'We don't need to check the design': Builder tries to warn fuel company that their blueprints were flawed, they tell him to 'get building'

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 26, 2023 3:00 PM EST

This company has never heard of the phrase "Measure twice, cut once." Instead, they're perfectly fine with winging it, and then starting all over again. 

Experienced craftsmen know that there's no such thing as being too careful. You can always measure one more time, or check that your equipment's working one more time. It's better to spend a few extra seconds double-checking your work, rather than spending days or weeks redoing a part of your project. The bigger the project, the more times you need to check. You'll certainly thank yourself for it down the line. 

U/thornae had a cool malicious compliance story to tell about a construction worker from their hometown, John. John was highly experienced in his trade, and had lots of work to keep him busy. But he had no idea what he was getting himself into when he started working with a giant fuel company. They didn't respect his expertise at all---they wrongly assumed that if he had a heavy accent, he didn't know what he was doing. Karma came swiftly for that company!

Next up, these construction workers asked a parent to move her car so they could safely work, and the story got 100x crazier from there. 

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 9855532544
    via Josh Olalde on Unsplash
  • 02
    "You're only a builder, what the do you know? Just thing to build the spec!" LOC LTL, FTS, etc. This is fairly long, so there's a TL;DR at the end, but it's one of my favourite stories from my hometown. It was a long time ago, so the specifics probably aren't exact, but the overall story is as it happened.
    via u/thornae
  • 03
    I grew up in a small community on an island off the coast of a thriving metropolitan area. It had its ups and downs, but was generally a pretty quiet sort of life. The community had a fairly large immigrant population from various European countries, and one of those was, well, let's call him John. John the builder. He and his numerous brothers had all moved to the island together, and started a construction company.
    via u/thornae
  • 04
    John was a big affable man, easygoing and always smiling. He spoke excellent English, but with a thick accent. Sometimes people assumed his accent meant his grasp of business was lacking, but usually not for long. Within a decade or so of moving there, John and his brothers were pretty much the only builders of note on the island, and anything bigger than a garden shed would go through them.
    via u/thornae
  • 05
    Around that time, my grandad retired and moved to the island with my grandma. He contracted John to help him build his retirement house, and they bonded over their mutual appreciation of a really good concrete mix and pour. By then John's family were good friends of ours too, so John and my grandad kept in touch regularly, and would often get into involved discussions of building methods and the like.
    via u/thornae
  • 06
    Some years later, the old couple running the main petrol station in town decided to sell up and retire, and the place was bought by BigFuel Co. BigFuelCo decided that the quaint old station and garage was in dire need of a complete makeover and modernisation, and drew up plans accordingly. After putting the work out for tender, they grudgingly accepted that with the cost of relocating a labour force from the mainland to the
    via u/thornae
  • 07
    island for the work, John's construction firm was by far the most cost effective. They weren't happy about it though, and made it clear that they thought John and his brothers were a bunch of rural cowboys who couldn't be trusted to nail two planks together. Still, the contracts were signed, and the blueprints delivered to John. As well as the usual amenities, the new station was to have a high, artistically stylish roof over the fuel pumps, held up by two support pillars -
    via u/thornae
  • 08
    you know the sort of thing. John read the plans, thought about the stiff sea breezes the location was subject to, and frowned. He took the blueprints around to my grandad and discussed them. Possibly not entirely within the bounds of the contract, but John was concerned.
    via u/thornae
  • 09
    The next day, John rang BigFuelCo's contact, and said, in his thick accent, "This roof isn't going to stand up. The support pillar footings are too shallow, and the roof itself is too large for pillars of that size. Plus you haven't factored in the strength of the winds we get there. Everything else is fine, but you need to redesign that roof." "Rubbish," scoffed the BigFuelCo guy, "We had it designed by a very exclusive architect, and our engineers signed off on it. It's fine. You don't know wh
    via u/thornae
  • 10
    "Maybe," said John, "But I've been building here for 20 years, and I think you should go over the design again." "Don't be ridiculous. You're just trying to get the contract extended. We don't need to check the design, now get building." click
    via u/thornae
  • 11
    John, being a genuinely nice bloke, thought that maybe this was just one person being difficult, and also felt that this sort of thing should probably be in writing, sat down and wrote a clear letter expressing his concerns about the fuel pump shelter, and sent it overnight to the Big FuelCo office on the mainland. The next day he got a call from the BigFuelCo office, from someone further up the ranks.
    via u/thornae
  • 12
    "What the is this? Who do you think you are, trying to tell our architects and engineers they don't know what they're doing? You're only a builder, what the do you know? Just build the thing!" "Could you put that in writing, please?" asked John. (This is the point at which a sensible manager would be given pause. When the contractor specifically asks for it in writing, you should probably ask why.)
    via u/thornae
  • 13
    "Fine," snarls the BigFuelCo guy, and faxes through a terse note that he'd read the letter and considered it mistaken, and to get on with the construction. John shrugged, carefully filed the note, and went ahead with build.
    via u/thornae
  • 14
    A little over a month later, the new station was finished, roof and all. On a pleasant gusty day, perfect for sailing, the Big FuelCo bigwigs flew over to see the result. Standing there with John and a curious crowd of locals, they watched as the shiny new stylish roof danced and swayed in the wind, in a manner decidedly unlikely to reassure anyone thinking of refueling their car underneath it.
    via u/thornae
  • 15
    "WHAT THE Big FuelCo boss. "Just what I tried to warn you about," replied John. ! You IS THIS?!" enquired the II up the construction and now you're trying to pin it on us! We're not paying for this, you're going to need to tear it down at your expense and build it right!" "It's built exactly to your blueprints," said John. "If you want it rebuilt, you'll have to pay for it. Preferably with a new design."
    via u/thornae
  • 16
    "Not a chance. This is on you, and if you try and dodge responsibility for it, we'll sue!" "Sounds good," said John, "See you in court." So the fuel station was cordoned off, and legal proceedings went ahead. I don't know much about them, but at some point I do know something like this happened:
    via u/thornae
  • 17
    Judge: Defense, you may call your first expert witness. John's lawyer: Thank you, your honour. We call Professor [Thornae's Grandad], internationally recognised civil engineer who chaired the report into the [redacted] Bridge Collapse and was head of Engineering at [redacted] University for 25 years. BigFuelCo's legal team: Uh...
    via u/thornae
  • 18
    John's Lawyer: Thank you for joining us, Professor. Would you please tell the court how you first learned of the project in question? My grandad: Of course. John first approached me with his concerns directly after receiving the blueprints. I agreed with his assessment, and I have since drawn up a brief report on the problems of the roof design. The details and supporting calculations are in pages four through sixteen, but if you don't mind I'll just read from the summary. I noted the following
    via u/thornae
  • 19
    What with that and the note John had, it didn't take long to be settled. Big FuelCo was on the hook for all of it, plus legal fees. They had to pay John to tear down the unstable roof and build a new one - designed by a different architect and checked by off-site engineers. Nonetheless, when John got the new plans, he rang BigFuelCo and said "Hope you don't mind, I'm just going to run these past the Prof before we get started."
    via u/thornae
  • 20
    TL;DR: Small town builder gets big contract. Spots problems and raises concerns. Is told to build to spec. Builds to spec. Problems happen. Big company tries to blame it on small town builder and is dealt righteous retribution by surprisingly well credentialed local.
    via u/thornae

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