Derek Martinez

For the past 5 years I have been helping with side jobs all over Gallup NM.

Construction:

A lot of job tasks changed daily. I helped demo existing commercial buildings that were being remodeled. We demoed drywall or brick walls as long as they weren't load bearing. We also demoed plumbing lines and repaired leaks on existing pipe. I also helped install new drywall, paint finished drywall, chip away old floor tile, scrap glue off the ground from old carpets, install new water heaters at some of the residential houses. We also did some structural repairs on rusted out beams and supports. We also installed chain linked fences for some of the properties.

Maintance:

I also did some maintenance on 3 different car washes. I'd repair or replace faulty valves, fix broken or frozen hoses, fix the quarter machines for the carwash, repair broken vacuum cleaners, wash out car bays, and cleaned the mud pits when needed.

Tools used:

Hand tools- Measuring Tapes, levels, framing squares, speed squares, hammers, channel locks, wrenches, sockets, screw drivers, pipe benders, pipe cutters, plumb bobs, string line, laser levels, gas (oxy and acetylene) cutting torches, gas torches for soldering, angle finders, torque wrenches, ladders, and soap stone/sharpe makers.

Power tools- Drills, impacts, sawzalls, sds hammer drills, oscillating multi-tool, propress tool, band saws, jig saws, circular saws, grinders, jack hammers, tables saws, and pex expanding tool.

Equipment- Scissor lifts, man lifts, post drivers, fork lifts, and welding machines

• Inspected fire extinguishers and replaced expired units with newly inspected extinguishers.

• I installed cal blocks that was not installed because it wasn’t available when pipe was being installed at the time. Assembled hangers using unistrut, all thread, and hex nuts on the ground while coordinating with pipefitters on a scissor lift.

• I was in charge of installing carbon steel pipe. There wasn’t much welding on this job because the pipe systems were victalic joints and victalic clamps were used to connect the pipes together. Operated pipe grooving machine to prepare pipe ends for installation, ensuring accurate depth for fittings. I used a pipe grooving measuring tape to make sure it was the right depth. Every job had blueprints for me to cut the pipe. Of course the blueprints don't always work so I did a lot of field measurement verifying if needed. The 90’s, 45’s, 22.5’s and Tee fittings were victalic factory fittings. The victalic clamps had a rubber gasket and butter or vic grease was used to prevent the gaskets from pinching while being installed. I also ran some 1” threaded pipe.

• This was a plumbing company and a small business. Most guys on this project were plumbers who installed PVC and copper so I handled a lot of the carbon steel gas systems. I installed 1” gas lines on the roof of the grocery store to the heater units. I also installed gas valves with a crescent wrench to prevent the brass from being egg shaped. And pipe wrenches were used on the pipe and 90 and Tee fittings. The gas system was also secured down with unistrut clamps bolted to bigger rubber blocks to prevent tearing the finished roofing rubber covers. I was also in charge of signaling the fork left or crane operator to unload material on the roof. When my tasks were done I would sweep and gather trash and put them into a dumpster that was designed to be used on a forklift and dump the trash in the main dumpsters outside the store. I sometimes ran some roof drains with the plumbers using PVC pipe with glue and primer. I also drilled supports on the walls to support the roof drain systems.

• At the IBM building we installed 1” carbon steel pipe and couplings for air supply for the air tools the employees were using who worked at IBM. We used 1/2 all thread and double strut to support the 1” air line. We also used a threading machine to sometimes cut the pipe to length.
• At the Hilton motel we were in charge of checking the installed copper lines for leaks. We used water and air compressors to detect leaks. The leaks sometimes had water leaking or bubbles showing. Air was first used so that water wasn’t wasted. We then used dish soap and water in a spray bottle and sprayed every soldier joint and values to detect leaks. We were also in charge of unloading supplies and ac/heater units. We used radios to communicate to unload material to elevated areas. We also communicated with the tower crane using radios and hand signals to guide the crane operator to the unloading area. A lot of barricades were used to fly material to the roof. It was a 5 story Hilton motel.

• When did a chalk layout using Dimensions and Elevation blueprints. We used the bench marks and center marks on the I-beams to locate our pipe location. We used anchors, hex nuts, all thread, and unistrut to support the pipe system. All the support systems depended on the size of pipe. Installed 3/4 to 2” copper and 1” to 6” carbon steel pipe systems to meet project specifications. Applied cal blocks for insulation in pipe systems to ensure thermal efficiency and compliance with safety standards. We used scissor lifts to get to our elevated work area. We barricaded our work area with a tag explaining the hazard. Sometimes tool lanyards were required. Most of the pipe systems had a supply and return run side by side. The blues also contained what kind of pipe that was being used.