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My father worked for a Swiss company in the 80s tut was specialized in moving buildings. Sometimes they were huge buildings that only needed to be moved a few m

by Ftuuky 7y ago

My father worked for a Swiss company in the 80s tut was specialized in moving buildings. Sometimes they were huge buildings that only needed to be moved a few meters so that a new rail could be added. But my father worked as foreman for the small buildings like historical churches that were in the way of a new road or something. One of my early memories are when my father was working so near our house that my mother went with me to assist the move. It was so slow except my father that was running in circles around the wooden church yelling at everyone and everything, super stressed out. He loved the work so much that it gave him ulcers so he moved back to Portugal and now restores old houses for the rich guys that want a classy summer house in the countryside.

short_sells_poo 7y ago
That's very interesting. Please, if you have any stories, photos or anecdotes to share, do so. > He loved the work so much that it gave him ulcers. I can well imagine. It sounds like the sort of process that only works if someone with great amount of expertise and passion ensures that everything is accounted for. I've never tried to relocate a building, but I assume that any sort of problem quickly cascades from "oh dear" to "oh sh*t" with little to no warning and no possible recovery.
- Ftuuky 7y ago
  There’s photos but in physical format, next time I visit my parents I will try to scan them. It’s mostly my father looking at buildings and pointing at things with a concerned look in his face. :) And yes, things could go wrong really fast and the problem is that it’s not obvious something went wrong. The building won’t collapse immediately but the structure gets compromised and will degrade much faster than expected and there’s very little you could do except add some support beams which changes the aesthetics and the client most definitely didn’t paid for that. So my father would basically worry about every single decision and be super cautions at the same time he was juggling tight deadlines (roads need to be closed on specific days at specific hours, can’t be late but can’t rush the job either...). He misses the job but not my mother :)

by Ftuuky 7y ago

short_sells_poo 7y ago

That's very interesting. Please, if you have any stories, photos or anecdotes to share, do so. > He loved the work so much that it gave him ulcers. I can well imagine. It sounds like the sort of process that only works if someone with great amount of expertise and passion ensures that everything is accounted for. I've never tried to relocate a building, but I assume that any sort of problem quickly cascades from "oh dear" to "oh sh*t" with little to no warning and no possible recovery.

Ftuuky 7y ago
There’s photos but in physical format, next time I visit my parents I will try to scan them. It’s mostly my father looking at buildings and pointing at things with a concerned look in his face. :) And yes, things could go wrong really fast and the problem is that it’s not obvious something went wrong. The building won’t collapse immediately but the structure gets compromised and will degrade much faster than expected and there’s very little you could do except add some support beams which changes the aesthetics and the client most definitely didn’t paid for that. So my father would basically worry about every single decision and be super cautions at the same time he was juggling tight deadlines (roads need to be closed on specific days at specific hours, can’t be late but can’t rush the job either...). He misses the job but not my mother :)