Fuming today...

http://photos.dionic.net/v/public/bu...5_001.jpg.html

Shows what a builder did for me, in order to move a doorway along. That's
one half-width column of celcon blocks holding a lintel up. Granted there
is no real load on the lintel beyond a few bricks.

Anyway, I hacked that little bit of plaster off (it was a test set to see
how it handled with the blocks - badly as the suckage was high). Then
noticed the block column was wobbling. Then discovered I could rotate the
top half of the column by a good half cm without trying too hard. Light use
of a chisel had broken the side bond and half the block to block joins. I
stress, this was a hand chisel, not an SDS.

I concluded that it *should* have been done out of brick and keyed in
properly with the wall to the left, which is how i would have done it.

Next door neighbours agreed (retired brickie and his son, who has worked as
a builder, now more into carpentry).

Anyway, the builder refused to fix it, claiming that "it'll be alright with
a bit of plaster on it". Must be from the school of structural plastering.
To be honest, it I'd done that, I would class it as an incompetent failure.

I'll run it past the BCO, under Part A of the BNA stuff, just to feel more
justified, then redo it properly. But so far no other experienced person
whose seen it thinks it's good enough and I certainly don't.

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I had a moan about the floor - more in the Arsecarrots... thread.

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Didn't even get round to moaning about the pathetic attempt to make a floor
slab (2.5" thick concrete on DPM with no sand, DPM punctured to buggery,
earth not compacted etc).

Stupid thing is I was going to offer his partner a load of plastering work
(big room, appearance matters, mine bearable but not good enough for large
areas). Needless to say that won;t be happening...

Sigh. Seems to be the state of Britain these days...