Post-mortems on Celtic Tiger houses
I am a member of various institutes, including the Irish Institute of Clerk of Works. During the boom I doubt if people of my calibre were welcome on the one-house-a-day, one-street-a-week, assembly sites, unlike Hong Kong, for instance, which has the highest concentration of Clerk of Works on the planet and, I believe, the highest standards as well.
During the post-war years in the UK, a construction boom was also experienced, especially with motorways. New types of chemicals were used as accelerants and retardants and initial routine tests were usually normal. After some time whole massive areas of concrete failed, due to what was proved to be the harmful affects of chemicals. Construction companies appeared to just re-brand as repairs companies to carry out the reconstruction work.
