TICA apprentice, John Francis is currently on a four month placement with Powertherm Contract Services.

“On arrival at Powertherm I was paired up with ‘Wally’ Glynn; we’ve worked together everyday since and had a great time.  The jobs have been interesting, but also frustrating due to the size of the spaces we have had to work in.

We also had a foamglas job – this is a specification that I have not used before on site.  It was very fiddly as there were plenty of flanges and valves and unequal T pieces all to be cut out.  Although a lot of the fittings come pre fabricated off site, it is still a time consuming procedure to make sure there are as few gaps as possible in the insulation. As there are around 30 operatives on site and there is still work available I assume there will be a small group on this job for a while yet. Also on this job I have been doing sheet metal cladding on huge boilers.

Like all sites there are bad and good things.  There have been some fantastic opportunities to further my skills on different metal finishes.  But the worse thing of all is the smell!  I’m working at a recycling plant in Milton Keynes – it’s like being in a huge wheelie bin – the smell is horrendous and just sticks to your clothes.”