Newsman's Diary

Chronicle (Levin), 4 January 1949, Page 4

Newsman's Diary

Council Inspector's Experienced Eye Watches Builders Work A man who has the greatest appreciation of Levin's rapid growth is Mr. H. T, Tilyard, of George Street, for not one foundation goes down withou-t his knowledge and not one building is completed without his official clearance. Building inspector for the Levin Borough Council Mr. Tilyard's work takes him to ail parts of the borough and in contact with all mahner of persons. To a reporter who sought his opinions of building and builders in the borough, Mr. Tilyard' advised that the standard of work was gerierally on a high plane and the builders very helpful.

Mr. Tilyard has been working for the council for 17 months now. It is a part time job for him and he says he prefers it that way. A retired builder himself, he knows just what to look for and all the difficulties! which confront the trade. Often he can give helpful suggestions. They appreciate that his job must be done and never resent his intrusion, he said. "jSometimes they are quite happy to see me," he added, and smiled when he recalled how relieved a builder was when he arrived on a building site in time to add official weight to the explanations of the builder to an irate client on the reasons why it was impossible to cpnform to a certain whim of the latter's. His first task when a new building job is proposed is to go through the plans and specifications to see "fcfiat they comply with the local by-laws and the building regulatipns. Before December 1, he was rpquired to sign them and forward them to the Building Controller, Palmerston North. Nqw, however, a certain nurqber of the permits were passed by the Levin Borough Gouncil. Permits which 'involved t)ie use of certain materials, or exceeded a certain arpa and value, had still to be forwarded to Palmerston North. The builder having called and cpllected the signed permit, could cgrry. on with the work. Periodical unheralded calls could then be expected frpin thp inspector/ who watched tp see that the standard building -by-laws were being adhpred' to and that everything stipulated jp tfie specifipatipns was beirig attended toi ' He had the right to enter on to

any building site during working hours, question the contractor and if necessary hold up the work until certain points had been straightened out, explained Mr. Tilyard. He could condemn any timber which he considered unsound and order the removal of any such timber already erected. Commenting on the class of timber used in building construction today, Mr. Tilyard said that it was a "considerable improvement on what was being sold to builders 12 monthsi ago. Some of it then, he said, was very poor, and they sometimes lost heavily. It was very difficult sometimes to plan his visits, as builders, through shortages of materials, would leave ' one site . for a time and when he called he would find that no addi"ions had been made since his last •/isit. He had over 80 buildings on his.books just now, but 25 per cent 1 of that number .were actually occupied although there was still certain work being done on them. He did not cross a "job" off his book;s qntil he saw the occupier and asked if he was satisfied — not sp much with the job but in regard to the contract. He did this because sometimes a dispute might arise between the builder and occupier as to whether every aspect of the contract had been attended to. He was having quite a busy time now with applications for garages and additions to buildings. Com-» menting on specifications, Mr. Tilyard said thqt sometimes small but important items, such as trap doors in the floor to give access to the foundations, weye pverlooked. He always liked to see^such things in just in case pf argggient.