I used to do a bit of that as a youth. A hod full of engineering bricks on a wet day up several lifts (ladders) was no laughing matter.
(actually I’m now trying to remember if engineering bricks were used higher up) they probably weren’t, just LBC’s.
They’ve come back and adjusted it at least.
Did they chop 50mm off the top of your door ?
VB
Nah, dug the foundations down
Engineering bricks were generally used below the DPC and indeed were the DPC back in the day.
Some very high quality buildings did use them throughout, but they were few and far between.
I remember them being f*****g heavy!
Oh yes! The ‘blues’ were/are particularly dense.
You occasionally see them in decorative courses higher up, or on parapets.
VB
We were building factory units & large out of town warehouses. The brickies went through a lot of bricks & compo in a day. It was non-stop. But this was nearly 40 years ago. Probably very different now.
Yep, that’s why you don’t see hod carrying anymore - far too unsafe.
Refurbing tower blocks with tinderbox cladding and no fire doors is fine though 
I’m sure both the manufacturers & fitters will dodge the blame for that. It’ll be the people in the middle who chose that spec & signed it off who’ll carry the can.
It will be very interesting to see which way it goes. As I mentioned previously, regardless of Building Regs, under CDM it is illegal to design or install anything which leaves an inherent safety risk.
Doesn’t ‘life’ do this ? Stairs are inherently unsafe, compared with having everyone live in bungalows.
VB
This is true, but it’s ok as long as reasonable precautions/control measures are put in place. For instance, in the offices of one of our massive and very well known clients, all of the staircases have signs up saying that you must hold on to the handrail when using them. This is backed up with sanctions if you are spotted not using the handrails. I kid you not.
“Health & safety? Red tape? Do away with it, it’ll be fine.” D. Cameron 2012
Quick, make a Facebook meme.
It is impossible to have no risk. A risk of some sort is inherent in everything. General H&S safety rules are to assess the risks of design manufacture assembly, maintenance and use of a project then mitigate as far is reasonably practical those that are foreseeable and significant. Example, in the UK buildings are not designed to cope with seismic risks like they would be in California.
Many work premises in the UK do not have sprinklers because the MO is to use fire doors, sealed voids in partitions and evacuation practices etc to ensure that people can be evacuated in much less time than a fire could take hold - That is reasonable. In flats I have no experience but it looks for sure that best practices were not applied - A significant failing that hopefully will mean a long jail sentence to those responsible.
Nah, recycling 5 year old Daily Telegraph stories isn’t going to grab the typical Facebook user’s attention for long 
It’s interesting that these days, big corporate companies seek to turn the compensation culture completely around on its head. They train staff/operatives right down to the smallest detail on Health & Safety. Then if there is an accident, it’s likely that the person involved will have been flouting the rules/non-compliant. In the event of a claim the company can reject or reduce the amount saying that we trained you exactly how to do it, but you broke the rules.
I’ve got a book on ALARP somewhere. The only time I’ve ever got an answer to the “How low (far) is that then ?” question was in a coffee break on a radiation protection course. The tutor said “£10,000 per man-sievert”. If adding extra radiation shielding cost more than £10,000 per man-sievert exposure saved then don’t do it. Otherwise the advice was “As low (far) as you’d be happy to defend in court”. Let’s see if anyone’s happy to defend this decision in court. Happy or not, they’re going to have to do it.
VB