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Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
Green Building Bible, fourth edition (both books)
These two books are the perfect starting place to help you get to grips with one of the most vitally important aspects of our society - our homes and living environment.

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General: Three men watching one man working.

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  1.  
    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeDec 17th 2007
     
    While they were building the M25 this was a very regular sight.

    Today I saw seven men watching one man working on the roundabout near my home ant it reminded me of this tendency amongst road crews.

    I wish that was good enough to post a photograph!

    I used to moan at my lads at work if one of them was watching another doing a job, two or more watching a sack-able offence.

    Is this waste of human resources, time and presumably our money ungreen? or just a fact of life?
    •  
      CommentAuthorted
    • CommentTimeDec 17th 2007
     
    When I worked on the steam railway permanent way gang then having 1 working and 1 taking a breather was a fairly standard ratio.

    If you are doing that sort of heavy work all day then you need to pace yourself.

    Also there are times when the task-in-hand can only be done be a few of the crew and the others are obliged to stand by.
    • CommentAuthorBowman
    • CommentTimeDec 17th 2007
     
    I once saw a couple of blocks working, one was digging holes the other was filling them in, when I asked what they were up to they told me Paddy was ill and normally planted the trees
    • CommentAuthorJeff
    • CommentTimeDec 17th 2007
     
    I've got a picture of a water installation at a barn conversion I did a few years ago. Used to get a couple of guys turn up with a pick axe & dig the road up. A week before this one a lorry turned up & dropped of a load of aggregate with a crane. They used a digger to do the hole, another tipper type lorry to take away waste, the van for the preverbial guys with the spade & axe, the contractors supervisor in his van & the waterboard official in his van. At one point another tipper turned up with another load of aggregate which was not needed. They had us in hysterics. We had dug a long trench to take the supply out to the roadside in an afternoon & they had 8-9 guys all looking down a 3' square hole in the road. There were people there most of the day. I couldn't get all the vehicles in the picture. Chiefs & Indians spring to mind.
  5.  
    Ever wondered why infrastructure charges are so high...
    • CommentAuthorCWatters
    • CommentTimeDec 17th 2007 edited
     
    Back in 2005 I had to get a water co to divert a water main. The work could have been done about 4 days with a further two week wait for the pipe to be sterilized.

    In practice it took 10 weeks from starting onsite to switching the water over to the new route - of that they were only on site for 4 days as planned - just not continuously! The work should have cost about £4,700 but their inefficiency cost me a further £1800 in accomadation and about £3,000 in lost wages. I also had to make two additional flights from Belgium to the UK with associated accomadation and hire car charges (don't ask). This does not include my builders time twiddling his thumbs while we waited.

    There is no redress either as they are the only company allowed to do the work and they don't guarantee how long it will take them.

    It even took them TWO years to send me the final bill. Settled last week. Jolly glad I'm not a shareholder.
    • CommentAuthorJeff
    • CommentTimeDec 17th 2007
     
    My last project was like that. Electricity supply to a farm house, two barns & two new builds. All services laid in for them to the site boundary. All labelled. It took them a year to get the correct bill for each property and had all the meters muddled up for the wrong houses. Best thing was that rather than extend the trench from my boundary into the junction hole they ran them up from my trench, along the surface and down into their hole and then scuffed some gravel over the top to hide the cables. Telephone engineers then cut through the water supply and rather than tell me just filled the hole in. I turned up the following day to a flooded road & a lot of fed up residents. If they had hit the power cables instead someone could have been killed. Utilities cost me a fortune & I did most of the work. I won't extend this into the planning arena. Comments about them are unprintable. I have not done a project since! The bungalow will be my 1st for a while now.
    • CommentAuthorCWatters
    • CommentTimeDec 17th 2007
     
    > I won't extend this into the planning arena. Comments about them are unprintable.

    Too late, I can feel my BP rising at the meer mention.
    •  
      CommentAuthorrichy
    • CommentTimeDec 17th 2007
     
    It's only a noticeable syndrome when it's out in the open, on a road or public place. The real waste of manpower happens behind closed doors, with reams of middle managers applying huge costs and minute input to even the simplest of tasks.

    The local public toilets were renovated here a year or so ago. it took months and cost £125,000, no rebuilding, just a refurb. I could have happily made a profit doing the job for £20k but I don't have the 'infrastructure' in place; i.e. a load of suits pushing paper, on my team!

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