Originally Posted by Catch

[ not heard of this place but i am in the building game over here ,ive talked to loads of brickies on site ,the housing side is slowing down quite a bit,still work on commercial sites but they seem to use concrete tilt panel construction so not a deal for brickies to do .My advice is if you have to use this place to get a visa to get into oz all well and good,but if you can get in without them,you can easily pick up work in WA,this place sounds a bit dodgy to me.There were plenty of them in the uk "fast track courses",but not many people ended up with a proper job.

Originally Posted by scotty 71

What are they using for the finish on the walls inside these commercial buildings?

Cheers Scott.

Originally Posted by Catch

On the site i am working on now,the internal walls are sections of "hardie" board with hollow centres ,concrete is poured in the centre the outside finish is rebarted at the joins so it can be taped the rest of the board is sanded down and painted,the outer skin is concrete tilt panel,so a layer of plaster board is attached on the inside and taped and jointed,no "skimming of plaster board is done" just taped.The invidual apartments are metal stud,board and taped.Virtually no brickwork is used on a lot of commercial buildings apart from a bit of block work here and there.Hope this helps

Originally Posted by sarahjaneb

Has anyone heard of the silver trowel college in cannington perth.my boyfriend is supposed to be doing a bricklaying course there and we just want to check that the college does in fact exist and that the amount of money theyve said hel be earning whilst studying is correct as he will have to support us both and more importantly our young son.Any information would be great.
Thankyou.

Originally Posted by mudfrolics

Did your husband start the course. My husband is thinking of doing this course also.

Originally Posted by sarahjaneb

Has anyone heard of the silver trowel college in cannington perth.my boyfriend is supposed to be doing a bricklaying course there and we just want to check that the college does in fact exist and that the amount of money theyve said hel be earning whilst studying is correct as he will have to support us both and more importantly our young son.Any information would be great.
Thankyou.

Originally Posted by sarahjaneb

hello again.well weve been told to take £10000 to cover the cost of a car, a few months rent and the two week gap in which my OH will be just at college so not working and that the money he should earn after those 2 weeks will EASILY be enough for the three of us to live on (my son is only one so no school fees necessary) -this sounded a little optimistic to us which is why we started this thread but having never lived or worked in Australia before we just have to take there word for it and hope for the best as this appears to be the only way for us to get out there.I understand what you mean by it not being ideal-weve saved up all this money and it will all be gone probably before weve been there a month and then if your right it sounds like its going to be a bit of a struggle for us!

The man from the agent we are using (and that told us about the course at silver trowel) told us about the pay.Ive looked on here and some people have said that bricklayers and plasterers earn as much as the agent says
and others say that the building industry is in decline!!??I suppose its one of those things that you wont know until you get there in which case itl be too late!

My OH is due to start the course on the 10th of August but if we dont manage to save up enough money it will most likely be postponed to March 2009.

The agent i mentioned earlier has lived in Perth and has given us a list of nice areas around the college. A few he named were Victoria Park, Midland, Manning& Wilson and he also said that he wouldnt go any further south than Cannington. But this is obviously his taste so it might not suit yours or ours (Id personally like to live a little further out of the city but we will obviously have to stay close to the college until my OH has finnished the course) Have you ever been to Perth before? If so Id love to know of any areas you might recommend!

The agent we are going through is called ****************.Are you going through them aswel?If not how did you here about the course?Im starting to worry about it all now.The reason we are going is for a better life for our son but im not sure anymore if its going to be just as much of a struggle in australia as it is in england!!!

Sarah

Originally Posted by scotty 71

Cheers for that Catch. What I can't understand is this plastering course that i have been looking at doing at the silver trowel college does not teach taping and jointing, which i find strange as most houses, buildings over there seem to use taping and jointing for the interior finish on the walls. I have worked in the concrete business for 15 years now and i'm thinking i might be better off going on a concrete course rather than going on a plastering one.
When I first started looking into moving to Oz it seemd that brickies and plasterers were highly sought after but i'm not so sure now after reading some of the threads on here. What would you advise?

Cheers Scott.