The Building Game

Day 21 Monday 30^th August 2010

Builders.... Stylish.

The builders showed up at exactly 9.00AM. That’s another great thing about Japan. Tradespeople always show up exactly when they say they will. The concept of “9AM ish” or flexi time hasn’t caught on here thank god. No moaning about traffic or having too much work on.  On the other hand they are not what I would call hugely efficient and take a long time to do the simplest of things.  The building team consisted of one middle aged guy and one teenaged apprentice. They were wearing that peculiar uniform that construction types go in for here.  Huge baggy trousers, the kind a circus clown would wear, and those weird boots that have the big toe separate from the rest.   

A quick chat with them about what I wanted done quickly established a few things. Firstly, creative thinking is out. If you have a problem, you need to have worked out a solution before you hire anyone. 

2x4 construction

In NZ when you hire a builder you hire his experience and knowledge. You show him the problem and he then tells you the best way to fix it at which point he goes ahead and does the work. These guys are here to do what they are told to do. Basically they are experienced labourers. I had to show them exactly what I wanted done, detailing exactly what materials I wanted and how they should be used.  Secondly, if they don’t have the exact materials to hand, they seem totally incapable of improvising a substitute. I had stripped all the insulation and rotten plywood from the wall cavity. The waterproof membrane was in bad shape so I cut out a section of this as well. I asked them what they had to replace this membrane. The older one replied that they didn’t have any on their truck. OK I’ll go and get some. What’s it called in Japanese and where can I get some? Another one of those endless discussions ensued between the two of them. The conclusion was that while they know what the product is used for, they don’t know the name of it or where to get it. In the end they suggested that roofing asphalt would work and that they did have some of that. I then went to the home centre and got some plywood, Styrofoam insulation and plasterboard. 

open heart surgery

When I got back they had removed the balcony but were standing around looking concerned.  It seems that the wet wood shows signs of termite damage. They were speculating that the whole wall might be crumbly. I asked them if they would check it out. They didn’t know how to without removing the cladding on the outside of the house. I suggested that they go up into the attic and have a look at the top of the wall on the inside.  This seemed to strike them as a rather good idea. A quick check showed it to be fine. In fact the timber framing up there looks as good as new.  The termite damage is confined the wet rotten part. Around 1 PM a third guy showed up. He’s the cladding expert we were told.  We need to recycle as much as this as we can as it’s not available anymore. They slowly worked their way through the job but by 5PM I knew it wasn’t going to be finished today. To their credit they worked until 6.30PM. Your average clock watching Kiwi would have been long gone by 5. They  said they would be back tomorrow and I even believe them.

Arriving back at the apartment I instantly noticed that the badminton rackets had vanished. Perhaps they kids who left them there had reclaimed them. Maybe the city sent out a special abandoned Sports Equipment removal team. Speculation is rife but in the end we may never know!