Massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake In Turkey

StriderX said:
Well at least there's some sort of enforced responsibility (questionable as it is), we're still arguing about Grenfell when the culprits are quite literally in full view.
Click to expand...

I spent many years working in a branch of the building industry. Believe me when I say they are absolute masters at avoiding regulations. They don't do this out of spite in the UK, they do it because they have discovered something is wrong and they can't afford their company to be hit by penalties. Whether done deliberately or not, the authorities usually only find out after a disaster, not before. I have worked on major buildings in the UK where fire systems simply did not work (these often interfaced to my field, which was HVAC), but the results of the tests were rigged. You would be surprised how inventive the companies are when it comes to devious avoidance.
 
Last edited:
SpellowHouse said:
I have worked on major buildings in the UK where fire systems simply did not work (these often interfaced to my field, which was HVAC), but the results of the tests were rigged. You would be surprised how inventive the companies are when it comes to devious avoidance.
Click to expand...

I honestly don't understand this. Why do they waste time and money installing stuff that doesn't work, and rigging the tests? What do they get out of it?

:confused:
 
raising a multi storey building with no foundations
Hagar said:
The UK has seismic design codes and in areas with geological propensity for earthquakes and for significantly important structures, tunnels etc. They will be designed for these effects.
Click to expand...
Sure there are seismic codes in the UK they are not meant to withstand such events because they dont happen in your country. Take Japan or even Greece, in my country homes are extremely expensive because you cant build a home without reinforced concrete with steel beams and shear walls etc etc with deep foundations, pillars etc. And i am talking about ordinary homes. Turkey is in the same league with Greece and Japan earthquake wise, i can understand some irregularities in a construction, but no proper anti-seismic foundations is plain madness, thats basic stuff.

LOL:
 
Last edited:
Sankari said:
I honestly don't understand this. Why do they waste time and money installing stuff that doesn't work, and rigging the tests? What do they get out of it?

:confused:
Click to expand...

They get paid.
Often the people who do the quotes are not fully aware of product limitations. Or perhaps (especially in the case of tech) the product doesn't do it's job in that environment. The company is not about to come clean and say the £5m contract you just gave us is a waste of your money, they will do their best to meet requirements. And sometimes that just doesn't work out, so they fix the certifications.
I have seen installations where they have knowingly placed the fate of hundreds of people in the hands of systems that absolutely would not work should a real disaster occur. This is not a case of "maybe", this is a case of the systems themselves would directly kill the people.
 
Sankari said:
So they are just crossing their fingers and hoping they won't get caught by an inspector or a disaster?
Click to expand...

Loads of industries I've worked in there is no weighing up the severity of the feasible worst case and an attitude of the worst case never happens in reality and they mostly get away with it, mostly. I worked in "quality control" in a lab for a bit - the attitude was test until it passed - even if a failure indicated a bigger problem... as soon as you got a single pass it was green lights.
 
Rroff said:
Loads of industries I've worked in there is no weighing up the severity of the feasible worst case and an attitude of the worst case never happens in reality and they mostly get away with it, mostly. I worked in "quality control" in a lab for a bit - the attitude was test until it passed - even if a failure indicated a bigger problem... as soon as you got a single pass it was green lights.
Click to expand...
i hope you didnt work in the airline industry... :D
 
Iraklis F.C. said:
raising a multi storey building with no foundations

Sure there are seismic codes in the UK they are not meant to withstand such events because they dont happen in your country. Take Japan or even Greece, in my country homes are extremely expensive because you cant build a home without reinforced concrete with steel beams and shear walls etc etc with deep foundations, pillars etc. And i am talking about ordinary homes. Turkey is in the same league with Greece and Japan earthquake wise, i can understand some irregularities in a construction, but no proper anti-seismic foundations is plain madness, thats basic stuff.

LOL:
Click to expand...

Oh good god. That's a disgrace.
 
Iraklis F.C. said:
raising a multi storey building with no foundations

Sure there are seismic codes in the UK they are not meant to withstand such events because they dont happen in your country. Take Japan or even Greece, in my country homes are extremely expensive because you cant build a home without reinforced concrete with steel beams and shear walls etc etc with deep foundations, pillars etc. And i am talking about ordinary homes. Turkey is in the same league with Greece and Japan earthquake wise, i can understand some irregularities in a construction, but no proper anti-seismic foundations is plain madness, thats basic stuff.

LOL:
Click to expand...

Interesting that you mention foundations. Many Victorian houses in the uk have no foundations. If they dug down and hit clay they would just build the house on that. I remember living in one such house, there was a bed of blue clay one foot below the topsoil. The house just sat on that. And it had stayed there for a few hundred years so no big deal!
 
A lot of buildings go up very quickly in Turkey and are made just to make a quick buck, not for long-term usage.

One other thing that is very common to see around Turkey is unfinished builds. It's quite common for houses or entire developments to be half-built and then just abandoned when the developer ran out of money or just moved onto other things. This doesn't just happen in some places but pretty much everywhere in Turkey I've been to. Then there are roads and bridges which are left dysfunctional for years until they sort them out.

You just have to look at the economy to see how dreadful things are there. When I first went to Turkey in 2012 it was about 2.5 lira to the pound. Now it's 22 lira to the pound. Bars are now selling drinks in Euros or Pound sterling because selling drinks in lira would be pointless, especially for tourists.
 
Last edited:
Lysander said:
A lot of buildings go up very quickly in Turkey and are made just to make a quick buck, not for long-term usage.

One other thing that is very common to see around Turkey is unfinished builds. It's quite common for houses or entire developments to be half-built and then just abandoned when the developer ran out of money or just moved onto other things. This doesn't just happen in some places but pretty much everywhere in Turkey I've been to. Then there are roads and bridges which are left dysfunctional for years until they sort them out.

You just have to look at the economy to see how dreadful things are there. When I first went to Turkey in 2012 it was about 2.5 lira to the pound. Now it's 22 lira to the pound. Bars are now selling drinks in Euros or Pound sterling because selling drinks in lira would be pointless, especially for tourists.
Click to expand...
Turkey used to have a law that you didn't have to pay tax on buildings until they were completed. Hence they never completed them.
 
SpellowHouse said:
Interesting that you mention foundations. Many Victorian houses in the uk have no foundations. If they dug down and hit clay they would just build the house on that. I remember living in one such house, there was a bed of blue clay one foot below the topsoil. The house just sat on that. And it had stayed there for a few hundred years so no big deal!
Click to expand...
good thing your house is located in the UK, down here you would have been homeless in the first tremor :D
 
SpellowHouse said:
Interesting that you mention foundations. Many Victorian houses in the uk have no foundations. If they dug down and hit clay they would just build the house on that. I remember living in one such house, there was a bed of blue clay one foot below the topsoil. The house just sat on that. And it had stayed there for a few hundred years so no big deal!
Click to expand...

London clay is the most researched stratum ever for both deep and shallow foundations. London is not in earthquake territory but go further west and the Irish Sea, Bristol channel and the Atlantic shelf most definitely are.
Because of the ice age and glaciation, a lot of the UK has a layer of over consolidated bounder clay which again provides good foundation material.

Much off topic though.
 
Iraklis F.C. said:
i hope you didnt work in the airline industry... :D
Click to expand...

One of my brothers does. When he suggested a scenario for emergency drill practice, the others in the circle of management replied "good grief, no, that's way too bad, we just couldn't deal with that" :eek:

Sounds crazy, but they only practice what they know they can achieve.
 
Last edited:
SpellowHouse said:
One of my brothers does. When he suggested a scenario for emergency drill practice, the others in the circle of management replied "good grief, no, that's way too bad, we just couldn't deal with that" :eek:

Sounds crazy, but they only practice what they know they can achieve.
Click to expand...

Well yes, there's no point testing to higher forces than the human body can achieve, what's the point of that?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom