Architects, what's the point?

Ok so Architects are a necessary evil. Most people that have had to use them would probably agree. But when dealing with tradesmen that have to work with Architects you will probably find that most times the Architect should just stick with the initial designs and leave the nitty gritty to the tradesmen.

I think personally they are just glorified draftsmen. Yeh they know how to design a house or building, so does a draftsmen, but they can do it with a little bit more of a flourish for design and look.

That is where it should end.

Nearly every single project I personally have worked on that has had Architects specify it, there have been issues that the Architect have no idea how to deal with.

Being in the cabinet making industry I deal with alot of specialized products and hardware. Most times I can foresee an issue that is designed before starting to manufacture and deal with it then. But every now and then there is something that the Architect wants to do that is either just plain stupid or not possible. Sometimes I think they do not look at their ideas from all angles to see whether they are either possible or practical.

To make the matters worse, they cost an arm and a leg to the client and then the client feels that the Architect should be involved in every decision because of this outlaid expense.

So in all that, if you really have to use an Architect, I suggest get them to just do the look and design and leave the actual manufacturing and installation decisions to the tradesmen that do it every single day.

Faz out

Unions and Strikes

It seems that now that Labour is back in government that the Unions are stepping up and strikes are happening more often.

Qantas is being hammered by them recently to the poor flyers dismay. Today I read in the paper that the fire fighters are considering action as well for a pay rise.

Ok so I understand people want a pay rise, but does going on strike really help to get it. From my understanding when you go on strike you don't get paid for the time you are striking. Does a measly % really make up for the lost income when on an extended strike?

Wouldn't it be easier to personally go and talk to your bosses and ask them for the payrise? Most bosses would prefer an upfront and honest approach as opposed to being forced into a situation.

It just seems that now the unions have a foot in the door, they aren't planning on taking it out again.

I am sure most people in this country knew this was coming, but for some reason the majority still voted Labour in just for a new change. The old saying "a change is as good as a holiday" seems pretty sad when it causes issues in the country.

Faz out

Alcopop Tax Increase

How much has this topic made some changes to the cost of having a drink after work.

As someone that doesn't mind having a bourbon after a long days work, I was quite disappointed to see the amount it increased to the price.

Personally I drink Wild Turkey bourbon, and don't mind buying the premixed in carton form to save a few dollars when buying them. But the price increased by an average of $1 per bottle in the carton. Quite an increase. Granted I still buy them this way when I'm off to a party or camping and such. But I always have bottles in my own bar to mix my own when I feel like a drink.

After being at a few parties recently that had 18year olds and other age groups, the one thing I noticed was that instead of them bringing premixed drinks, they all seemed to turn up with full bottles.

There has to be a worse situation when they are mixing their own drinks. The measures are not accurate so they drink alot more than they normally would. At least with premixed drinks, the measures are done right and are controlled.

Instead of a tax increase, wouldn't it have been better to bring in an age card that stops them from buying more than say a 6 pack per day? or per week? if the government is truly interested in trying to stop binge drinking, limiting it is the only real way I can foresee it to be possible.

Considering they now have laws in place that don't allow young drivers to have passengers in their car after certain times of the day and other laws for young drivers that older ones don't have, they should be able to do the same with the drinking.

To me I believe this was more of a money grab from an area that most of Australia enjoys regularly. If it was indeed to curb binge drinking, then why is the more responsible part of the population paying the price of it as well?

Faz out

Free quoting of services

This topic is something that I think about all the time. Since I am in an industry that requires quoting to be done on a regular basis to continue gaining work, it is a necessary evil.

Just about all quoting goes about being done for free. This really means that the business owner is spending anywhere from 3 to who knows how many hours working for the possible clients for free on those quotes on the hope that they will win the quote.

I look at it like this. Generally it takes 30 mins or so to drive to a quote and another 30 to drive back. As a general rule I try not to spend anymore than 1 hour in a quote getting measurements and determining what the client is wanting. Then after spending a further 45mins to 1 hour doing the design and then another 15 to 30 mins doing the actual pricing. I figure it works out to 3 to 4 hours for a basic quote, this would mean no outsourced products that have to be faxed off to get prices on as well, or any out of the ordinary items that require special attention to quote on.

Say one would do 3 quotes a week, thats an average of 9 to 12 hours a week on just basic quotes. All of a sudden 1 day a week is spent working for clients that more than likely you will never recoup. 

I have always thought that free quoting should be thrown out the door and customers should be asked to pay a minimum fee of say $100 to get a quote done. If the quote is won then the $100 should be taken off of the price. This would at least allow tradesmen to get paid something for their time and also cover expenses in travel time, and would probably also get people to stick with around 3 quotes instead of some getting up to 10.

I have personally had quotes that have taken nearly a week to price up. Some industries it's quite simple to walk in and quote on the spot EG: curtains, but others like my own (cabinet making) that isn't possible due to the options that people ask for. Same goes for building of houses and architectural work.

More than likely this will never happen and it's probably something that myself being someone that has to do this will just have to live with. But wouldn't it be nice if people realised that tradesmen probably do charge more for their services because of all the down time that they don't actually get paid for.

I guess the main thing to think of is 3 quotes is a good amount to get. Don't jump on the cheapest quote if its way differant to the others as normally it would mean they have missed something and it's gonna hurt when you find out they did, and also be courteous and call the tradesmen to let them know whether they have either won or lost the quote.

Faz out

Renewable Energy

Yesterday I had the fortune to be sitting next to a gentleman on our flight back from Sydney and we got to discussing things about Australia. Topics like the fuel costs and renewable energy.

He mentioned to me that Australia has the best resources in the world for us to become a world leader in renewable energy if we just bothered to get past the types of mindsets we currently have.

This is something that really got me thinking as it's an issue I guess would be starting to turn on peoples minds more and more often.

A couple of things discussed was that Australia has such a huge amount of land mass that gets vast quantities of sunlight every single day. Now this idea would probably cost a fortune to get started, but the possibilities after it could definately outweight the expense.

Imagine if in our outer desert regions were covered in solar panels to collect energy from the sun during the day. Think how much land there is in Australia that doesn't even get used for anything other than being land. Why not take advantage of this resource and start collecting power from the solar panels. He mentioned that we could collect enough power in around 2 hours to power the planet for a day. I'm not to sure on the figures as I don't have a science degree or know how much power either the world uses in a day or what can be collected. But I do know that we are starting to use solar panels more so for when we are camping and stuff and it doesn't take a huge amount of panels to get the main things running that we require.

That was just one thing to think about.

The next was the point that Australia is completely surrounded by ocean, and that we could collect power by have wave power generators put in. I don't really know about this, but I'm sure there is a generator invented that can collect power from the motion of the ocean.

These were just two of the things we discussed. Items I thought should really be brought to light and let others think about as well.

Anyway, until my next thought. 

Faz out.

Welcome to first time readers

Hi everyone, Aussie Faz's Thoughts is a blog about things I have thoughts about that I've either read ie: news articles or discussions I've had with people I've met.

Sometimes I think that many of us either have ideas or hear of ideas that could possibly change the our currently lives. Whether it be something small that would only matter to a few, or something huge that could possibly change our own country.

So hopefully these thoughts I blog about will get some cogs moving in other peoples minds and start to get everyone thinking about where we are heading.

Happy reading

Faz