It is interesting to watch the builders next door. Today they are hacking up the left over concrete they put next to the skip.

[QuintessentiallyQS]

It is really amusing to see the speed they are working at. It is not amusing to think it is the tax payers money funding mr laurel and hardy next door, their employer is the council.

They made concrete all day yesterday, overestimated how much they needed, dumped it next to the skip. Today they are busy hacking it up and throwing the pieces into the skip. Makes perfect sense.

I wonder what they will do tomorrow.

Why don't you go and give them your input?

You think I should?

I work from home, at this rate they will be knocking about until 2015.

But I should be grateful. It is kind of nice not having neighbours on that side.

I was once in a queue caused by traffic. I counted as I made my slow way down the line... 15 people doing nothing. TBF two had clipboards so that must have been heavy, and two had flags, which they were ineffectually waving around. Their job could have been done by automatic lights much better. Not the UK but still my city taxes paying for it.

I have since found out that 'flagging' is basically an employment creation scheme so I don't mind that. The rest...

Ah yes, the council workers. I was stuck for about 10 minutes in a queue of traffic, watching 4 men stood around whilst a road sweeper truck went back and forth sweeping a small amount of dirt off the road. It was the sort of job that would've taken 2 men with a broom each 1 minute to deal with [sigh] I felt like going over there, grabbing a broom and doing it myself at 10 times the speed of this bloody truck. I expect someone once hurt themselves using a broom and it's now prohibited

Do councils employ builders? ours certainly doesn'tand they contract everything on a price-for-the -job basis rather than a day rate.

"Do councils employ builders? ours certainly doesn'tand they contract everything on a price-for-the -job basis rather than a day rate"

That's how it works round here too, which is why they fart arse around so much. There was recently some work done on some council land right near my property which I found really disrupting due to working from home. A job that shouldn't have taken much longer than 1 week took 3 weeks from start to finish, because they'd start at about 9.30am, finish at 3pm and have so many breaks they actually only worked 3 hours each day! Some days they didn't turn up at all so I never knew if I could have a productive day or not, or whether to just think "stuff it" and take holiday. PITA!

But livid - surely they would only be tempted to fart about for longer than necessary if they were paid by the day.

I suppose the council may pay for the job, the contractor may pay a daily rate, so win win for the the builders, and a big fat thumbs down for the contractor. They have been around daily to check lately.

I dread to think what is going to happen when they need to rip apart my front garden, and my paved patio, and my fence to connect to the manhole outside my front door.

If you are round Leeds tonight you will see my DH and about 20 men, standing around, doing nothing for 2 or 3 hours. There will be at least one motorway lane closed whilst they do so. It has been going on for a fortnight or so and has a week or so longer to go.

They are working, all of them. He and 3 others are monitoring various machines that you can't see. Another 2 are in contact with the people working those machines. 10 or more are waiting for my DH to give the thumbs up. Then they will do the hour's worth of work they have to do in order for your mobile phones, internet, cable telly and emergency services communications to work well.

You see the pre-work can take 30 minutes or 6 hours, depending on the ground they are boring through/shoring up. So they all have to wait, on stand-by, until the pre-work is finished.

They don't enjoy it any more than you do. They stand around, usually freezing, with no facilities or distractions (they are a sackable offence). They are officially on nights, but may get called to do a short day job at about 8 am. They are away from home for 7 days to get 7 hours worth of work done. They don't really enjoy it. But it does make your mobile work better!

Not all workers who are stood still are doing jack shit. Many of them are waiting for something that cannot be timetabled to be completed.

As you might be able to tell this is a regular topic of conversation here. DH is regularly abused by passers by. Last week a man in an enormous car was held up for about 5 minutes whilst a machine that bores holes was positioned. He got out of his car and berated my DH. He got his phone out and looked puzzled. "You are lucky there is no signal or I would have phoned your boss and told him you are doing fuck all" he shouted. DH replied, "When you do get a signal ring him and tell him I have finished repairing the mobile phone mast".

What a nasty thread!

Nomama that is a very interesting post. Thanks.

sunshinecity Do councils employ builders? ours certainly doesn'tand they contract everything on a price-for-the -job basis rather than a day rate

Yes, they do. I bought an ex-council house to do up and sell and lived in it while doing so. It was a semi, and the house next door was in a slightly better state of repair (ie no wet rot) and was being done up at the same time by the council workmen.

I used to hear them "working" - the walls were quite thick but even so I could hear the whooping and partying noises that came from next door at times. They sounded like a bunch of hyenas - I honestly have never heard human beings making those sorts of noises before. When I phoned their Council Work Supervisor to complain, he sympathised but basically said it was endemic and it was hard to get them to do a proper day's work.

My house was done up, decorated and sold within 11 months; they were still at the floorlaying stage when I drove back some months later to have a look. I think it took 3 years for them to re-let it.

Nomama: thank you for your sensible input.

Nomama: that's really interesting.

Yeah it's nasty. Interesting how someone always pops up saying the money could perhaps be better used elsewhere.... But never says 'where'

Nobody is allowed to vent anymore.
I work from home. The cement mixer was going all day yesterday. They made too much. Then they dumped the left over cement next to the skip. Not in the skip, but next to it.

Today, they are breaking up yesterdays concrete to put it into the skip, with an electric sort of drill machine, which is also rather noisy. They are right outside my window.

Tomorrow, the water will be gone for 3 hours.

Augh, Quint, no wonder you have raw nerves! That would do my head in.

I had 25 four year old girls screaming at the top of their lungs outside my office window today (school) which was hard to take, but a jackhammer and no water beat that hands down

Maybe if they had dumped it in the skip it would have dried (hardened?) onto the inside of the skip and then they would get in trouble with the skip people.

Skip was half full of earth and sand.

Thanks for sympathy.

I've had work men on my road for the past 2 weekends replacing electric posts.
I'm no expert but they looked to me that they were working hard.

You vent away! I have to put up with the council gardening people standing outside my lounge window smoking and chatting for hours at a time. They then do approximately 10 minutes of waving a strimmer around, then return to the van to smoke and chat again. One really pushed the boat out yesterday and had a chat with his wife on the phone. Very annoying.

heartstrumpsdiamonds exactly what I thought.

When I was about 12 a house was built on the next door plot of land. Mum and I had great fun watching the building work progressing (or not). Wow - the foundations were dug in only one day! Tomorrow comes the concrete. "Hmmm" mum says, "apparently our householders had terrible trouble with the clay for the foundations and they had to dig deep and reinforce them." Next day - lo and behold the foundations have collapsed, the concrete lorry turns up and is sent away. This happens twice more before they dig down deep enough and reinforce the clay foundations!