Metric measurements - I'm impressed
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May I say what a helpful and useful site you have here. And may I congratulate you on your consistent use of metric measurements throughout. In a country where you can be sold 2 metres of 9 inch hollow blocks; and where you have to order a 6 yard skip to remove 4.5 cubic metres of waste its really refreshing to see a single, coherent measurement system used throughout your highly informative pages. Great work.
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Are you onto something Tone??
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Timber is still the odd one, I'm sure most of us order 10 3.6m lengths of 4x2 (who's going to say 100x50!?) or 5x2 or 6x2. Likewise deckboards; 50 lengths of 6.0m in 6"!
And slabs, isn't it easier to say 2x1 instead of 600x300?
An 8' fence post is easier to order than 2.4m. A 6x6 panel is always going to be preferred to a 1.83x1.83m panel!
Dense blocks at the builders' merchants are either 4" or 6" thick, not 100 or 150.
I'm of the generation that was taught both systems together at school (when we joined the common market) but my Polish lads struggle a bit with it.
And slabs, isn't it easier to say 2x1 instead of 600x300?
An 8' fence post is easier to order than 2.4m. A 6x6 panel is always going to be preferred to a 1.83x1.83m panel!
Dense blocks at the builders' merchants are either 4" or 6" thick, not 100 or 150.
I'm of the generation that was taught both systems together at school (when we joined the common market) but my Polish lads struggle a bit with it.
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I've been a metric kind of guy since the 1970s - it's just so much easier and logical. I can work in imperial, and things like 4x2 timber or 2x2 flags are easy enough, but if someone tells me it's 400 yards, I have to mentally multiply by 0.9 to understand it's around 360 metres, but when we get up to miles, I'm OK again.
My Sat-Nav (which is NEVER left in the car, Mr Theiving Bastard, if you're reading this) is set to metric because it gives distance to junction in metres (which I understand) rather than yards.
I'm sure I've mentioned before the architect I used to work with who consistently sent plans scaled at 1 inch = 1 yard. When I told him ALL civil engineering work was quantified in metric and it would be better for me if he sent drawings in metric scale, I started to receive plans drawn at 1 inch = 1 metre. Some people just never get it!
My Sat-Nav (which is NEVER left in the car, Mr Theiving Bastard, if you're reading this) is set to metric because it gives distance to junction in metres (which I understand) rather than yards.
I'm sure I've mentioned before the architect I used to work with who consistently sent plans scaled at 1 inch = 1 yard. When I told him ALL civil engineering work was quantified in metric and it would be better for me if he sent drawings in metric scale, I started to receive plans drawn at 1 inch = 1 metre. Some people just never get it!
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