Measure Twice, Cut Once

[Citroënbender]

I’m surrounded by construction work at present.

The site next door got off to a poor start by digging trenches immediately before a four day rainy spell. Then they put a footing a whole metre closer to the boundary than the approved plans, I pulled them up on the day of the pour and they agreed in writing (cc’ing the council) not to build on it. 100mm I could forgive, but a metre was just taking the mickey. Certifier unimpressed with it, too.

Next they got into the brickwork. Thousands of bricks, laid by an army of people with negligible English. Somebody forgot to check levels; this afternoon the brickies got an earlymark and the project mangler plus offsider are busy stripping courses. This is only the second week into the construction phase, it’s almost embarrassing rather than Schadenfreude.

This is the site kitchen and amenities. One bloke ate his lunch sitting on the toilet’s horizontal waste pipe!



The big difference I’ve noticed vs “Caucasian” sites is the site supervisor clearly has little practical ability or experience. He’s not doing the “infill” jobs like knocking up lunch benches or a weatherproof awning. (We got trained up to do that sort of stuff as firstly it was useful but not time-critical and secondly it justified you being all over the site to keep an eye on people without being officious.) Just wandering around holding plans - which clearly weren’t being followed satisfactorily.

[.:4:.]

As the saying goes, pay peanuts, get monkeys. I see it all the time. Companies win quotes because theyre substantially cheaper, but often theres a reason for that. A lot also has to do with cheaper sub par materials also. And then there times when the project managers have no trade background. So he no longer works as an electrical project manager, but my brother inlaw was a project manager for an electrical mob, yet his background was an events orginiser. So yes he could run the show to keep deadlines, but he had no idea on the quality of the work he was managing. The major thing a project manager does not want after the deadline is met, is a massive defect list. Minor things, yeah it happens. Many minor things doesnt look good, major things dont look good and many major things, well thats terrible. The minor things that dont throw people under the bus is not workmanship which should have been pulled up at the time, its manufacturing defects on the installed equipment and factors out of the installers control.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

As the saying goes, pay peanuts, get monkeys. I see it all the time. Companies win quotes because theyre substantially cheaper, .

Yep, building sites ain't what they used to be.
One reason I don't work for middle men, builders, developers and architects.

[marty351]

CB, is that little white box a microwave?

[Ross 1]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Yep, building sites ain't what they used to be.
One reason I don't work for middle men, builders, developers and architects.

I've been getting quite a few calls from developers lately and my standard response is ' We aren't cheap, we work up to a standard not down to a price and if we aren't paid each Friday we won't be there on Monday' not surprisingly I don't hear back from them.

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by marty351

CB, is that little white box a microwave?

Sure looks like it. Its plugged into the temp power box. Thats the kitchen, none of this site shed business.

[jaydee]

And is that the toilet?
Surely you can't have effluent just flowing off into a hole in the ground.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by marty351

CB, is that little white box a microwave?

Would be a lovely day at the site today in Sydney's rain.

[Sprintey]

Oh man I wish I could share my old work stories but I won't.

Think of what you are describing, only on industrial project or national infrastructure scales!

[Pis-ton broke]

have you seen the buildings in Baghdad or Africa, hey, don,t worry about it.

but seriously, on the radio ,they are advertising skill to to trade recognition. and it sounds very cheap, i mean , low skill and they will pass you anyway.
check out how many sydney tower are faulty.

[The Yeti]

Originally Posted by Pis-ton broke

have you seen the buildings in Baghdad or Africa, hey, don,t worry about it.

but seriously, on the radio ,they are advertising skill to to trade recognition. and it sounds very cheap, i mean , low skill and they will pass you anyway.
check out how many sydney tower are faulty.

That’s actually not how it works

You have to demonstrate ability, I used one of these services recently to upgrade My trade, have been in the trade for 27 years but never needed the qualification as my reputation always spoke for its self, but now tier 1’s want paper

Even though I’ve done i for longer than many mechanics have been alive I still had to jump through many hoops, at one point I even considered tossing it in and just doing a tafe bridging course and financially it would have been cheaper to do the tafe course

[Citroënbender]

Yes gents, it’s the microwave... Toilet actually goes into the original sewer line, if they had tried a longdrop I’d have gone right off!

Had another peek today, there is seemingly a worse error than I suspected. It looks like a good amount of the concrete footings are higher than the designated measurement for bottom of the concrete floor slab they’re supposed to be supporting. There’s only two solutions - raise the floors which means flatter pitch roof and an amendment to the approved structure - so a fortnight to three weeks down time, or rework the footings. I would do the latter with a couple of big fellows on jackhammers.

Fail at the first turn, get your hole in the ground right and everything goes better from there. They didn’t put in any plumbing penetrations either, that is another curiosity!

[Yellow_Festiva]

The building industry as a whole didn't do itself any favours. Hardly any site inspections no one taking pride in their work, no need to do it right, and when it's done wrong it's impossible to get it fixed due to the legal fees or the fact the company is gone and replaced with a new company.

It's a shambles.

And it's not always about paying peanuts either. Even well paid workers can do an absolute rubbish job because they know they can get away with it and there will be another job next week to do.

If they wanted to clean up the industry random checks need to be the norm, developers or builders need to put aside money for future claims and anyone caught doing shonky work are out of a job and they pay the repairs by law.

But that will never happen....

[Citroënbender]

There is the Defect Liability Period on domestic jobs, and retention on invoices against it. However a lot of blokes will forfeit the defect sum rather than go back and expose themselves to risk of an endless string of remedial works; this can be several years after completion and occupancy.

And some clients will abuse the DLP to try for a freshen-up prior to onselling. They’ll complain about (say) a water leak in an upstairs bathroom and then block the rectification process by being unavailable until it’s so bad there’s a need to renew the whole room and repaint/re-sheet/re-carpet the ones underneath.

[Citroënbender]

Today the brickies protractedly came to blows. I’m not sure whether smashing someone on the side of their head with a trowel is regular assault or assault occasioning actual bodily harm - either way, it isn’t a good look on-site at nine in the morning.

[roKWiz]

Probably for good reason. Been there myself, only I wanted to throw an architect off the second storey but was pointless as they would have just brought out another one in his place.

[Citroënbender]

A bit topical today, given the other “bodgy builder” thread that’s come up.

Photo showing misaligned setdown to the slab edge where the building stops and patio starts. The outer bricks should be sitting on the lower level. In theory this is OK as built, in reality it wicks water into the house floor.

The contractors are today demolishing a couple of internal walls and recutting a stairwell opening in a ground floor slab. I’ve not seen a build with actual plans, have so many hiccups or errors before. No further violence on site, but it has come close a few times.

This rate of disarray is usually the province of blonde beach women who think they can run a build or reno (it’s never going to end well)...

[roKWiz]

So they didn't bother cutting 70 odd mm off the slab to lay the bricks in properly.

[Citroënbender]

You're spot on.

Cutting back would have been to me, the sensible choice, easy to deal with the reo cut ends as (or if) exposed. Cut to line and depth, then a couple of kerfing cuts and knock it up with a small Kango. Two hours with a competent labourer.

They messed around for ages (days) kind of hoping the issue would somehow go away. It's a sea of "paper builders" (academically qualified, not come up through the trades) subletting the work to monkeys with low care factor and no cross-trade skills.

Full weatherproofing under the sliding door thresholds either side of this nonsense, will be practically impossible.

[roKWiz]

Yeah, One small mistake usually leads into bigger stuff as you go, was thinking the threshold is going to be fun when they get to it.

They shouldn't hit rebar at 70mm in.

Across the road from were I'm working (Beechworth's Mayday Hill 1890) they are building this ugly yellow box house ?? I can hear the Oh S**t and swearing going on throughout the day as it sounds like one mistake after the next.
Don't even know how this hideous thing was even allowed to be built in a Heritage precinct.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

So they didn't bother cutting 70 odd mm off the slab to lay the bricks in properly.

What's faster....

[Citroënbender]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

What's faster....

Another answer to that would be laying bricks to the correct number of courses, not X+2. Which today has been reverting to X.

[roKWiz]

CB wrote.......Another answer to that would be laying bricks to the correct number of courses, not X+2. Which today has been reverting to X.


Years ago on the central Coast NSW I had the cut 64 dog leg quoin stones due to a new house build having so many corners and bay windows.
Using recycled Sydney Sandstone blocks, every stone was hand dressed and splayed to this angle ready for a bricklayer to lay as they did the walls using old sandstock bricks.
Problem was this guy (who just happened to be Irish, reminded me of Albert the builder in Fawlty Towers) didn't bother measuring the stone height (12 inches standard in the day) which allows 4 courses of sandstocks to one quoin. He lays a whole front wall with 3 bricks per 12 in, mortar beds varied between 20 - 22mm high. !!!

On returning days later, the owner builder, building inspector and myself were absolutely gobsmacked that some on would be so dumb to just keep laying it this way, thinking it would be OK.

[Citroënbender]

I’m a sucker for tuckpointed quoining in a contrasting brick, but what an idiot. Moreso if he was paid by the brick.

The duffers next door yesterday filled an entire 4m² bin with rubble from stripped courses and demolished walls - of this week only.

[roKWiz]

Funny thing was, after he stuffed up the front he wanted the owner to instruct me to cut all of the beautiful stone down to 9 3/4 inches so it would fit his 3 courses as he started on the back.........

new brickie started two days later.

[kaniSS]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

A bit topical today, given the other “bodgy builder” thread that’s come up.

image

Photo showing misaligned setdown to the slab edge where the building stops and patio starts. The outer bricks should be sitting on the lower level. In theory this is OK as built, in reality it wicks water into the house floor.

The contractors are today demolishing a couple of internal walls and recutting a stairwell opening in a ground floor slab. I’ve not seen a build with actual plans, have so many hiccups or errors before. No further violence on site, but it has come close a few times.

This rate of disarray is usually the province of blonde beach women who think they can run a build or reno (it’s never going to end well)...

Have a go at those mortar joints. Fark me.

[Citroënbender]

This tragic farce is ongoing. Yesterday they were moving window openings in completed brickwork. Today they are bashing holes in walls with hammer and crowbar.

I scouted nearby sites to see if I was being overly picky. Nope; it’s the worst by a long shot.

[Citroënbender]

I'll have to take some spy photos over the weekend. The roof framing is on. However it appears the top floor has been built too high, as if the plans were misread. Part of the roof framing as built is also incomprehensible, it's been done by people who couldn't get their head around the geometry. They've had two goes and it's still not right.

The grass verge is still leaking where they cracked the water pipes and flooded the (also cracked) cast gas main - which is fortunately plastic lined now. My bees are really appreciating this nearby water source.

Most recent mis-step has been to park the site rubbish trailer opposite the driveway of a grumpy neighbour - whose wife promptly reversed her 1-Series into it. He's left a gentle note that mentions the Marquess of Queensberry or something.

There are no tiles, no windows on site. No fascia boards affixed, nor soffit lining or guttering. Services are not roughed in. I don't see how they can build a durable, weatherproof structure from where they stand now without major re-work or a few pallets of Sikaflex.

[Citroënbender]

Here’s some more trowel work for kaniSS.



Windows were put in without flashing. They initially tried to render up to the frame, but obviously this was a poor choice as it will always have fine gaps. Now they’re fitting powder coated angle over the outside edges to form a sort of over-flashing. This potentially satisfies the performance provisions of the BCA but is a backwards approach.

[Yellow_Festiva]

One day I'll find a picture of my window that was installed.

Not all that big - perhaps 700 wide x 1100 high.

Regular sliding window - custom made.

When they installed it and left no one noticed that the top length of the window was some 20-30mm shorter than the bottom length.

Yet, 2 monkeys from the factory installed this and neither noticed...

I took a picture and showed the boss... he wasn't impressed.