"The news" can be a funny phenomenon. All of a sudden newsworthy matters come to the fore and attract days or weeks or months of news treatment. Then gradually these topics fade into the background or disappear entirely.
Eighteen months ago, Putin's war upon Ukraine hit the headlines night after night but now it is far less prominent and days can go by without reference to Ukraine at all. Weather events like flooding, heatwaves or fire attract the focus of news services and a week later it is as if they never happened at all.
Currently, here in England, the main news topic is concrete - or more specifically RAAC which stands for Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete. Just before our schools reopened after the summer break, our esteemed government led by Richie Rich (Rishi Sunak) announced that a significant number of our schools are potentially unsafe because of this building material which was widely used between the 1960's and the 1990's.
With the passage of time and inadequate maintenance, RAAC will deteriorate and weaken - potentially causing ceiling collapses. It seems that our government were warned of this concerning issue years ago but chose to belittle it or turn their back on it. Now the chickens of doom are coming home to roost. It's just what The Conservatives did not need as a General Election starts to approach.
I thought to myself - surely this building material cannot be unique to Britain. After all, it was invented in Sweden. I tried hard to find if it had caused similar anxieties in the USA. Over there, it has different branded names. They do not use the acronym RAAC but the material has been used in thousands of public buildings. Perhaps the maintenance and inspection cycle is better over there or the stuff may simply be a ticking time bomb for America too.
To replace all of our RAAC would cost billions of pounds and in reality, numerous shoddily built schools and other public buildings might need to be demolished. Nobody has mentioned modern housing for the masses which was sometimes thrown up as cheaply as possible.
It's all a massive worry but as I say, it won't be too long before all mention of RAAC pretty much fades from view as the gluttonous news dragons breathe out new items that replace the old. Keeping it fresh, that's what "The News" is all about these days.
Just the two words 'aerated concrete' makes me afraid. I guess maintenance would involve quickly repairing small cracks.
ReplyDeleteOnce water gets into aerated concrete its strength is greatly compromised.
DeleteI have been around concrete most of my life and never hear of aircrete or aerated concrete until now. We spend a lot of energy and planning removing air from concrete to make it stronger so it seems odd to intentionally add more air into it. From what I could google, there is only one company in Florida making it and they are doing siding panels, no roofs of floors so perhaps they might be okay in that instance.
ReplyDeleteIn Britain, it seems to have mostly been used in the form of internal roofing planks. There has been concern about it from the very outset - in the nineteen sixties. Today in the Houses of Parliament in London there has been a heated debate about this material and what was known about it.
DeleteThere's always a new story to push the old story off the news.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of aerated concrete so that seems strange to me.
I can't believe that Britain is the only country that used this material and is now suffering because of it.
DeleteThe news isn't so much funny, Just extremely inept. After that it's just plane slanted to make all the money they can.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt some will make a lot of money from the scandal.
DeleteHere in Germany, the war in Ukraine is still highly prominent in our main news, with almost nightly updates (at least when I watch those main news, which is about 3-4 nights out of five during the week).
ReplyDeleteCheap building material is a problem here, too. Just one example from my hometown: My elementary school years were spent in a decorated brick building from the late 1800s, originally designed and built as part of a large complex of military barracks, horse stables and so on.
When I changed to "big school" at the age of 10, I moved next door to what was an almost brand new, very modern school, built in the mid-seventies (I started there in 1978). It was all concrete and glass, with flat roofs and large window fronts. The colour scheme was concrete grey with a lot of bright yellow and green thrown in.
Guess which of the two schools is currently being pulled down because of its unsound structure, combined with materials now forbidden because of their potential health hazard.
Err... that's a hard one. The second school?
Delete"Concrete jungles where dreams are made of" Alicia Keys. I try not to watch the news YP.
ReplyDeleteI am a news addict I am afraid. I have tried to break free but I can't.
DeleteWhoever we blame for this latest catastrophe of bad building, the problem is how do you mend places of public use, whether they be hospitals or schools. Surely the builders also are to blame, because they may have known they were doing a shoddy job. The infrastructure of this country has been left to rot, no social housing built and no repair on schools. Complacency and selfishness all round.
ReplyDeleteI think you are right about the construction companies. They probably took shortcuts as they sought to maximise their profits.
DeleteI'm reading Scoop by Evelyn Waugh for my Book Club. It seems so pertinent to now.
ReplyDeleteI have never read that book but it is on my long list.
DeleteThe story reminded me of the Ronan Point collapse back in the 1960s which resulted in several tower blocks having to be demolished. Build it quick and cheap was not a good strategy.
ReplyDeleteWhen it came to public buildings, the Victorians were much better at it.
DeleteWhat the heck is aerated concrete? My son in law would probably tell me that isn't any way to build things. Is it the main building component or a stucco/render to cover bricks or something? something will have to be done before ceilings start falling in classrooms I guess.
ReplyDeleteIn girdered buildings, aerated concrete was often used in ceiling panels - bridging large spaces economically. The lightness was also an attraction.
DeleteI remember the Ronan Point collapse too, but it seems that, as usual, we don't learn. The desperate need for housing has given rise to dangerous cheap and speedy answers - aerated concrete presumably being one of them. Successive governments must have ignored the problem, and passed it on to the next incumbent. How many more horrors are waiting to be unearthed?
ReplyDeleteThe Victorians built well and to last - unlikely the same will be said of the building industry in the past 50-odd years.
When profit is king, things can unravel. Making money has often been the key driver instead of making sound buildings that will last for a hundred years or more.
DeleteHere in Sweden, Ukraine is still more or less a daily topic in our news. - I've never heard of RAAC. Checking Wikipedia just now, I only find an article in English (and no version of it in any other language). Googling a bit more in Swedish, it seems that tearing down quite a lot of old concrete buildings here too is explained by renovations including new isolation, water pipes and electricity systems etc being more expensive than tearing down and building new.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many things we don't know. So many secrets.
DeleteThe news is all about ratings and plugging other programmes.
ReplyDeleteYesterday: concrete, deliberate sewage spills, Birmingham council bankruptcy, public sector strikes. Isn't it all about the same issue really? Don't spend money on public services so that we can all "keep more of our own money", especially those who have lots already., and overseas owners. All main political parties culpable, especially one in particular. None dare charge us enough to pay for what we receive, e.g. through wealth, property or transaction taxes.
You see things as if through my eyes.
DeleteThat and post-tension reinforced concrete are two bad engineering choices.
ReplyDeleteYou have so many buildings that are still standing that are hundreds and hundreds of years old. Seems ironic to me.
ReplyDeleteI don't get the impression that the news in the US is fresh. It seems to be the SOS every night, presented again as "breaking news".
ReplyDeleteHere in the U.S. of A. there's an expression in the media that covers this: "If it bleeds, it leads."
ReplyDeleteThe NY Times has a prominent article on Ukraine pretty much every day, but I know what you mean about the news cycle. It seems especially now -- in the age of social media -- that stories will appear, exist in a frenzy for several days, and then be supplanted by something else. It's exhausting.
ReplyDeleteI'd never heard of RAAC until the recent controversy. I tried looking up its use in the USA and got nowhere. Do you know what it was called there? I'd like to see how widespread it is.
Perhaps we have too high a standards…all Eastern European buildings look as though they are thrown together
ReplyDeleteWe have aerated concrete here, the brand name is Hebel. I remember it being popular on TV shows like Better Homes or Burkes Backyard (The Aussies will remember these shows) It doesn't seem to have hit the news for being problematic yet but it most likely will.
ReplyDeleteI gave up the news years and years ago, it's no good for my mental health and the big stories manage to make it through so I still have some idea of whats going on