Відео

wonderfully explained

There is some disturbing news about the futuristic city shown around 0:35. www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68945445

An offline discussion developed, that I would anonymously copy here, as it interesting: Q: I am amazed that architects and contractors continue to build like this. Do these failures occur outside the limits of liability? Don’t architects and contractors get sued in Florida? I am sure this means of construction is the least expensive but the repairs must come close to the original construction cost and as you note the repair will ultimately exhibit the same failure as the original. They do not build like that in any region I have worked in thus I am wondering what makes this unique to Florida? A: Contractors and developers are mainly at risk here, but with some local peculiarities. First of all, the legal risk management strategies in residential development develop always a step or two ahead of the legislation: shell companies are formed to be immediately dissolved upon completion, etc. It leads to the paradoxes, such as the one I saw in one condo association, where the developers purchased penthouse units, dissolved the company, and sued the condo association, because these penthouses leaked so badly that they weren’t able to sell them with sufficient profit. The association turned around and pursued the architect. I was hired by an architect there, who in turn pointed out all “value engineering” introduced by the developer in the roofs. The second issue that I saw is a widespread insurance fraud. Leaks and other failures are left unrepaired until the next storm, and are falsely claimed as hurricane damage. I investigated multimillion dollar claims that resulted in replacement of entire facades, while the only real damage I witnessed was a loss of several glazed terrace doors, that were left open during a wind event, (probably because the maintenance teams were too lazy to close them fully after weather warnings were issued, which nevertheless qualified them as an actual damage: laziness and stupidity are covered) Surprisingly, condo associations generally win in settlements, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, as there is a strong negative sentiment toward out-of-town sureties, and the strongly entrenched stereotype of an insurance fraud perpetrated by the insurance companies at the expense of homeowners instead. So, it’s a multifaceted issue. There is a disconnect between underwriters and adjusters. On the other hand, home insurance here is often forced by legislation, otherwise the entire real estate sector would stall. So it could be said, that this cost is paid by all Floridians in high insurance premiums and taxes. It doesn’t help that the local workforce is generally of a very low quality. Northern GCs, who were contracted to build here, complained off record that they had to lower their in-house quality standards in order to be able to hire here. This is in addition to the general scraping of the bottom of the barrel of the workforce nationally: e.g. one field medic complained to me that no day comes by without him administering an emergency overdose treatment to some worker who got too high. This in spite of the regular drug screening they conduct.

Very interesting and useful tour. (And I'm sure we all appreciate your thoughtful and careful blurring of most of the window views, which we certainly don't need, to understand the building science issues.)