Nquantities - Describe your biggest cock up!

Ted · Post: # 43070Post **Ted** Thu Nov 12, 2009 7:01 pm

We recently started a job and were a bit understaffed so we hired a Filipino civil engineer to manage a new project - it was a simple job - levelling an area for a new temporary power station.

He had to build a RC retaining wall and backfill and gravel the area so the electricity company could place some generators on the site.

The guy estimated that he needed 100 tonnes of laterite - a red soil common in these parts to backfill with. But he needed 400 tonnes! This - from a guy who studied civil engineering!

Fortunately I found a contractor down the road who had a load of laterite he needed to dipose of and I was able to buy 10 tonnes delivered for US$100. We had budgeted for $500 per 10 tonnes.

So we got away with it - if not, I would have been inclined to deduct it from his wages but a Filipino doesn't get paid much so it would have taken him years to pay it back if we had had to pay $500 per 10 tonnes.

Anyway, I think he will have to be got rid of...

Have you ever messed up hugely?

I doubt anyone could mess up this bad!

Post: # 43082Post **Dave_L** Thu Nov 12, 2009 8:58 pm

Yeah, today - had a barrowload of basecourse and 1/4ton of 10mm left over!

No, not had a cockup on that scale but never say never!!

rab1 · Post: # 43084Post **rab1** Thu Nov 12, 2009 9:03 pm

trust me we`ve all done it. just not on that scale. got a container stored/hidden with over 40k worth of stuff. :;):

mickg · Post: # 43098Post **mickg** Fri Nov 13, 2009 5:40 am

I know what you mean Dave, my last driveway I ordered 20 ton of grit sand and had to fill 3 25kg bags what was over ???

never had a major cock up to date but ......!!

Post: # 43112Post **Tony McC** Fri Nov 13, 2009 12:13 pm

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I priced-up a job to supply and fix a flag-on-edge retainer to a project in a near-by town. It was a rush job; they needed the price the next morning and the work to start the same day, if the price was accepted.

So, it was after midnight when I finally get to work out a price, and it comes to a shade under 11 quid per linear metre. I type out the quote into a document template we used back in those days, which featured a spreadsheet with the figures embedded into a word-processor document. Except it's late, and I put the decimal point in the wrong place, so instead of 11 quid/m it reads 110 quid/m.

And I got the job - all 400 metres of it!!!

DNgroundworks · Fri Nov 13, 2009 4:12 pm

Jesus, i could do with a job like that!!! And did the customer not think that it was a tad to to dear?:laugh:

Injured · Post: # 43123Post **Injured** Fri Nov 13, 2009 5:24 pm

That sounds like a brucie bonus not a cock up

Fri Nov 13, 2009 7:02 pm

cut through BskyB's fibre optic link, putting in the bases for a new steel spectator stand at Sale rufc ground. Â£125K repair, got away with it as it was 30 metres away from where it was marked on our site plan.

cant be jointed so had to replace the whole run haha.

Post: # 43130Post **Tony McC** Fri Nov 13, 2009 8:44 pm

The flag-on-edge job was for a supervising architect looking after a commercial development where the main contractor had gone bust, so everything was being paid for by the insurance company. I had a great relationship with the project manager, so I told him of my error, and he just told me to shut up, say nowt, and buy him a pint!

They'd accepted the price, and I figured I'd had more than my fair share of jobs where I'd been screwed on the price or the developer went bang, so I was due a bit of Karmic re-balancing.

danensis · Post: # 43211Post **danensis** Tue Nov 17, 2009 11:58 am

GB_Groundworks wrote:cut through BskyB's fibre optic link, putting in the bases for a new steel spectator stand at Sale rufc ground. Â£125K repair, got away with it as it was 30 metres away from where it was marked on our site plan.

cant be jointed so had to replace the whole run haha.

I'd have bought a fibre splicing kit and done it for Â£100K

John