Week 57: Big Trouble in Little High Street
Site day has finally arrived and after some discrepancies with booking a start date with the workers who were presumably on other jobs, we finally got the green light. It took a while to get there as a lot of the traders didn’t supply both pump and cement together so we had to call around and managed to find one which did. Anyway, as per instruction we booked the 28th (in the am) for delivery, both pump and cement chap there. Cement gets mixed on the shop floor then transported to site ready to be pumped. Everything was seamless until the dreaded call, five hours in and the manager from Weltons group (the builders merchants) asked if we still needed the cement as nothing had been touched. At first we thought it was a call in error or some kind of mix up.
Then another call from another manager shortly after stating that our morning slot is about to expire and it will now go into pay per hour (£540 for the morning then £60 per hour there on). Very rare do you need the extra hours it's just there as a cushion. They had been trying to contact the project manager several times with no luck so the calls were diverting to us. But what do we do? We are none the wiser and did explain we were managing this remotely. They were adamant that the cement was hardening in their trucks and if it does not come out in the next few minutes they will need a sledgehammer to extract the contents and we’ll have to foot the bill. He also mentioned that the process could damage their vehicles which we will be liable for.
At this point we’re so panicky repeatedly trying to get hold of the PM to see what is happening. Eventually the PM made contact and he said he will get onto the teammates on site and see what's going on and then speak to Weltons directly. Just a lot of miscommunication circulating, those on site saying the concrete got there late, merchants saying the workmen themselves asked for it to come at a later time. At this point feeling disorientated as you are helpless due to the distance. We realised anger aside we need to work with the PM to diffuse the situation first and then later see what went wrong as no doubt the PM must've been feeling the pressure too and we all just needed to remain calm. By all means I'm no expert but I think the morning was a bad choice to book the delivery.
There's two ways this could’ve panned out:
Travel the day before and prep the floor ready for the cement; or
Arrange for the delivery in the afternoon and spend the entire morning on prep.
Neither of the above took precedent before the truck came on site. Our PM is a fantastic guy and managed to sort it in the end however, I can't help but wonder that this really could've been avoided in the first place. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not about to rip the PM to shreds as he is a very experienced project manager and really knows his industry. His credentials are justifiable on his social pages with an array of fantastic renovations and developments. I think he’s working on numerous projects simultaneously and has spread himself too thin. This is our first project and it is very scary and daunting for us. Moving forward I'm just glad it's all over and I think better communication and time-management is the key.
But on a positive note it was a good experience (though not at the time). I really enjoyed the speed, adrenaline and the rush of the unknown making it all that more exciting!