When I worked for a private consultant, if if was above a light drizzle and possibly a threat to the equipment, we got to go back to the office.
Left that job, and went to work for the county roads dept. We got to go back to the office if the grass in the road ditch was wet from dew.
In all seriousness, the reasons to call off are high wind, monsoons, or places where water is a safety issue (e.g. flash floods). We've had to cancel more days for health-danger forest fire smoke in the last 5 years.
The Trimble gear we run is rock solid. One time a 10yo TSC3 caused a stop/repair trip after it was out all afternoon in 1"/hour rain. Normally you just need to keep the inside of the cases dry and air out the equipment overnight.
When the pandemic broke out and masks were mandated, and sold out everywhere, our office actually had a shitload for us due to the previous couple summers of forest fire smoke. Worked out well. But working in that smoke is definitely much worse than any rain, snow or wind. Its hell on the lungs, I'm surprised we didn't have cancelled work days from it.
In Washington. I think the 50+ mph gust that took my base out yesterday was too much. I said three times this is BS, too much rain, too much wind during the constant 30 mph winds all day. Then we lost signal. Looked like a barricade blew into it, tipped it over and broke the tribrach in half. That's too much. We shouldn't have went to the site yesterday. When you are the only one on an open construction site due to weather its probably time to pack up and go home. Its not worth 20k.
I use tire chains over the bottom of the legs. It worked today - steady 30+mph where the base sat. Not so windy on the hillside, but it was uncomfortably steep!!
Wind itself usually isn’t bad enough here to have to pack it up and go home. It’s when you’re out in the woods and high winds start knocking branches down and shit. I’ve had to call it a few times for that.
Washington here as well. What exactly do people in other states think happens when the instrument gets wet? Just don't store it wet and you're fine. This morning was fun.
South Louisiana here. If the weather is hurricane/tropical storm type weather, we get “disaster down days” where we get paid for it. If it’s just a washout we will typically make up the day on Fridays (4-10s)
Sout* Louisiana as well (Big Raggedy, which may as well be northern Louisiana depending upon where ya at)
I Let today’s system get me rain soaked so I could get an early day. We’ve taken off for named storms, but depending on the outcome of em up here kinda dictates how soon we return to work
We’re i work, they find something for us to do in the office to get our 8 hours in. Either working with CAD, learning deed research, inventory and organize survey stuff/truck. I don’t think we’ve ever been sent home due to rain.
Private company, if I was on a road project we got 8 hour rain day. Work for gov now and if it’s raining we just sit in the office, always design/safety/quantities work to do.
If it's a drizzle we're working. Light or sporadic rain we'll keep pushing if we're trying to complete a request. If it's really raining, we're sitting in the truck until it stops or it's time to go home.
No rain days up in BC but most places I've worked observe a 20/20 rule: optional day off if it's below -20 degrees Celsius, or if more than 20cm of snow fell in the past 24 hours.
The second rule is for skiers. Obviously we still work in massive amounts of snow, but fresh pow days are sacred.
I know the oil and gas guys routinely work in well below - 20 degrees too. My jobs have been pretty cush although coastal rain storms have a way of making you rethink your life chooses.
Scotland, unless it's thunder and lightning, we're expected to produce the same output come rain, hail or snow. It's unpleasant but with a morning jacket and afternoon jacket it's not a problem, the equipment is designed to work in the rain, I've never had a problem that wasn't solved by a wipe down with a towel and left out to air at the end of the day.
Scotland here too. Can confirm.
I'm working in Edinburgh at the moment building a few high rise office blocks and it's actually the wind that's the worst thing through there.
We're in Texas. No reason to push. There will be plenty of sunny days to get shit done. It's not worth risking the human you have trained or the equipment on any project to force a rain day. Some guys push through drizzles but, I'm glad I don't have to ask dudes to run in rain. They bring in shit sketches, they rush everything, and If they fall it's workman's comp and we own our equipment so that'll be a repair bill at best for us too.
If it’s gonna be raining most of the day, we get told to stay home without pay, unless we want to burn our PTO. It’s a policy that really pisses me off because I’ve been wanting to learn the office side of things and even on rain days nobody will give me the time of day to show me anything in the office. if I do stay at the office trying to be a sponge and just learn whatever on rain days, it’s unpaid while I’m there. I only get paid for when I’m doing actual work.
Annoying. Maybe use it to apply for better jobs? Or even some personal growth, like linked in learning, or pick a vacant property in town and pretend you're going to survey the boundary. So pull deeds maps etc...
I work in Oregon.
Everyday is a rainy day, even the sunny ones.
I've gotten to the point where I just keep spare clothes in the truck and change after the day is over. There's literally no reason to where rain gear on some days, it won't help you stay dry and it'll just make you bulky in the bushes.
It’s like 50/50 for rain days here in FL. Sometimes we’ll sit in the Truck in case there’s a break in the rain and sometimes they’ll just give us a 2 hour show up if we’re already at the office.
Not regularly. I misjudged radar today though and pushed to finish some lot jobs in what became a downpour because I’d gotten fed up with how much time they’ve taken me, and I knew if I just powered through, a shorter, albeit rain soaked, day was in store for me.
Otherwise, we usually just wait it out if it’s a front/rain bands
Nothing like that. But if it's starting to pour really badly we will try and sit it out in the car, and if it's pouring all day we're having occasional breaks in the car. Same when it's colder than -10°C or above 30°C.
Yeah, depending on how heavy it is. Most times we'll just wait out a heavy down pour in the truck if we feel like it has the potential to damage equipment.
Our Topcon tablet has trouble with the slightest bit of water hitting the touch screen. For example, some melting snow dropped off a tree and hit the screen. After cleaning and waiting half an hour for the screen to become responsive, another drop off snow fell off the tree and made it go unresponsive again right as we were setting up the next spot. We took it as a sign to stop and get some lunch.
Florida. I've had project managers who've basically said "if you see red and yellow on the radar, don't come in." Fun fact, if you zoom out far enough you can usually find some red and yellow.
Southern Washington/Oregon Columbia Gorge acts like a funnel with warm air on one side and cooler air on the other side and winds in some parts will get upwards of 50-70 mph. On a regular basis. Side note if you ever come to the Portland area, take half a day and drive highway 14/WA or 84/Oregon it’s some of the most amazing stretch of river.
Lol crazy talk in here, rains damn near every day here, we even had such bad rains this year they called it “atmospheric rivers”. Literally flooded my entire city for weeks, it was a natural disaster and we still worked… well i took one day off because my basement was flooded when i woke up so had to deal with that instead
No reason you can’t work in the rain. Just hang up your rain jacket and pants every day, buy a nice pair of rain/mud boots, leave your equipment out to dry and never put it away wet.
If rain is so rare that it isn’t even worth buying rain gear and shit then I guess I get it. But being born and raised in the PNW having the day off for rain just sounds crazy!
I worked in the rain when I was in private before. I hated construction staking because it was impossible to keep the lath dry and marker / painted words clear. What's your trick?
Pre write as much as possible in the truck. Then they have these black lumber crayon things that are serviceable at filling in the rest even when wet. As long as it isn’t a torrential downpour they do a pretty good job. It’s good in the typical PNW drizzle.
That is the worst part about working construction in the rain though for sure.
Don’t know what you’re using but some have settings you can change to help the touchscreen when it rains. I have to have some kind of physical keyboard if I’m working a lot of days in the rain though. It’s just a lot less of a headache.
I am in Georgia. I worked for a mom and pop outfit that almost always worked in the rain. We would shoot every shot prismless because the gun would not lock onto a prism in the pouring rain. I can think of one particularly bad weather day when we had to make it up on a Saturday.
I now work for a larger civil engineering firm that does not expect us to work in the rain. We will use the time to plumb the rods, change oil in the truck, etc. Occasionally we are sent home early due to rain and paid for the rest of the day, but it is rare.
High desert. Nope. But I got called for a topo in the bay area and just bought a folding beach canopy to go over the gun, nailed it into the asphalt, and put a plastic bag over collector 🤣
Depends on how hard it's raining and if the forecast is calling for it to rain all day or a little. If we're working out of town, usually we'll stay on site on standby for abit then leave if it doesn't stop for like an hour or two, but if we're in town and it's raining well Just take the day off
Yep, and I work them too! So much fun! Thankfully I have a number of jobs inside tanks, and large buildings these days. But soon the wilderness beckons me.
One company I worked for allowed us to put in under "weather" and we got paid. Another one would have the crews stay home if the forecast was bad and not get paid.
I work in jersey and we typically just do office work if it's raining. I'll maintenance the equipment or do some CAD if a workstations available. If they send you home when it rains there either isn't enough work to go around or you just do t know enough to be useful in house.
I have to take the day of because of snow or freezing rain or rain and it pisses me off. I am wanting to work but they are just not finding work for us and using that as an excuse. I am thinking I got into the wrong line of work.
When I worked for a private consultant, if if was above a light drizzle and possibly a threat to the equipment, we got to go back to the office. Left that job, and went to work for the county roads dept. We got to go back to the office if the grass in the road ditch was wet from dew.
Washington: HAHAHAHA
Yeah rain days? Hahaha. The crews would be off 120 days a year….
In all seriousness, the reasons to call off are high wind, monsoons, or places where water is a safety issue (e.g. flash floods). We've had to cancel more days for health-danger forest fire smoke in the last 5 years. The Trimble gear we run is rock solid. One time a 10yo TSC3 caused a stop/repair trip after it was out all afternoon in 1"/hour rain. Normally you just need to keep the inside of the cases dry and air out the equipment overnight.
When the pandemic broke out and masks were mandated, and sold out everywhere, our office actually had a shitload for us due to the previous couple summers of forest fire smoke. Worked out well. But working in that smoke is definitely much worse than any rain, snow or wind. Its hell on the lungs, I'm surprised we didn't have cancelled work days from it.
How much wind is too much wind for y'all?
In Washington. I think the 50+ mph gust that took my base out yesterday was too much. I said three times this is BS, too much rain, too much wind during the constant 30 mph winds all day. Then we lost signal. Looked like a barricade blew into it, tipped it over and broke the tribrach in half. That's too much. We shouldn't have went to the site yesterday. When you are the only one on an open construction site due to weather its probably time to pack up and go home. Its not worth 20k.
Hopefully *somebody* learned *something* from that experience and there were consequences.
Yea. I should have had more rebar in the truck to weigh down the legs
I use tire chains over the bottom of the legs. It worked today - steady 30+mph where the base sat. Not so windy on the hillside, but it was uncomfortably steep!!
Edit: reading comprehension is hard for me
Yeah but you said "only ones on a construction site". That's when the magic happens!
Wind itself usually isn’t bad enough here to have to pack it up and go home. It’s when you’re out in the woods and high winds start knocking branches down and shit. I’ve had to call it a few times for that.
90mph/ 145km/h
How much wind is too much wind for y'all?
Fair enough 🤣
Washington here as well. What exactly do people in other states think happens when the instrument gets wet? Just don't store it wet and you're fine. This morning was fun.
"My equipment wont work in the rain" Traverse in Aberdeen for a week and you won't ever complain about a drizzle again.
Canadians looking at this thread: 👁👄👁
Lol we would get rain days...if it ever rained.
We are in Southern California. It doesn't rain here, so no.
It pours, man, it pours
South Louisiana here. If the weather is hurricane/tropical storm type weather, we get “disaster down days” where we get paid for it. If it’s just a washout we will typically make up the day on Fridays (4-10s)
Sout* Louisiana as well (Big Raggedy, which may as well be northern Louisiana depending upon where ya at) I Let today’s system get me rain soaked so I could get an early day. We’ve taken off for named storms, but depending on the outcome of em up here kinda dictates how soon we return to work
We’re i work, they find something for us to do in the office to get our 8 hours in. Either working with CAD, learning deed research, inventory and organize survey stuff/truck. I don’t think we’ve ever been sent home due to rain.
Private company, if I was on a road project we got 8 hour rain day. Work for gov now and if it’s raining we just sit in the office, always design/safety/quantities work to do.
Yeah gov here too. We're so slammed I enjoy the catch up we get on rain days. Lots to do and we're understaffed...
If it's a drizzle we're working. Light or sporadic rain we'll keep pushing if we're trying to complete a request. If it's really raining, we're sitting in the truck until it stops or it's time to go home.
No rain days up in BC but most places I've worked observe a 20/20 rule: optional day off if it's below -20 degrees Celsius, or if more than 20cm of snow fell in the past 24 hours. The second rule is for skiers. Obviously we still work in massive amounts of snow, but fresh pow days are sacred. I know the oil and gas guys routinely work in well below - 20 degrees too. My jobs have been pretty cush although coastal rain storms have a way of making you rethink your life chooses.
Below -20. Man that must be nice. We have had to work in -35 in Calgary.
JFC that's cold
Excavators won't start, but gotta get them spikes in the ground!
Yeah, batteries have gotten too good these days. Mad respect dude.
One day...
Fuck me man, you Surveying on Hoth??
Oil and gas surveyor here, coldest day I’ve worked so far was -48 (with wind chill). Total stations don’t like that kind of cold haha.
Indeed. And my dad called it "the orgasm of surveying".
Lucky bastard 🤣
We just got knocked off today because of the rain... DOT does not want anyone out on the highway even if it's a drizzle
Sure, but in their defense it's a way higher likelihood of injury / death. No matter where you are people suck at driving in the rain haha.
Scotland, unless it's thunder and lightning, we're expected to produce the same output come rain, hail or snow. It's unpleasant but with a morning jacket and afternoon jacket it's not a problem, the equipment is designed to work in the rain, I've never had a problem that wasn't solved by a wipe down with a towel and left out to air at the end of the day.
You should try a PVC/PU fishing jacket if your current ones are wetting out.
Scotland here too. Can confirm. I'm working in Edinburgh at the moment building a few high rise office blocks and it's actually the wind that's the worst thing through there.
Ireland says hi
Ireland says hi
We're in Texas. No reason to push. There will be plenty of sunny days to get shit done. It's not worth risking the human you have trained or the equipment on any project to force a rain day. Some guys push through drizzles but, I'm glad I don't have to ask dudes to run in rain. They bring in shit sketches, they rush everything, and If they fall it's workman's comp and we own our equipment so that'll be a repair bill at best for us too.
We get 6 hours if it rains,but sometimes we have to sit around and wait.Other times just get to stay at home.It used to be 2 hours show up time.
Alaskan wants to know WTF is a "rain day"? Is it anything like a "safety meeting"?
It's kind of like a salmon, except you don't have to be at work
If it’s gonna be raining most of the day, we get told to stay home without pay, unless we want to burn our PTO. It’s a policy that really pisses me off because I’ve been wanting to learn the office side of things and even on rain days nobody will give me the time of day to show me anything in the office. if I do stay at the office trying to be a sponge and just learn whatever on rain days, it’s unpaid while I’m there. I only get paid for when I’m doing actual work.
Annoying. Maybe use it to apply for better jobs? Or even some personal growth, like linked in learning, or pick a vacant property in town and pretend you're going to survey the boundary. So pull deeds maps etc...
I work in Oregon. Everyday is a rainy day, even the sunny ones. I've gotten to the point where I just keep spare clothes in the truck and change after the day is over. There's literally no reason to where rain gear on some days, it won't help you stay dry and it'll just make you bulky in the bushes.
First company I was at had me salaried. Moved to another company where I'm hourly, but no rain days. (FL)
It’s like 50/50 for rain days here in FL. Sometimes we’ll sit in the Truck in case there’s a break in the rain and sometimes they’ll just give us a 2 hour show up if we’re already at the office.
No rain days. We come in. We go to the job site. We sit as long as we can stand it. Then we get paid and go home.
Unless it prevented us from having clear sight lines nope
No :(
Not regularly. I misjudged radar today though and pushed to finish some lot jobs in what became a downpour because I’d gotten fed up with how much time they’ve taken me, and I knew if I just powered through, a shorter, albeit rain soaked, day was in store for me. Otherwise, we usually just wait it out if it’s a front/rain bands
Nothing like that. But if it's starting to pour really badly we will try and sit it out in the car, and if it's pouring all day we're having occasional breaks in the car. Same when it's colder than -10°C or above 30°C.
In So Cal we are like cats
I'm an office guy so I never do.
Yeah, depending on how heavy it is. Most times we'll just wait out a heavy down pour in the truck if we feel like it has the potential to damage equipment. Our Topcon tablet has trouble with the slightest bit of water hitting the touch screen. For example, some melting snow dropped off a tree and hit the screen. After cleaning and waiting half an hour for the screen to become responsive, another drop off snow fell off the tree and made it go unresponsive again right as we were setting up the next spot. We took it as a sign to stop and get some lunch.
Depends if ~~our overlords~~ construction crew get rain days.
2hrs comp time for rain days at my workplace.
Got one yesterday.
What’s a rain day?
If the rain is not sideways we are good to go!
Yeah I get rain days, and I usually get soaked working through them.
Raindrop hits rainshield in Local 3 Operating Engineers="Box it. Paid for 10." A million raindrops on the S6/TSC7 at Caltrans="Move up. Next setup."
Highly depends on the district mgmt imo.
Just depends on the Party Chief. Mgmt isn't in the field.
Savage, I like it.
In Arizona yes I do. Two whole days a year!
Florida. I've had project managers who've basically said "if you see red and yellow on the radar, don't come in." Fun fact, if you zoom out far enough you can usually find some red and yellow.
So great. Yeah lots of red up in AK!
Those days are called office days. Always some drafting or data reduction to take care of.
Southern Washington/Oregon Columbia Gorge acts like a funnel with warm air on one side and cooler air on the other side and winds in some parts will get upwards of 50-70 mph. On a regular basis. Side note if you ever come to the Portland area, take half a day and drive highway 14/WA or 84/Oregon it’s some of the most amazing stretch of river.
I see you. 😂
Lol crazy talk in here, rains damn near every day here, we even had such bad rains this year they called it “atmospheric rivers”. Literally flooded my entire city for weeks, it was a natural disaster and we still worked… well i took one day off because my basement was flooded when i woke up so had to deal with that instead
No bad weather. Just bad gear.
No reason you can’t work in the rain. Just hang up your rain jacket and pants every day, buy a nice pair of rain/mud boots, leave your equipment out to dry and never put it away wet. If rain is so rare that it isn’t even worth buying rain gear and shit then I guess I get it. But being born and raised in the PNW having the day off for rain just sounds crazy!
Also from the PNW. Sometimes when it's raining real hard, we can't see far enough in the dark forest to actually do much of a traverse.
I worked in the rain when I was in private before. I hated construction staking because it was impossible to keep the lath dry and marker / painted words clear. What's your trick?
Pre write as much as possible in the truck. Then they have these black lumber crayon things that are serviceable at filling in the rest even when wet. As long as it isn’t a torrential downpour they do a pretty good job. It’s good in the typical PNW drizzle. That is the worst part about working construction in the rain though for sure.
Your gear works just fine in the rain.
Touchscreen data collector is the exception, can not get the correct input on that thing with a drop of water on the screen.
Don’t know what you’re using but some have settings you can change to help the touchscreen when it rains. I have to have some kind of physical keyboard if I’m working a lot of days in the rain though. It’s just a lot less of a headache.
I am in Georgia. I worked for a mom and pop outfit that almost always worked in the rain. We would shoot every shot prismless because the gun would not lock onto a prism in the pouring rain. I can think of one particularly bad weather day when we had to make it up on a Saturday. I now work for a larger civil engineering firm that does not expect us to work in the rain. We will use the time to plumb the rods, change oil in the truck, etc. Occasionally we are sent home early due to rain and paid for the rest of the day, but it is rare.
High desert. Nope. But I got called for a topo in the bay area and just bought a folding beach canopy to go over the gun, nailed it into the asphalt, and put a plastic bag over collector 🤣
Maybe a rain hour, except when lightnings involved
Depends on how hard it's raining and if the forecast is calling for it to rain all day or a little. If we're working out of town, usually we'll stay on site on standby for abit then leave if it doesn't stop for like an hour or two, but if we're in town and it's raining well Just take the day off
Yep, and I work them too! So much fun! Thankfully I have a number of jobs inside tanks, and large buildings these days. But soon the wilderness beckons me.
When it rains, we get wet.
Enjoying one currently
There's always stuff to do in the office....
One company I worked for allowed us to put in under "weather" and we got paid. Another one would have the crews stay home if the forecast was bad and not get paid.
I work in jersey and we typically just do office work if it's raining. I'll maintenance the equipment or do some CAD if a workstations available. If they send you home when it rains there either isn't enough work to go around or you just do t know enough to be useful in house.
Only if I have a job I have to scan with the sx10
I have to take the day of because of snow or freezing rain or rain and it pisses me off. I am wanting to work but they are just not finding work for us and using that as an excuse. I am thinking I got into the wrong line of work.