Construction trades guys: How cold does it have to be

[Scootertrash]

before you take or get the day off? I'm talking outside workers, not you cupcakes that work in t-shirts all day.

-9 air temp, -27 windchill as I sit at my desk typing this. Trying to decide what I'm gonna do with my day off. My list is longer than a Barnett post, just have to sort priorities.

[jeswinehart]

Being in the propane buisness the colder it is the more work we have.
No "snow days" in my trade.
Defroster acts as a glove warmer as well as a lunch microwave

[Scootertrash]

Just had the propane guy show up at our job to drop off some 100 lb'ers yesterday. You propane guys are our saviors!!
(Resisting the urge to throw out a few propane puns, even tho it would be a gas.....)
No heated shelters at our job yet. All of our shelters are for heating concrete we pour, we haven't poured in 3 weeks so no shelters built, aside from the fact that they're normally up overnight only and torn down the next morning. Yesterday wasn't too bad until after lunch. -15 windchill after the wind picked up in the afternoon.

I generally have no problem going in and I never volunteer to go home or stay home , but if they tell me to stay home I'm not gonna argue.

[fabiodriven]

Although I don't physically work outside in the cold for work, we do go out in the dead of winter to clear bulk snow in Boston. I don't personally go out plowing or sanding (although our sanding fleet seems to have multiplied over this year somehow so I think my run of staying home in blizzards may be coming to an end), but rather I haul the snow piles out of Boston in a dump trailer overnight after the storms. Obviously the trucks have heaters so the cold usually isn't an issue provided nothing breaks. The two worst parts of that are the lack of sleeping space in our Kenworth day cabs (no sleepers) and Kenworth's terrible heating system and cab ventilation from the factory.

Kenworth cabs are air tight. You have to crack a window any time you need to shut one of the doors. In theory that sounds great, however if anyone has ever seen the back of a Ford Super Duty cab, or any Ford truck cab really, you may have noticed the two vents towards the bottom of the cab in the rear. These allow you to close the doors of the truck, which is a plus, as well as provide proper air flow through the cab itself. In a Kenworth, without those vents and combined with the fact that they use an archaic coolant flow valve rather than having the HVAC system controlled with air dampers, your heating choices are antarctic or the blazing friggin fires of Hades. Doesn't sound like a big deal until you're in the truck for 16 hours at a whack. I really hope to someday cross paths with a Kenworth engineer so as we can have a very long sit-down. These trucks are not old and I fail to see why it is that they deem the cabs being airtight and the heating selection being 1970's technology to be acceptable. By my estimation, I could easily take somebody's well-paid position in the R&D department over there. If I owned the truck, I'd cut vents in it myself personally. My 1970 F-100 had the same heating adjustment and by comparison my 1985 Mustang has the "modern" air damper heating adjustment. Get with the times KW. I know, I'm not physically out in it, but this is directly related to cold weather working.

As far as physically working outside in the cold I'm a Nancy. Splitting wood is fine, you can stay warm doing that, but mechanical work in the cold is the absolute worst. Last winter the water pump in my pickup decided to take a dump in the dead of winter. We were in a really bad cold snap and I tried asking nicely but it just wasn't going to change itself. The best way to do it, I'd just work for about ten minutes then go in the house and thaw out and repeat. I had all day so there was no need to stay outside like a nitwit freezing my tits off. This year the garage is heated but the pickup doesn't fit in there so...

[El Camexican]

-76C with the windchill. I believe the thermometers that weren't frozen said -42C that day, but that was just in Regina Saskatchewan, boys that work "up North" see a lot colder temps.

[fabiodriven]

In Engrish prease Nico. Nobody can understand your weirdo Canada numbers.

[90nut]

It's gotta darn cold before I stay home. It was -13 with the wind chill yesterday. Not bad at all. Other guys were looking like ice sickles, I wasn't even wearing gloves most of the day

[Scootertrash]

After 30+ years of this type pf work it doesn't take much for my finger tips to get really cold. Too many years of hanging on to scaffolding and steel concrete forms for heat and cover has taken it's toll on my phalanges.

[90nut]

I hear you on that one scooter. My hands have their days. But I HATE gloves.

[stoshu]

-40 right now. About to start sheeting a roof

[fabiodriven]

See ^^^there's^^^ the type of post scooter was looking for.

[shortline10]

Notice the fan in the back ground ,,, friggen 85 degrees out and 80% humidity , to hot to work .

[Scootertrash]

Buahahahahahahahaha !!!!.....lick my yam sack !......ya friggin eskimo`s !......you want to laugh wit my wife ??....take my wife please ! ......the coldest winter i`ve spent was a summer in San Francisco !

Your tongue sticks to sh!t in really cold weather:




Do you really want someone's tongue stuck to your pole?

[Scootertrash]

-40 right now. About to start sheeting a roof

-40 windchill or -40 air temp?

[stoshu]

-40 windchill or -40 air temp?

-40 windchill. Feels like summer