…Asking a tailor to measure up your next building?
With the invention of a new product known as “concrete cloth”, it’s not such a far-fetched idea. Giving a whole new meaning to the term “building fabric”, this flexible, cement-impregnated cloth hardens when water is applied to it, forming a thin, durable, waterproof and fire-retardant concrete layer. The product has just been given a Class B fire rating by fire consultant Chiltern International Fire.
Previously used for the speedy erection of military and disaster relief shelters and storage, the product is also suitable for ditch lining, pipe protection, roofing, asbestos containment and flood defences, say its inventors, William Crawford and Peter Brewin. We say, “ooh, suits you sir!”
…training up pensioners as a new construction workforce?
It’s not such an outlandish idea. Last month, main contractor Wates hired a group of senior citizens to help out with a housing project that involved re-using scrap timber taken from a former pub it had demolished. But before you call social services and the HSE, we should mention that the housing in question was in fact bird tables and bug boxes designed for installation at the aptly-named Wren’s Nest estate in Dudley, West Midlands. The new estate is part of Wates’ £4m housing development for Jephson Housing Association. And the pensioners weren’t press-ganged — they were all volunteers from the Dudley Senior Citizens Enterprise Group who wanted to keep up their skills.
…or using teachers to operate excavators?
And why not? As we’ve seen in Dudley, the industry is already recruiting from a more diverse workforce. Teachers can probably do with a break from the classroom, and if you’re asking them to direct the telescopic excavator at their old school, you can bet they’ll take on the task with gusto. That’s what happened when Lorraine Wright, head of learning for performing arts and media at Francis Combe Academy in Watford helped Kier knock down one of the building’s 50-year-old structures to make way for a new £22m academy building. Wright won a charity auction that gave her the chance to knock down the old main hall. All the money raised from the auction is going to support the academy’s former principal, Nicky Williams, who is working with orphaned children in Mombasa, Kenya.
…sleeping on the job?
In most cases the boss wouldn’t approve, but what if catching a few z’s on site helped keep crime at bay? That’s the idea Leadbitter labourer Alan Martin had when he became fed up with thieves and vandals breaking into houses he was helping the contractor build for Knightstone Housing Association in Hartcliffe, Bristol. The local criminal element had been stealing appliances and defacing walls with graffiti. Taking his thermos, fishing chair and radio, Martin camped out in one of the houses Leadbitter was building. The idea seems to have worked — there have been no further break-ins, and Martin also arrived early for work.
