Clanwilliam - Armin has sent in the following, and although it is not all building related it once again shows how bad service is in Cape Town.
QUESTION::I have been reading your articles with interest and in particular the ones on August 1. I wonder if you could help to elaborate further on the inverter reference as I am also keen to protect myself against load shedding. Who isn’t?
Also, on the home buying issue, you are so very right as in Canada, for example, it is professionally practised to employ a home inspector who gives an accurate reflection the physical state of an asset. In fact, agents are obliged to facilitate home inspection as part of their job. Would you have a recommendation?
One question I have that you might be able to answer or help. It is an IT issue. I own a little boutique hotel and upon recommendation of our IT service provider we agreed to change our IT systems to attain better connectivity, wifi and desktop performance. The provider gave us a quotation for hardware, installation and services and the project was stretched into three phases. We started a few months ago with phase 1 and 2. Things did not really get better and we had plenty of niggling problems; the system never really worked properly, in fact we are now worse off than before. When challenging the IT guys to rectify and complete the job they suddenly withdrew, are no longer willing to help, nor to meet us personally. They told us to find an alternative IT supplier.
We are now stuck with a half functioning system that has lots of problems and we anticipate complications to find somebody who can pick up the pieces. It is terrible service and I ask whether there is a consumer protection body we can turn to. Or what else do you recommend us to do?
ANSWER: As regards inverters, If you are looking at something for your hotel, I would suggest that you call in professional help – an electrical engineer could hopefully assist in designing what you need. You don’t want something that is not strong enough to give your guests what they need. I would get very annoyed as a guest if I was presented with a situation that half works. I would rather have nothing than an annoying half-baked system.
* I am very pleased to see that you are a supporter of home inspections prior to the purchase of a home or building. It is really something that needs to be brought to the fore here more and more, because unfortunately very few estate agents really know what they are really selling, they are just looking for the sale. For years my wife dragged me off to see show houses but she eventually gave up as I was able to pick up problems that an untrained eye will never see.
John Graham a regular contributor to this column runs a company called HouseCheck who specialise in home inspections prior to sales and I would certainly recommend their services if you are looking at other properties.
* IT is not a subject with which I am too familiar (that is left to Mrs Mac in our household), but I did contact my old company’s service provider and Jacqui has the following comments.
“The information provided is quite vague so not sure what the 3 phases entailed and what systems were proposed to be put in place. However, in order for systems to work properly the infrastructure needs to be configured correctly. They have not indicated what the wireless was setup for, but if it was for anything more than simple internet connectivity then this is not recommended. Wireless is erratic and the signal can be easily lost especially if not in an open area. We always recommend a cabled network infrastructure if stable and reliable connectivity is required inside the network (ie not for general internet browsing).
“The next important requirement would be a computer adequately speced to cater for the business needs. The use of an older computer with Windows XP and less than 4GB of RAM on a machine is not going to do much of a job, as such and depending on the needs of the software running on the computers I would recommend a minimum of an i3 processor with a minimum of 4 GB RAM (preferably 8GB) and an up to date and support Operating System, eg Windows 8 or Windows 10.
“I am sure any reputable IT company would be able to come in and assess what was done and be able to figure out the best way to pick up the pieces or put a system in place to meet their requirements.”
Meanwhile Richard has the following question which is much more in my line.
Q: We live in Table View and need to have our facia boards replaced with either pvc or Nutec boards. We have looked in the Yellow pages and do not find anybody listed, as well as contacting Master Builders who gave us a company to phone but this person does not come out to Table View. Also googled but mostly roofing companies. Can you help please.
A: I really enjoyed this question because it took me back to the early days at my old company, as a relatively large company we were never competitive on smaller contracts, such as facia replacement, because our overheads were not geared for smaller contracts and I always thought there was a niche in the market for a smaller, specialised company to handle the problem of facia replacement. There were lots of new aluminium guttering companies, but at that stage they were not keen or geared for work on facias as it was much easier just to attach their seamless gutters to somebody else’s facias. So when this question came in I had to rack my brain on who to recommend.
It took me a while but the obvious answer was to phone one of the guttering companies who I am familiar with. II phoned the company that I used to use and am glad to report that Watertite guttering now offer the whole service of facias and guttering, but are also happy to just do the facias if you do not want aluminium gutters. I am sure that the other guttering companies will also offer this service so give them all a try.
*
I am always going on at you about keeping your gutters clean and although mine are always done last week I could not believe what came out of them.
Ours is a reasonably small house and there was at least two and a half wheelbarrows of silt. It is really good basic material for the compost pile so next time yours are cleaned out have a quick check at the quality and, if good, put it back into the garden.
Weekend Argus
* don@macalister.co.za or sms only to 082 446 3859.