How do builders/decorators keep working after 40?

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After being let down by a contractor, we arranged to fit the flooring in DD's room and the stairs, and DD having a full-blown panic attack, we decided to fit the floor ourselves.

We did it. It looks fine; there are a few tiny mistakes in corners, but nothing you would notice unless you were crawling around the floor on your hands and knees looking for faults. DD is happy, but I am fucked.

I woke up this morning and every muscle in my body was on fire. I can't lift my arms above my head because my shoulders ache too much. I cannot sit down without holding onto something because my thighs burn with the power of a thousand suns.

I missed my weightlifting class this morning because I physically could not get out of bed, much less lift a barbell.

I still have the stairs' flooring to fit tonight. Most builders I see around town are not fit; my dad was morbidly obese when he was working as a tradesman. How do they manage this work day in, day out?

Am I missing a trick or just not as fit and strong as I thought I was?

I don't ski. If I did a full day of it without a build up I expect it would hurt a lot. But if I did a bit of skiing three times a week my ski muscles would soon be legendary. Regardless of whether I was obese or not.

Practise / pacing

using muscles you neglect

impressed that you fitted the floor though - what type?

Ha ha, I felt like that this weekend when I was contorted on my back on the kitchen floor trying to drill in the fittings to rehang the door on the cupboard under the sink.

I think they are just used to it.

Sheet vinyl. I think it was lifting and maneuvering the vinyl roll, and unrolling it, yanking off damaged floorboards, and pulling off the skirting boards that got me. The rest was relatively easy, but I used to work summers with my dad as a teen, so it is not my first time fitting a floor; it is just my first time doing it without being an invincible, know-it-all teenager.

You get used to it, the way you presumably have with weightlifting. I’m not a builder, but I do drystone walling and I demolished an old stone cottage by hand with a sledgehammer, solo, and did some of the block laying in the rebuild. Agonising until my muscles got accustomed.

Very impressive !

They’re doing it every day, so their muscles are trained.

I work in construction management and believe me, the trades take their toll by 40. The plumbers’ knees are fucked, the plasterers get through by having steroid injections in elbows and shoulders, the chippies wreck their backs, shoulders and knees, decorators the same. More often than not, they’re not in great physical shape either.

There's a painter and decorator in our town, small, wiry and always busy. He's got to be at least 70, and seems fit as a flea.. It must be conditioning.

Am I missing a trick or just not as fit and strong as I thought I was?

Both. You've never done it before so you'll naturally find it hard, and you won't be very physically strong.

You do see people who've absolutely wrecked their bodies working physical jobs, though. The people who can carry on working have a combination of good luck (being physically suited to it and not having had a dangerous injury) and common sense. I know a young lad who was a landscaper and was constantly showing off how much he could lift and how strong he was, and he ruined his back in his mid-20s.

That's not what I wanted to hear @RuncibleSpoons . DD has decided we can do the entire house ourselves, since she hates people being in the house due to her anxiety, anyway. I'll need a builder to put me back together by the time we're finished 😂.

On the other hand, she is very proud of herself, which is nice to see. She has really bad anxiety and a complete lack of faith and confidence in herself. She spent hours last night Facetiming everyone she knew to show off her handywork.

Training and technique. We had a decorator recently, probably in his sixties like us - he had all the right equipment, used ladders appropriately etc, very methodical.

The decorator who did my stairs and landing told me that she went to the gym regularly to keep as supple as possible. I decorated my front room a while back and I was over 60 and although i ached a bit I was fine, I am lucky to be quite flexible and bendy naturally. I was knacked and vowed I would never do it again but that was due to doing it alone not only the actual decorating but moving the furniture around, plus it took me ages

It’s definitely just being used to it. DP’s dad was a joiner before he retired and organised a lot of building projects where he ended up being a jack of all trades. He has done loads for us over the years. DP and I would be struggling to lift something and FIL would be all ‘stand aside’, rolling his eyes at us! And he would lift it effortlessly by himself and stride off. His back was wrecked. His knees were wrecked. But he could still do more than anyone I know. Back brace and knee pads and off he went like the Terminator🤣

Dh is an engineer and worked on small boats but not every. But he definitely found it harder to work in the boat yards curled up in a freezing hull.
He got made redundant but could easily have made a living working for himself, but thankfully found work on an other industry which was more comforyable.

That's great that your DD has found an activity that she likes. If this is helping her anxiety and lack of confidence why don't you encourage her further? Painting or wallpapering her room may be a good next project. It is good that she may be interested in DIY and should be encouraged. How old is she?

They have to, then they get fit, constantly using their bodies and now you can understand the issues re. those in physical roles continuing to 67!! My Dad was still climbing scaffolding at 60 plus, alongside so many others, in their specialist building repair roles. It also highlights how sedentary many of us have become when glued to a screen. Use it, maintain it or lose it! Respect to heavy, manual roles.

She's 22, although when she has an anxiety attack, she has the temperament of a small child. What would be a minor inconvenience to us is the end of the world to her, so the flooring people calling on the day of fitting, after we had ripped up her carpet and moved all her furniture, was akin to armageddon.

Her life was ruined, literally, her room looked like a crack den, all her friends would talk about her behind her back, the neighbours would take photos through her window and share them online, her long-distance BF would refuse to stay over and break up with her, she would never be able to have a child because no one will date her now... and once she has an attack, no amount of being rational and logical will help.

Once we were done, she said, "I thought I was useless, but look, I've just done that."

I am going to keep encouraging her. We're starting the hall flooring tonight, her room needs to wait for the damp specialist to give us all the all clear before we decorate the walls because we found black mould behind her wardrobe when we moved it, but it is on our list.

Would she like to do something physical as a job?

I moved into a manual job a few years ago and something that surprised me and made me really happy was how good it feels to be competent at something like that. I went and worked in a plant nursery, and it is heavy work but not as back-breaking as being a builder or something like that. A friend of mine is currently training to be an electrician and she is just smashing it! She loves it, and she does very well at it compared with the young lads who don't take so much care. I think women in these professions often do really well, and there is a demand for good, careful women workers.

Honestly, there's nothing like the satisfaction of seeing a job well done.

We live in a small village and many if my neighbours are in the trades. Not many of them seem to retire. Most of the guys I use are now in their late 60's, early 70's. They now pick and choose what they want to do, but they keep going!

Yes. They have fucked knees, hips and backs, but not immeasurably more than the rest of us!

The worst in shape people tend to be the office bound, overweight, or conversely the super fit athletes who have basically worn their joints out.

We had a decorator our age (mid sixties) in recently and it was definitely taking a toll on him. He was complaining of back pain.

We also have been using a landscaper on and off for a few years similar age and he is gradually cutting down on work. Going part time and has another easier part time job two days a week.

Haha! I feel you OP.

I'm 41, and a couple of months ago I spent about 2 hours outside, weeding my front garden. I was alternating between kneeling (I had knee pads), and sitting on my bum on a kneeling pad.
Within half an hour of finishing up and coming back inside, I could barely move! My hips and back had completely seized up on me. Not in a "hurty" way as such, just very stiff and tired-feeling.
It took about 3 days to recover! I hadn't thought I was doing anything especially strenuous!

I had the same recently. I spent 9 days on the east coast of the USA, consistently walking 15k a day. My legs took a good week plus to recover!

I think generally movement is a use it or lose it thing. If you spend a long-ish time doing a physical activity you're not used to, you'll feel it.

One thing I'm good at in comparison to many of my friends, is getting up and down off the floor. But that's because I teach a lot of Reception and nursery children, and being on the floor happens to often.

My 70yo mum has a gardener round to mow the lawns every so often... He's in his 90s with stage 4 cancer! Mum IS faintly embarrassed, but he claims to still enjoy it, and reckons it keeps the cancer at bay.
Her neighbour is a semi-retired builder/general handyman. He still does a lot of work. He fitted mums new bathroom earlier in the year, and built the neighbours a whole-ass wall.

Just a side point on the black mould, it’s probably due to condensation and lack of air movement and nothing to worry about, just clean it off with bleach/anti mould spray. If it needs redecorating there are moisture barrier/anti mould paints. Make sure she opens the window every day even if just for a few minutes to air the room. Is the wardrobe on an external wall, if so it may be worth moving it if there is scope to rearrange furniture. Check the outside of the house for leaky guttering, cracked render or any obvious other causes of damp.

Because they do it everyday and are used to it.

Saying that, DH has been a plasterer since he left school at 14 - he’s early 40’s now and can no longer do it full time 🙈 luckily he’s very, very good at what he does and doesn’t need to do more than 20-25 hours a week these days.

I decided to hire a skip and fill it with the crap grass we’d inherited then improve the soil and seed it later on. Took me 3 days of turf cutting lifting and shifting (dh was in surgery so no use) I was banjaxed and trying to get out of bed I just planked on the floor. Sitting on the loo was agony. Never again. Garden looks lovely now though!

Turf cutting is definitely a skill! People do it with their backs, leaning over, and it absolutely kills you. You have to get into the habit of lifting with your legs (thighs) and choking up the spade as you put the load into the skip, and you feel really odd - like a little bobbing doll bouncing up and down - but eventually it becomes natural and it's so much easier.