Michael Brown has for quite some time been sounding the alarm that there is a chronic lack of appreciation for the importance of properly setting up the control systems of plants. I have experienced another area where control is lacking ...
Maybe I am just old-fashioned, but I believe that if a job is worth doing, it is worth doing properly. I believe that when somebody markets a house, and sells it as 'new', surely it must pass some reasonable level of quality before it can be put up for sale as a 'new' house? Sure, when you go to buy a pre-owned house, you expect some wear and tear - you naturally tolerate 'bits that need some work' - but a new house should surely be in top working order - and with the appropriate materials used. I have discovered first-hand that this is not the case.
After my wife and I had committed to buying our new house, we went to the developer with some requests for things that we would have expected to be like new - in a new house. Things like doors rattling nearly half an inch when closed, window hinges falling apart, tiles missing on the steps, etc. After the developer remarked that I was really picky, many of these things that I had noticed were fixed. One that was not fixed was the driveway. (I was yet to discover more after signing for the keys.)
Cement set on tar driveway
For some reason the driveway was tarred before the house had been completed. Some utterly irresponsible person had allowed cement to be messed all over the driveway and lacked the intelligence to have it hosed off before it had set. Result: beautiful new driveway of a beautiful new home looks disgusting. Naturally this was on the list of things that needed sorting out. The developer knew that to sort this out properly would cost a great deal of money, and so he said that if I did not like it, I did not have to buy the house. Business-wise, he was quite correct, unfortunately. But we had to get in as prices are climbing.
Now on building sites there is a person called a foreman. This foreman is supposedly charged with the duty of overseeing the work and preventing any disasters - disasters like leaving cement to set on the driveway! In the 'old days' this foreman would have been summarily fired for negligence. This foreman (if he exists) appears to get paid for doing nothing.
Holes in floor screed under carpets
Before the lounge carpet was laid, I noticed that there was a hole about the diameter of a tennis ball, about 2 cm deep in the lounge. I made the stupid mistake of believing that it would naturally get sorted out before the carpets were laid - as a hole the size of a tennis ball in a smooth cement floor is painfully obvious to any observer possessing a brain.
Well, apparently not to our intrepid foreman! After the carpets were laid (the wrong colour, of course!) I felt the spot where the hole was - and yes, it was still there. It was a big political exercise to get the developer to replace the carpet with the colour indicated on the contract (which he had already signed). The contractor said that he would fix the hole. He lied to me - he said that he had patched the hole when he had the carpet changed. The hole is still there, of course.
Hole burned in bedroom carpet
We found a hole burned vertically, deep into the brand new carpet in the middle of the main bedroom doorway. It looks like a deliberate and spiteful act. They obviously did not like me.
"We will clean the house before we hand you the keys"
Yeah, right! I arrived on the Tuesday after 'a team of cleaners' had given the place a 'thorough clean' on the Monday. It looked exactly as it did the week before. Dead flies and spiders on all the windowsills, grime and powdery grouting was coating every tile, packing tape still across the toilet cisterns, fluff and dust on the floors. How much was that 'cleaning team' paid?
Other surprises
We had never run our hands over the surfaces of the baths. The fibreglass baths are white, and so is the paint that is splattered all over them - it is like bathing with sand in the bath. Bathroom tiles come with edges that are properly finished for tiling along edges, etc. The tiler had used these tiles willy-nilly. Some tile edges are right some are not - totally random. The baths are flexible and the grouting is not - needless to say all the grouting around the baths is falling off. For two nights we had no electricity - the electrics were a mess. I can see over the top of the main bedroom door when it is closed. But maybe I am just being picky ...? We had no choice. Before more holes were burned in the carpet, we signed and grabbed the keys. Those looking at buying a 'new' house - be warned!
I believe it is not just homebuilders, and it is not just practical control engineering ... the root cause is deeper than this. Control engineering and many other areas of industry will only run more efficiently if humanity would regain the passion for getting to the bottom of things and exercising some integrity instead of being greedy. Then we will all win.
John Gibbs, Editor
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