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Near Disaster Avoided kit : what's in yours ?

ToughButterCup
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ToughButterCup Advanced Member

ToughButterCup

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A recent remark in a post by @Gus Potter made me think ...

 

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Now it's out to the van and get my "near disaster avoided kit" to sort it as a temporary measure. I also keep in the van.. a distaster kit.. yet to be used.. luckily!

 

Whas' in his kit then?  

I'm at that stage in a build when my temporary workshop has been taken down, and I am using the 'dead' end of a shipping container. It's either freezing or dripping in there. It's very far from ideal.  So I've put a bunch of tool containers on a sack truck and tucked that under the stairs. Cue wifely gentle hints about ' the mess under there ' . 

 

And me saying

" Well what if there's a disaster and I need  [........... ] to hand? At least @Gus Potter has a van with his disaster avoidance kit: and I haven't even got my old Landrover 90 (thank God)"

 

Cue smoulder. Wives can do that quite well can't they.....

 

Which tools can you justify keeping to hand to help mitigate a disaster? 

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Onoff Advanced Member

Onoff

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5 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

I get @Onoff to sort it, he has everything I don't keep, and a 3D printer.

 

Ah yes, because madcap ideas will save me come the Apocalypse! 

 

I can only hope the zombie hordes are delayed by tripping over all the unfinished projects. 

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Ralph Regular Member

Ralph

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I'm always surprised how many people only have a very basic first aid kit with some plasters and out of date paracetamol. Especial at the moment when even without the strikes your going to waiting a long time for an ambulance to arrive. 

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MJNewton Advanced Member

MJNewton

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3 hours ago, TonyT said:

A couple speedfit 15mm and 22mm push fit blanks


I’m not going to just ‘like’ this but quote it too. Such handy things to have in your plumbing kit for emergencies (even aside from them just being handy in peacetime too). I’ve rescued two people with them now and have seriously considered given them away as presents.

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Gus Potter Advanced Member

Gus Potter

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13 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

As Gus is in Scotland, a haggis.

Absolutely! When in panic mode have something to eat, save the skin though as a real haggis has a flexible sheeps gut.

 

On more a serious note if your are heading out to do an investigation as an SE you have two choices:

 

1/ You can pitch up on the job and say to the Client.. can't do that, this and oh I can only look at what I can see and I have my chocolate fire guard..

 

I open stuff up by myself. But when you do that you risk.. falling through a ceiling, busting pipe and cables.  On a job that is structuraly unstable you have two choices.. turn round and say to the poor Client.. oh I can't investigate as we need a Contractor who I can pass the can to.. or you can just get stuck in.

 

I'm old sckool and carry insurance to get stuck in. At the end of the day it is hard for folk to sue if you act in the interest of public safety. We are Engineers.. be confident in what you do. An old mentor of mine said.. learn as much as you can, some may sue but if you know what you are doing none / few  will win..yes your will have some sleepless nights but your PI will pick up the legal costs of folk chancing their arm.

 

I run about in an old Astra Van on an 05 plate.

 

In the back is.. apart from my tecky and first aid stuff / surveying stuff is..

 

1/ Dust sheets, a mop, bucket and cloths.

 

2/ 30 amp junction boxes

 

3/ A selection of terminal blocks / 2.5mm and 1.5mm cable and other stuff just to make electrics temporarily safe.

 

4/ My plumbing tool box.. stop ends.. 15, 22 and 28mm pipe.. all the stuff I need to fix small leaks.. plus a big set of crimps and bungs if I get a big burst a big pipe. here all I want to do is to reduce the flow so things don't flood.

 

5/ My general tool box.. and boxes of screws and fixings also a few small bits of timber.

 

6/ At home I keep some Acrow props and a few lengths of 6 x 2 and 4x 2 timber that I can nip back for.

 

If a problem occurs I evaluate, eat some Haggis and all is well. No need for panic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Gus Potter Advanced Member

Gus Potter

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Just a quick thought.

 

Got called out to a job a few months back where the structure was unstable.

 

Builder had got some props and so on.

 

The key here was to stop further movement until it could all be examined and understood.

 

The temptation is to make the props tight and whack in bracing tight.

 

This is the wrong thing to do.

 

Nine times out of ten..  put in props and just nip them up. Bracing.. absolute finesse it, just there and no more.

 

If you crank up props and braced hard you can make things worse. A building will do it's best to find alterantive load paths before it falls down. If you start cranking up props hard you can lift the last bits of bearing and that often causes more problems.

 

Most often temporary support is just there to stop things moving more until you can work out the best solution.

 

 

 

 

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Jilly Advanced Member

Jilly

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Posted (edited)

What an interesting job, Gus. Your description there reminded me of Jenga.

 

My mantra is ‘take the emergency out of the situation’ . Bleeding for example, just press, hard, if you have to, while you think about what to do.  Person/animal can bleed out while you stand there watching.
 

A lot of people unexpectedly freeze. 
 

I was once reversing my little lorry and got caught under the corner of the garage roof and lifted it slightly. I realised and stopped, but couldn’t  go back or forward. HWMNBO was so incandescent with rage, he couldn’t think, so he just watched as I let tyres down on one side and weighted it with a couple of bales. 

Edited by Jilly
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ToughButterCup Advanced Member

ToughButterCup

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On 22/12/2022 at 08:51, Jilly said:

...

he couldn’t think, so he just watched as I let tyres down on one side and weighted it with a couple of bales. 

 

... and learned.

 

Someone 'freezing' when the soft and smelly hits the fan somehow is a very interesting reaction to observe. I've seen it described as 'Cognitive Overload'  And seen family members 'freeze' when they were younger: arm through a window pane, seeing my thumb hanging on by a thread (passed out) ....  seeing my first (of 6) ICF bursts ...  By the third, I was totally prepared

 

Preparing for 'normal' accidents to happen (as @Gus Potter above does) is a trick I've had to learn the hard way.  It's the first one of the series of disasters that always gets me. Never fails.

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SteamyTea Advanced Member

SteamyTea

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47 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

Someone 'freezing' when the soft and smelly hits the fan somehow is a very interesting reaction to observe.

I had a lodger who had aa very bad stroke when she was young, had medical problems every since.  One was epilepsy.

Now with an epileptic in the house, doors are never locked, never, not even the bathroom. 

Simple rule, close the door if you are in there, leave it open when you are not in there.

So returning home after a long journey, I need a wee, quiet house so rush upstairs and the bathroom door is ajar, rush in, then see the body of my lodger laying in a still bath of water.

"Oh Becky" I sighed in a very mournful way.

 

Then the (expletive deleted)ing bitch came alive and sat up.

Neither of us froze, we both shriek with fright, then hysterical laughter.

Still, I go to see my lodger, who was 21 years younger than me, naked.

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Gus Potter Advanced Member

Gus Potter

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On 22/12/2022 at 08:51, Jilly said:

What an interesting job, Gus.

It is from time to time Jilly.. like a lot of jobs there is paper work/ compliance. That is less fun. You maybe have the same in you profession.. someone said to me when I was in my twenties.. if you can find a job / something to do that really floats your boat.. that you really get off on for 10 - 15% of you waking day then you are doing pretty OK. We also concluded that if you look back on say a year of your job and you had less than 5% enjoyment then it is not good for your mental health. Time for a change?

 

Now you could say.. hey Gus you are blinkered.. but I spent a big bit of my childhood in Africa, met folk who were into preserving the wildlife.. David Attinbourgh wrote books / referenced them.. but I can tell you that all these folks worked pretty hard and had to do mundane stuff.. just like us in the UK.

 

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Adsibob Advanced Member

Adsibob

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59 minutes ago, Gus Potter said:

if you can find a job / something to do that really floats your boat.. that you really get off on for 10 - 15% of you waking day then you are doing pretty OK. We also concluded that if you look back on say a year of your job and you had less than 5% enjoyment then it is not good for your mental health. Time for a change?

Wow, those percentages sound very low to me. Surely you need to love what you do most of the time. I’ve been struggling with my job for a while and am determined to write as soon as I can find something better, but even I love about 10% to 15% off the current gig.

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