lighthouse at Alexandria,
The bank holiday weekend saw your blogger and other members of Plastic Surgeon’s workforce get together at the Cromwell Arms – where all of the Fine Finishers stay when they’re training at our nearby headquarters – for an Eighties theme night. The landlord had hired a tribute band which not only hammered out hits from the era, but was dressed for the part too; as were a fair proportion of the regulars.
Now the easy option for period fancy dress is to impersonate a rock or pop star of the era and amongst the lookalike cast were the landlord, Gary, doing a suspiciously good take on Queen’s Freddy Mercury, while I was trying my best to look like a stretched version of Ozzy Osborne.
The surprise that not everyone recognised me under the wig and dark glasses got me thinking about the importance of knowing who we are talking to in our everyday lives – especially in view of recent events. The past week has after all seen the new Government announce it is scrapping identity cards, while Sarah Fergusson became the latest victim of the ‘Fake Sheik’. I mean when are people like her going to wake up to the fact this bloke has made a career out of duping minor Royals, MPs and sports personalities?
So while it may not matter who’s who when you’re having a laugh in the pub, there are plenty of times when identity really does matter; with building projects being a prime example. The 2012 Olympics site in Stratford stands out as the one with the highest perceived ‘risk factor’ at the moment, but there are thousands of others around the country where Plastic Surgeon’s approach to employee identification has proved valuable if not essential to assisting clients maintain their chosen level of security.
It doesn’t matter whether one of our Fine Finishers is going to mend a scratch in a shower tray, take a dent of a door or work their magic on a kitchen worktop, we always provide the customer with a basic level of information regarding who to expect at their door, and when.
In response to a booking, Plastic Surgeon sends out a standard letter giving the Finisher’s name, along with a passport style photograph, their vehicle registration details, and a unique reference number. This is backed up by the CSCS and company ID that all employees carry with them when making calls, and the fact that our management system involves all Finishers being provided with palm top computers (known as Mobile Finisher) which keep them in constant communication with base. These units also enable the nature of the repair and the client’s signature confirming completion to be recorded for future reference.
Beyond this, we are also sometimes asked to have members of staff CRB checked for working on particularly sensitive projects, such as was the case recently for a contract at one of the country’s top security prisons. And even more stringent background as well as family checks were necessary for work on behalf of Aspire at an Army base.
Many new customers only turn to Plastic Surgeon when traditional approaches to repair – employing trades-people from site, decorating contractors or even French polishers – has failed: but all of them are impressed at our professional approach from initial inquiry through to complete restoration of the building component in question.
I’ve got to say though, patching up Fergie’s reputation could be beyond us.
The first really good weather of the summer brought the inevitable unveiling of white limbs and bad taste T-shirts; accompanied by the sound of people scraping the rust and food remains off their barbeques as they prepared to burn another batch of burgers.
Here at Plastic Surgeon, however, we’ve been getting stuck into preparations for sunnier days and the holiday season over a lengthy period of time. And that doesn’t mean supplying our Fine Finishers with a fake tan.
In fact, hotels and holiday camps are a key client sector for us, as well as one that makes use of a full range of our repair services as they get all of their accommodation in top condition ready before the season starts.
As you might imagine the range of work and type of premises involved varies hugely, with our Fine Finishers turning up at all sorts of locations from seafront guest houses to five star venues in London. In almost every instance, though, time is critical to such customers, because every night a guest bedroom or some facility is out of use not only looses them money, but potentially damages their reputation.
Speed then is one of Plastic Surgeon’s key strengths compared to the often incredibly drawn out and labour intensive alternative of replacing damaged fixtures or fittings. If a bath, basin or shower tray has suffered some damage then it can require a plumber, tiler and other tradesperson to install a new one – if a matching piece of sanitaryware is still available. By contrast, one of our Fine Finishers will typically take just a couple of hours to effect a repair to a damaged unit.
The same goes for items of furniture, or floor and wall surfaces which have been scratched, dented or otherwise marked. A hotel manager might be tempted to call in a carpenter or a French polisher in the hope of putting things right, but the Fine Finisher’s vans carry a huge selection of repair materials, tools and finishing products that enable them to tackle virtually any situation. Colour matching, furthermore, is something we excel at with all the Finishers being trained in mixing tints to completely conceal any repair that has been filled and rubbed down.
In recent times, the Fine Finishers have been called in to deal with a large hole punched in an art deco column casing at a London restaurant, scratches in glass balustrades at a spa hotel, and water damage to a huge mural running the length of swimming pool down on the English Riviera.
Outside of properties, our stone specialists come into their own also, though the time scale tends to be less critical. No task is too large or too small for Plastic Surgeon while we hope the UK tourist industry enjoys a very lucrative and long, hot summer.
Time was when ‘tag’ was a harmless playground game which guaranteed kids got plenty of exercise, with the only possible downside being the odd grazed knee. Since the eighties of course when the graffiti culture crossed the Atlantic, tag has been the term used for the symbol each perpetrator uses to identify their handiwork. More recently, though, the means by which graffiti artists deface the likes of bus shelters, pedestrian subways and other public places has moved beyond spray cans and marker pens to engraving tools and even blow torches.
One teenager last year was convicted of causing hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage to London Underground trains by etching his tag into carriage windows when the network was quiet.
And dealing with the results of such vandalism has become one of the areas of activity that we at Plastic Surgeon have found ourselves faced with, requiring special techniques to be developed and even new equipment to be acquired.
So although our core business continues to be in carrying out snagging for building contractors – dealing with the accidental damage that befalls baths and basins, doors and windows and all the other components to a property – malicious intent leads to call outs for our Fine Finishers every week.
Back before Plastic Surgeon set up its unique nationwide repair service, construction companies and property owners were fairly restricted in the people they could turn to for help when they fell victim to such vandalism. Certainly there have long been companies who would employ chemical solvents to clean off any daubings, and even apply a protective coat to prevent it being a problem in the future. But when surfaces suffered scratches or worse, they were left to choose between calling in a French Polisher or a painter and decorator.
At Plastic Surgeon, however, we believe we can offer a selection of restoration and repair techniques able put right the effects of almost any type of attack.
In the case of paint removal we carry proprietary chemicals for cleaning them off, but have also recently purchased a special jet washing machine that makes use of soda crystals as a gently abrasive material to peel away the offending matter. It is possible to remove graffiti totally while leaving the original decorative coatings to timber or metal intact and unharmed. And on surfaces such as brick or stone the same can be achieved without detracting from the patinated look that comes with ageing.
Scratches in substrates such as PVC and timber are readily dealt with using our two and three part fillers, prior to the repair being carefully rubbed down and colour matched so that an invisible mend is achieved.
It is well known that a diamond will cause a deep scratch in glass, but less so that diamond abrasive offer the only solution to removing them again. These being the basis for a highly skilled polishing process the Fine Finishers are practised in; that sees them using hand held grinders to cut back the surface of the glass.
The end result is to not only remove the scratches or gouges, but to avoid any distortion or loss of clarity being noticeable to the observer.
It is widely accepted that once a property or an area has been attached by graffiti vandals, it encourages others to follow suit. So until the police or the politicians can find some formula for deterring such behaviour, Plastic Surgeon is probably the best emergency service to call on to prevent one offence leading to another.
Last week’s election not only brought a ‘hung’ Parliament, but the even stranger situation for the UK of people being denied the chance to cast their votes because polling stations could not cope with the numbers. And one of the reasons given by officials for this regrettable situation was that only one person can sit and tick of the names from the electoral role as voting papers are handed out. Whatever the eventual findings might be of the official enquiry that has been promised, we at Plastic Surgeon would like to offer a simple solution to this apparent logistical problem; and it is one that we have been employing at our call centre for years.
While first time callers can connect with a separate sales team, existing customers phoning our Bovey Tracey number (01626 837 770) are invited to choose between two separate lines depending whether their company names begins with the letters A to I or J to Z: effectively dividing the firm’s client list in two. They are then dealt with as speedily as possible by the call centre staff, but should our business continue to grow at its present rate then we could always create a third or fourth sub-division. It really is as easy as A, B, C.
Our customers can also contact us by email or – as many builders still prefer - by fax; but in any instance the person gains immediate access to Plastic Surgeon’s expertise at repairing a very wide selection of common, and not so common, substrates. These include kitchen work-surfaces, sinks, showers, baths, basins, fitted furniture, wood panelling, cladding, doors and windows as well as brickwork and other masonry.
Once the call centre teams have recorded the details of the repair required, jobs are allocated to our 80 plus Fine Finishers based across the UK by means of hand held computers. We call the devices Mobile Finishers, and because they’re loaded with bespoke software they allow the operative to record the nature of the repair done, get it signed for and begin the billing procedure. The Finisher can even send in photos to put on file if necessary and the clients get a full break down of everything relating to their account each month, which in many cases helps them to identify patterns of repairs – thereby enabling them to change working practices and cut damage in the future.
Historically, building contractors relied on their own carpenters and other tradesmen, or even called in firms of French Polishers in the hope of being to put right all the accidental damage that is an everyday occurrence on busy building sites; but in almost all circumstances, we can effect a repair more quickly and more economically.
Something else the politicians might like to know is that – so far – we’ve managed not to leave one of these valuable pieces of kit, packed with data, either on a train or in a taxi.
With all the news coverage – and chaos – linked to the volcanic dust from Iceland, we thought it was an ideal time, at Plastic Surgeon, to consider the subject in relation to our business and processes….. for it is inevitable that the very nature of our work stirs up a little dust itself.
Whether it comes from sanding down a damaged surface – a timber door, PVC-U window frame, masonry substrates or even a kitchen worktop – or the invisible repair itself. Our Fine Finishers generally repair dents, scratches or gouges by filling them with their two or three pack fillers, leaving them slightly proud of the original surface before rubbing them down by hand, or with a power tool, to the same level as the surrounding material.
Also to be considered are the paints and tints we employ which, like other proprietary products, can release minute quantities of gaseous compounds into the air, and could affect those with respiratory disorders such as asthma.
Although the volumes of coating products we use are generally very low, as a responsible and highly professional repair specialist, we use sophisticated mobile extraction and air purification equipment when working in many premises; although our coatings have been developed to ensure they are safe in open air environments where it can be difficult to capture pollutants, especially if it’s windy. Meanwhile many of our coatings have been developed from traditional French Polishing products, which incorporate ultra safe natural dyes, pigments and lacquers.
Despite the fact the materials we use are deemed to be low risk, we take health and safety very seriously, which is why close to £10k has been invested in state of the art portable air extraction units for applications where large paint volumes are utilized An example being where we tint bricks or masonry substrates; or apply the final coatings to doors, garage doors and fences that are normally finished in the factory.
The advanced extractors that we use are extremely effective, removing not just dust and other contaminants, but odours, smoke, VOCs, mists and spray powder, as well as pollen, bacteria and any potentially toxic fumes which might be present.
However our Health and Safety policy at Plastic Surgeon does not just stop at mechanically removing pollutants: when we work in people’s homes or in commercial establishments, our appointment letters include practical advice for people with allergies, or breathing conditions, in relation to the products our Fine Finishers may use in their property.
Sometimes, though, specialist coatings and hi-tech equipment are not enough. A recent job for a NHS trust in the South West involved working alongside occupied wards - and the only option was to use specialist water based coatings.
Ironically, on occasions dust and dirt is a requirement of the job …… if the item we’re repairing has aged or has become dirty - patinated the antique experts call it - than our repair needs to match – dust, grime and all ………
