The Day Job Defined..

I realized recently that I have never really blogged about my day job even though I list it on the top of my blog as something that I may potentially blog about. I get a lot of people ask me what I do during the day for a living because some people only know of the extra things that I do. It is always a hard thing to explain because it is a specialized kind of field. Mostly I just tell people I do a kind of Drafting, but it is actually a little more involved than just drawing some plans up like a draftsman does so I will give a shot at trying to explain it to all the people that want to understand more about what occupies my days.

The first thing I usually have to do when explaining my job is ask people if they know what rebar is. For those of you that don't know, it is a ribbed steel bar that is used to reinforce concrete. I work for a rebar supplier, and for the last 6 years I have been working as, what in this business is called a Rebar Detailer. So I will walk you through a quick version of the start to finish duties of a Detailer.

The first thing I receive to start working is a set of plans for the building. The structural Engineer sets some guidelines for the type of rebar needed. The plans tell me things like what bar size to use and if the structure is longer than a piece of bar, they tell me how much I have to overlap 2 pieces. It first starts out with just your typical drafting. Looking at the plans and dimensions, I have to redraw the structure that is going to be built. Then when that is finished, I have to design the shapes and lengths of all of the rebar that they are going to need to build the building. When that is finished, I have to send my drawings to the engineer for approval. The next step is fabrication, and this is where the stress of the job starts to come into play. I am given a schedule from the builders of when they need the rebar on site to meet the schedule that they have been given to build it. I make a list of all of the bar that I need for the structure, schedule a delivery date, and give my list to the fabrication shop so that they can cut and bend all of the rebar. This always turns into more of an ordeal than it needs to be, because 9 out of 10 times, the people building the building want their rebar faster than the shop can fabricate it. When we can't meet their schedule, I am the one who gets the angry phone calls. So I spend just as much of my day on the phone as I do drawing in the C.A.D. program (Computer Aided Drafting).

After the bar gets fabricated, my next step is the billing. Everything is set up as a lump sum price for us to supply the rebar for the project. One of the big juggling acts for me is to make sure that everything bills out right at the end. I break the project down into truck loads and I have to constantly adjust the pricing of what is shipped to make it all add up right in the end.

So that is the basics of what I do. As you can imagine, there are all kinds of different things that can arise and all kinds of problems and metaphorical fires that constantly need to be extinguished. I have worked on all kinds of buildings from some of the bridges in this valley that you drive on everyday to stores that you might shop in and the list keeps growing every day.