Measure Twice, Cut Once

[Ross 1]

Originally Posted by CJR09

I was working an industrial site some time ago - prob 20yr or so - was a dairy factory - the 50m high drying towers were precast - one of the head honchos turn up stops in his tracks, turns to the site manager and say 'that tower wall is not plumb' site manager calls bs gets his laser out f's around for a bit 20min or so - comes back all sheepish and says 'ah yeah looks like its 45mm out of plumb'

Turns out dudes put it up with un-calibrated gear...

99% of people wouldn't know - some just have a real good eye

We were subcontracting a few years ago and we started setting out and I questioned the levels as they didn't look right by eye, their guy was adamant their laser was fine. Set it up in front of a long white wall and in the space of 5m it had dropped nearly 50mm. When questioned they hadn't had it calibrated in 4 years, their dumpy was unusable as someone had dropped a breaker on it and no one wanted to tell the boss. The worrying thing was I know they kept using the laser level on other jobs.

[Citroënbender]

When I was at tech doing C&J, a lot of the students worked around Sydney’s northern beaches. Apparently their telescopic levels were quite handy for watching the sunbathers, too.

[roKWiz]

I laugh when I see some trade guy mistreating their level, banging on them with hammers and wonder why thing are not horizontal or out of plumb.

[Ross 1]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

I laugh when I see some trade guy mistreating their level, banging on them with hammers and wonder why thing are not horizontal or out of plumb.

Had a guy questioning me once as I keep my levels in a padded case, which then goes in a tube up on the roof racks. They don't seem to get that they are an engineering tool and need to be looked after, checked regularly and replaced if even slightly out.

[marty351]

I once saw a micrometer being used as a g-clamp.

[Citroënbender]

The job next door has just about hit the twelve month mark and still a way to go.

They were “strongly advised” to put in application to council for various changes made on the fly. To an extent that is a stalling point, but not entirely. So the council is yet to decide if they will allow, post factum, what has been done.

Discrepancies included: Adding external doors where there had been windows, moving other windows, building beyond the approved/scaleable footprint, changing from face brick façade to acrylic rendered commons, a missing vital stormwater line and one of my favourites - the roof of one dwelling discharging onto the property of another (try splitting the titles when this is happening).

I was interested how they’d respond during construction to another hurdle they set themselves - wrong upper ceiling heights (about 240mm taller than designed)… Drop ceilings all ‘round.

[gregaust]

Hahah I can relate ... Have a building project adjacent to my property . Already they have been negligent with sediment barriers and had a 13 K fine . I ended up shovelling their mud from runoff .

This week will be reporting as retaining walls are not as per plans ..
The whole development is cheap and very poor quality

And don't get me started on the dust issues :(

[Citroënbender]

I think they’ve almost given up.

This was taken after I weeded and de-littered the foreground, it was invading my block relentlessly.

[Work Horse]

Glyphosate!

[Citroënbender]

Does it work on bricks?

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

I think they’ve almost given up.

image

This was taken after I weeded and de-littered the foreground, it was invading my block relentlessly.

They should, what a mess..... probably just the picture but the foreground windows look like the're battering in.

[Citroënbender]

Good call, I’ll check next time I’m filling their wheely bin with their rubbish.

[Citroënbender]

The CCP, or Chinese Construction Peasantry, are back. Lucky I parked cars across nearly 2/3 of their frontage.

Busy flogging the weeds with a one-armed cordless trimmer and gutless battery mower - I presume in order to spread the seeds far and wide as possible.

[Citroënbender]

This job has gone forward in staggers and faceplants.

First they blocked off the footpath and nature strip for six weeks, forcing pedestrians onto the road. In that time they built a crappy brick fence and spattered my Territory (plus adjacent garden) with brickies’ mud.

Now they have demolished the crappy brick fence, filling more than one six metre skip with dead masonry. And filling my garden with brick trash. Unbelievable; the council seem to be utterly disinterested, too.

[.:4:.]

It sounds like one of those situations where is you go for the cheapest quote, it blows out in cost due to shoddy work either needing to be re done/needless variations on the quote or needs to be redone shortly after completion by reputable tradesmen. Ive been that guy before who gets called in by a client who is fed up with dealing with the clowns whos dodgey work reflects on their cheap price. And some of the things i have had to repair/redo from others crappy work at times defies logic. For example a full floor in a cbd office tower with only 3 lighting curcuits. So about 140 fittings per circuit. Yes they were led fittings and each were drawing slightly under 20a. But 1 fitting craps out and you lose ⅓ of the floor of lights. So finding the faulty fitting took longer then it should have. Standard fault finding, split the circuit and if it still trips, work back, if it doesnt, work forwards. So once said and done, split the 3 circuits and installed another 4. So that wouldnt have been too bad if the office wasnt operational and all the work had to be done over a week or so of a window of 5am to 8am which included a full clean up and re instating the ceiling every day before staff got in. Had it been done properly during construction it wouldnt have taken any extra time. And probably only an extra 150m of cable and the 4 rcds. But having to lay out drop sheets, work over/around desks then clean up to make it look like we were never there (the way it should) took up time which costs the client. Had the client used their head a bit better, as opposed to spending the hourly weekday rate and opted for it to be done in 1 hit on a saturday, yes weekend rates are more, but 5 or 6 hours and job done. Not spending more on what was pretty much 50/50 between setting up daily, cleaning up daily and actually doing the work.

[Citroënbender]

Obviously there are others aggrieved. Today I urgently contacted the principal contractors as I spotted malicious damage, fresh, to their work. They arrived, had a look and then told me they'd also received damage at another job site through the last two days.

As Señor Cuatro said, they might want to look at hiring better subbies.

[.:4:.]

One rule the old pm at my old work had regarding labour hire. It was never use Australians through labour hire. Reason being people on working holidays often need the work to fund their airfare home once their visas are up, so whilst they have overseas qualifications, they typically want to work. Maybe its not always the case, like anything there are potatoes out there. But his refusal for Australian labour hire people was you only go into labour hire if you cannot get a full time job in your industry. And usually theres a good reason for that. So nothing racist, this pm was a proud bogan.
What i used to find almost humours was being on site with other contractors from non English speaking backgrounds and all day you could chat and have a laugh with them. But the moment they stuff up and their leading hand gets up them, the instantly forget how to speak english.

[383hq]

zmeasure.jpg

[Citroënbender]

Almost at the two-year mark and still not completed, not occupied. Latest “second go” has been demolition of a retaining wall, more manual excavation for footings and cutting open another retaining wall for stairs they should have anticipated at the outset.

The boundary survey they commissioned wasn’t all that helpful to them - I’ve got another six inches I never knew about (nail in the blue peg).

Not thrilled about the flat-faced security cameras that look into my windows. Can they be “blinded” by a focused IR beam to encourage re-aiming?

[jaydee]

Don't complain about being given another six inches, your mates will be envious.

[slowsnake]

Originally Posted by jaydee

Don't complain about being given another six inches, your mates will be envious.

Is that folded once?....


Cheers Billy

[xkxlxm]

Adverse possession? If a fence has been in the wrong place for a certain number of years the six inches might belong to them? (I think in Vic it's 11 years.)

[Citroënbender]

From memory in NSW it requires a process to lock in. Someone like Snap might know better.

[.:4:.]

Dont ask don't tell. You didn't do it, so plead ignorance if, and it probably won't happen, questions are asked. The big L word falls back on surveyor or whoever the contractors contracted. So the extra 6', you're not liable. If it was a boundary taken, yeah go to town on it, but a boundry given....

[Citroënbender]

In two weeks, this job will be at the 2½ year mark. Still not occupied. I genuinely will not be surprised if the structure has a short or zero life in service - it will be seen as “tainted” by many in the community now.

Today, they’re pondering the water ingress. Unsurprising, considering the competence and planning involved in construction.

[marty351]

Can the council condemn this "house"?

[Citroënbender]

Not really, they’d nail mine first.

It’s repairable but the incoming migrant community want new, unblemished houses - this is now something of a spectator object due to long delays and periods of total neglect. It’s no longer new, I know the rumours swirl (have heard some, all wrong) and now it’s got issues implicit to the lay person’s view.

[Citroënbender]

Another job literally behind my place, yalla-yalla crowd this time; rushed the concrete slab and now butchering holes in it for plumbing. This is unbelievable. What happened to the principal contractor double and triple checking everything before pouring?

[marty351]

If all goes to "plan", you could write this fracas into a comedy and win an Oscar.

[Citroënbender]

The final, flawed, result. Two buildings on separate titles, sharing walls and ceding easements to each other. How would you feel about a neighbour’s rainwater charging through plastic pipes concealed in your garage?

The resulting requirement for negotiation and concomitant liability is little different to a strata plan in effect. This disgrace took three years to brew, it reflects on the lack of competency throughout. It remains neither occupied nor re-sold.

The need for easements would have been wholly avoidable had the contractors plumbed in advance for stormwater, and used parapet walling/box gutters instead of an overhanging eave where nominal boundaries met. This requires only: Experience, common sense, a little intelligence, ability to read plans and push back against stupidity.