Posts by David Haywood
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Many thanks for all the kind comments and helpful suggestions RE: back pain...
Steve Barnes wrote:
I would dispute this man’s findings
I'm not going to get into an argument over this (really I'm not), but the bits that raised my hair were:
1. Regardless of whether it is an acceptable deviation, the DBH apparently came up with the value of 50mm over 10m even though their own measurements showed that "normal" variation was only half this figure. Then apparently they claimed that their figures showed that typical variation was actually greater than 50mm over 10m. It is hair-raising to me that the body in charge of deciding how houses, etc. are built apparently operates in such a manner.
2. The author of the piece complains about the techniques/training of the insurance inspectors. He cites a case where the floor was 150mm out of level, but the inspectors "measured" only 50mm. Even if you think 50mm over 10m is okay, there's a big difference between that and 150mm. I find the prospect of this sort of error (perhaps in thousands of houses) to be rather hair-raising.
I'd also point out that there is a big difference between a house built in 1926 (probably timber-framed with very good bracing on a suspended timber floor and with weatherboard cladding?) and a typical modern house. In our neighbourhood all the modern houses fell to bits at once; the hundred-year-old villas were much less affected.
For what it's worth, I completely agree that the current system of builder registration, etc. is stupid. I'd much rather have any house of mine built by my father -- an 'unqualified' builder (amongst other things) with many years experience -- than some of the Master Builders operating in CHCH right now.
So be a little more understanding
I really do try. But I can't help fearing that this rebuild is going to be Leaky Homes, Part 2 (with the taxpayer ultimately footing the bill all over again in the near future).
That's my final word on this subject; I'm moving on, remember?!
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Southerly: Now I Am Permitted, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Long term solution regular stretching and twisting exercises for the back that create more space and strengthen the muscles that support the spine.
Thanks Bart, I shall investigate this option! As of now I shall abandon this chair for a while, and proceed to do something stretching.
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Southerly: Now I Am Permitted, in reply to Paul Campbell,
these ‘permits’ you have received they weren’t issued by, um, some local government outfit in Christchurch
No, thank God. Dunsandel is in Selwyn (so we're under the Selwyn District Council).
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Southerly: Now I Am Permitted, in reply to Russell Brown,
Sweet Jesus.
Yes, there was a second or two when I was on the cusp of prayer. 'The miracle of the cleansed faecal matter' or that sort of thing.
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Southerly: Now I Am Permitted, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Got any pics to share?
Alas no, I still have to get the final finishing touches done–but will have in due course.
In other news, I put down 37.5 tonnes of pavers and had not a twinge of back pain. Can anyone explain how this is possible when I can’t sit in a chair for ten minutes without being in agony?
Jolisa Gracewood wrote:
Superb blog, David – always worth waiting for.
Thanks, matey! Your kind words are very much appreciated. Still feeling very rusty and nervous on the writing front (and not just the OOSy fingers).
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Southerly: Now I Am Permitted, in reply to Samuel Scott,
Glad you liked it, Scott!
Emma Hart wrote:
I hate ants
Very sorry to hear about your daughter’s teacher’s horrifying situation. Not to accuse you of anything, but are you quite sure that it wasn’t you who dismantled her house? After all, if a proper EQC assessor thinks that you have the strength to bend a steel door without noticing, then leaping a few kilometres through the air and pulling a wooden house to bits is entirely plausible.
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And I should probably mention that Emma’s experience (ahem, possible slightly exaggerated in this account) actually makes her one of the luckier people in terms of her EQC inspection. If you’re interested you can read this hair-raising piece by a registered professional surveyor.
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Thanks, Judi! It’s nice to be back, now that my fingers have unstiffened sufficiently to type. Next-up I shall be visiting SpecSavers so that I can read what I’ve written. (The problem is not so much my eyes, but that my arms are too short to reach my laptop when the screen is in focus.)
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Didn’t PAS used to have a blogger who was more expert in this stuff … name something like Davey …
Unfortunately, I'm still working to fix the gigantic fuck-up that one of the National Party's other big swinging dicks has created in Canterbury (and, more particularly, to my life).
I only get about six hours off per month at the moment, which I like to spend in the company of my family -- but, for a short version of my energy engineer's opinion, Paul Campbell is right (incidentally, great work, Russell, on writing such an elegant post on a complicated subject).
If anyone's interested, we had some good news in our household last week, including the granting of a Code Compliance Certificate for the work I've done on repairing the house -- so I probably have only another six months or so of work to finish up the cosmetic details.
This won't be done in a single stretch, I hope to take an extended break this June and make a bunch of contributions to Public Address.
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Thanks for all the kindly comments, people!
RE: Nailguns
Of course, if you have TWO Paslodes then you can lend one to your son so that he can build shelves for your shed.
RE: Council requirements
The Selwyn District Council here are being pretty good in giving me a bit of leeway. Theoretically they could be taking vast sums of money off me right now. They're actually one of the few organizations that I've dealt with who have grasped that we are undergoing exceptional circumstances in Canterbury, and therefore exceptions should to be made.