Nothing is built to last any more

[Captain Jack]

A bit of a moan thread, but I feel that as time goes on, "things" are being built with much less care and attention... and quality. Buildings are a case in point. Have recently moved into a brand new flat (rented) with lovely Bristol Channel views and... everything about that flat shouts crap quality.

The balcony door jammed on the day I moved in because someone didn't tighten up a couple of screws on the railing lock making it drop the locking bolt into the floor. The kitchen is of generally good quality materials wise but the people who put it in did a hashed job out of it. The washing machine's cover door (part of the "fitted" kitchen) is wonky and doesn't close properly. The cover board between the bottom of the units and the floor is also wonky and I had to tie it up with a piece of string to stop it from dropping!

The worse thing is - the whole flat shakes whenever someone walks in it. It's a top floor flat but I can feel and hear the guy walking *downstairs*. I certainly wouldn't want to live below anyone. And, as it's a new development, they are still building around here and a block of flats has been put up in less than a month! It's all timber framed, which explains the vibrations every time someone sneezes, with some breeze block on the outside and then rendered.

Is this what the future holds? Disposable everything? It's bad enough that cars are made out of spit and paper these days, but surely the buildings should have some structural rigidity? This is even with "noise regulations" that are out there for new buildings - obviously not worth the paper they are written on.

Flats in Russia, where I lived for the first 13 years of my life simply don't have this problem. Probably because everything was built out of concrete - no chance of any vibrations/sounds.

Rant over.

[lozz]

They sound simalar to the blocks of flats or posh term Apartments, they built near Manchester city football ground,

Iwatched them Get thrown up, as iworked nearby and nowt better to do when iwas Skiving

They started off with wooden 3x2s and cheap pannels, alot cheper stuff than Mdf
and then they spent alittle more as they used breeze blocks on the out side,

so iguess all the insides is built with crap,

ilaughed at the price of them, something like 99 grand for a 1 bedroom flat you carnt throw a cat round in

edit.

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/to-rent/details ... ed_listing

[Busman]

It's the consumer society, you mustn't keep the same stuff, but throw it away and buy new stuff, to keep the Chinese busy. But it is crap that the new stuff dosen't work properley.
I remember when I had some duff brushes in a fan motor. Could i get the brushes out? Could i hell, it was all spot welded together.

On another side, how long does it take to get out of Portishead in the morning? I see some horrendous ques as I ddrive up the M5.

[Captain Jack]

On another side, how long does it take to get out of Portishead in the morning? I see some horrendous ques as I ddrive up the M5.

It used to take about 20 mins to get to the motorway before they widened the road to 3 lanes and put a set of traffic lights up. There are no queues now so the wait is minimal. But this is temporary as there is no end in sight of crazy developments...

[Blue406]

Everything is pretty much prefab these days, little is built on site after the frame and bricks are up. That's the issue here.

There is a lot of development going on in my area, houses and blocks of flats going up at alarming rates. Look big on the outside, seem small on the inside.
Doors, windows, interior furnishings are all trucked in and fitted in a day. Most of the buildings, flats included still have wooden frames!
So, I'd imagine those will by nice and bouncy and noisy!

Developers are building 3 bedroom houses for under £30K and selling them for £140K
Flats are probably cheaper still, more of them per building ya see. I'd reckon about £15L per flat, which then sell for £70K to £100K.

The only way they make em that cheap is to use cheap materials. Walls are thinner, floorboards are thinner. (The more planks they can eek out of a tree, the more cash the lumber mill gets!)
It's a bloody joke.

[lozz]

ithink some of these Desighners of modern houses
have took a course in another country, The usage of natuarl materials seems to be catching on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSJLOvPMjYo

Aww hes building that one for his wife, Mrs busy beever, bless him,

[lozz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7I4rhmA-eE

Americans have got the right idea me thinks,

[midsdaz]

I deliver kitchen appliances for a living and go in to alot of new property's and the min u walk in u can see how cheaply there built floors are ll over the place walls with cracks all over and the person ent even moved in there I seen them were the doors and windows don't shut properly there crap I wouldn't buy one

[Welly]

"Money" is the reason and it covers just about everything. Oh and a lack of skills, a lack of care, stupid build time-scales, greed....

The guys that threw your Kitchen in would have been on a price (a tight price) so they get one day to throw it in (the whole thing) and one return visit to fit the plinths and handles and do a bit of tarting up and that's it - it's yours.

I've seen apartment blocks recently with party walls made from lightweight partitions - it's mad. There's a shortage of affordable housing so we end up with crap and lots of it. Eventually the councils will buy up job-lots of 'apartments' in these big blocks and turn them into the council slums of yesteryear

[D9406]

Computers seem to have an inbuilt self destruct diary. I had a Dell laptop on which the keyboard fell apart and recently an Apple Ipod Touch which jammed its on off button, a common fault. However both of these had got there dates wrong and self destructed on the last day of their one year warranty so I was able to get both repaired free of charge. Since having them repaired neither has shown any sign of misbehaving.

[steve_earwig]

Where did I put that email?
Aha!
This is for you: http://youtu.be/uXt9HT50X1c

Sorry about the moose subtitles