Honeywood Settlement
Page 2
SPINLOVE TO GRIGBLAY
Dear Sir, 3.3.26.
I will go on to the site on Monday and settle what is to be done to complete the entrance road.
I understand that the work Lady Brash has asked you to do relates only to fittings. This, as you propose, should be rendered in a separate account. You will, of course, let me know if any kind of structural alterations, or decorations, are asked for.
I shall be glad to know when I may expect your Statement of Account.
Sir Leslie Brash mentions that damp is appearing on the chimney-breasts of the second floor. Will you therefore leave necessary ladders on the site so that I can examine the listings? Yours faithfully,
Spinlove is wise in directing the builder to make a separate account of the odds and ends of work which are necessary to enable an owner to fit himself and his belongings into his house, but he will have to see that none of this work is work that should properly be included in the contract to “complete” and make good defects. Such accounts are otherwise apt to become inflated by a carpenter employed to fix coat-rails or shelving, charging against that work time spent unhanging and easing doors.
(TELEPHONE MESSAGE) BRASH TO SPINLOVE
11.20 4.3.26.
B. notes you on site Monday. Hopes stay night. White tie. Phone. R.S.P.
Tell him Yes. J.S. 4.3.
O.K. R.S.P. 4.10. 4.3.
Spinlove has begun to record and file telephone messages, as he ought to do—though not quite in this manner. We recognize in -R.S.P.- his assistant Pintle, whose style, even in these few words, also identifies him. He is an excruciating person and ought to be sacked, unless—as his toleration by Spinlove might suggest—he has on some occasion saved his master’s life.
We noticed before that Spinlove had established intimate social relations with the Brashes and as Brash is precisely the sort of man who would be well aware of the disadvantage of this intimacy should his architect let him down; and as he is, besides, somewhat a self-important, unapproachable person, the thing is not exactly what one would expect.
GRIGBLAY TO SPINLOVE
Dear Sir, 4.3.26.
We have not overlooked that you wish our Statement as soon as possible, and we will press on with this work, which is in hand. In the. meantime we shall be glad to receive a certificate, for, say, £3,500 on account. We may remind you that we sent you a rough approximate Statement on 31st January, which we think must have escaped your attention.
Yours faithfully,
THE DRAINS SUSPECTED
LADY BRASH TO SPINLOVE
Dear Mr. Spinlove,
It is dreadfully close here, the house always smells stuffy and the drains must be very bad for I have tried disinfectant but it only makes it worse instead of better so something will have to be done or I am afraid we shall all be affected! There was a horrid smell the other day and I am sure it was the scullery sink or something and it might get into the larder though I told them always to keep it shut as tainted food is not pleasant and I am most particular even the dogs are not allowed to and it is specially at night though Leslie will not believe me.
How peaceful after all the stormy weather we have been having!
Thursday. Yours sincerely,
Lady Brash complained of a bad smell on an earlier occasion before the house was finished. That, after some trouble, was found to be the pungent aroma of the new, untreated oak, which the lady did not like. Spinlove apparently does not answer this letter. He was, as we know, going to the house a day or two later.
SPINLOVE TO GRIGBLAY
Dear Sirs, 6.3.26.
Yes, I set aside your letter of 31st January, as the work was then not completed and you were not entitled to a certificate. The matter has since escaped my attention, and the Statement covered by your letter cannot be found in this office. I am at a loss to understand how you justify a certificate for £3,500, and shall be glad if you will let me have a copy of the missing Statement.
Yours faithfully,
A lame business! Spinlove seems to have put aside the Statement without looking at it, or he would have questioned it at the time.
SPINLOVE TO GRIGBLAY
Dear Sirs, 9.3.26.
I enclose specification for work in completing entrance road. I ought to have your estimate of the extra cost, as Sir Leslie wants to know this.
I am annoyed to find that wet gets into the chimneys and shows on the second-floor breasts. I could see nothing wrong with the listings, and Bloggs assures me the soakers were properly lapped and turned up—in fact, I saw the work being done. It is, therefore, evident that the water strikes through the cement and runs down behind the upturned edge of the soakers, and I learn from Bloggs that the cement was not waterproofed with Puddlyte. The listings will have to be replaced in Puddlyte cement as specified. The work should be put in hand at once, a small bit at a time, as weather allows; and care taken to keep tarpaulins rigged to prevent rain getting in.
Lady Brash tells me she finds the house “stuffy,” and that she has not felt well since she went to live in it, and that two of the servants have been unwell. She suspects something is wrong with the drains. This is not possible, but, as a fact, did the District Surveyor test the whole of the drains and give you a formal certificate of acceptance of the sanitary work? If so, kindly send me the certificate by return.
Yours faithfully,
It seems that Spinlove employed lead soakers laid in with the tiles and turned up against the brickwork where roof slopes butt up against chimneys, but replaced the usual lead cover-flashings, turned into the brick joints and covering the upturned edges of the soakers, with cement fillets in the angle between tile and chimney-face. These “listings” are a perfectly sound, water-tight device, although they are associated with the tradition of humble buildings—rather than of important works of architecture. Spinlove, we remember, had several knowing ideas for a sham medieval roof which he could not get carried out; but he seems to have had his own way in this matter.
The Local Government Board’s model bye-laws secure that all drains shall be planned on established scientific principles of sanitation, so that architects are relieved of the preoccupation of trying to save money by following ideas of their own, and inspections and tests by District Councils’ Surveyors reduce-in practice though not in law-the architect’s responsibility for seeing that the work is properly carried out. Spinlove’s letter suggests that he is in need of evidence of this official approval to enforce the assurances he offered Lady Brash of the soundness of the drains. His urgency will be readily understood by those who read The Honeywood File. If Lady Brash gets the idea into her head that something is wrong with the drains, nothing less than a course of hypodermic injections is likely ever to get it out again.
GRIGBLAY TO SPINLOVE
Dear Sir, 10.3.26.
The whole of the drains were duly tested with water and the pipes with smoke by Mr. Gallop, the drain Inspector; and the whole were inspected on two occasions by the District Surveyor, Mr. Potch, whose certificate of approval we enclose. We are sure there is nothing wrong as the work was done under the supervision of Bloggs; and as Mr. Potch could not find fault with it no one else is likely to be able to. [This letter was evidently dictated by Grigblay.]
As regards the listings, this is not in our opinion the best method of flashing to chimneys; but we have no reason to think that the work at Honeywood is defective, as it was carefully carried out to your instructions. We have respectfully to point out that Puddlyte to listings was not, as you state, ordered by you. Puddlyte cement is specified for bedding and jointing weathered brick members only.
We do not know to what the damp in chimney-breasts is due, but Mr. Grigblay expects to be that way on Friday and will take the opportunity.
We have noted your provisional acceptance by telephone to-day of our estimate of £64 12s. for remaking entrance road. We have ordered the pitching and enclose details of our measurements and rates on which our estimate is based for
you to check.
Yours faithfully,
Spinlove is making a muddle of things. He ought to have asked the quantity surveyor what the approximate value of the work on entrance road was) and left it to be measured and valued at settling-up. Apparently he accepted Grigblay’s estimate so that the work could be put in hand, but subject to measurements being checked and rates agreeing with the Contract Schedule. This, however, is a task for the quantity surveyor, and in any case Spinlove had no business to learn what those rates are, for the priced bills of quantities, which constitute the Contract schedule, tire properly kept under seal. A builder has a right to expect that they will be so kept, as otherwise the architect is in a position to vary the contract in the interests of his client, and unprofitably for the builder, by substituting work for which the builder has included a low price for that for which he has allowed a good one. Such a proceeding by a building-owner is manifestly unfair and, by an architect, dishonest; for the architect is, by the terms of the contract, constituted arbiter between client and builder.
It is not usual for the District Sanitary Inspector to test with smoke, but he has the right to do so and there were reasons why Mr. Potch, the District Surveyor, should instruct him to so test at Honeywood.
SPINLOVE TO LADY BRASH
Dear Lady Brash, 11.3.26.
As I promised, I enclose the formal official certificate of the Local District Surveyor showing that the whole of the drains conform with the regulations of the Local Government Board and Public Health Acts; and that the pipes, both below and above ground, have been subjected to smoke and water tests; and that the whole of the work was approved as sound and to his satisfaction. I hope that this will entirely banish any doubts you may have. May I assure you that I have none whatever myself?. As I told you, I personally overlooked the whole of the arrangements, and you may rest assured that everything is safe and sound. Even if a defect had developed in the drains since they were tested and passed, which is unbelievable, it could not by the remotest possibility lead, as you imagine, to contamination of the air in the house. With kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
P.S.—Will you please return the certificate when you have done with it?
Here we see our young friend making his old mistakes. In his anxiety to emphasize his assurances, he represents sanitary security as a very difficult and dangerous matter to arrange and a still more difficult matter to prove—which are the particular things he should have avoided. He also depicts himself as persuaded, only, of the purity of Honeywood: he does not, as he should, assert a fact, but reasons his conclusions although he knows that the person he addresses is incapable of reasoning and unable to weigh the evidence if she were. On the top of all this he actually admits the possibility of a defect and, without knowing what that defect may be, pledges his word that it cannot set up unsanitary conditions. It would probably have been better if he had left Brash to open the subject, as he would do were it more than a figment of his lady’s imagination. Why the exasperating fellow cannot hold his tongue, after all he has suffered from unnecessarily wagging it, is beyond understanding. It is inconceivable that there can be anything wrong with the drains, but Spinlove has given his client reason to think it possible.
DEFECTS APPEAR
(HOLOGRAPH) GRIGBLAY TO SPINLOVE
Sir,12.3.26.
I looked in at Honeywood when I was passing to-day. You can take it from we that there is nothing wrong with the listings and, if there were, they would not let water into the flues to run down and lie in puddles on the back hearths of fireplaces as it has been doing. There had rightly ought to be a damp course across the chimney, and flue pipes in the stacks; for the rain drives across from the S.W. something cruel, and the proper thing to live in up at Honeywood is a submarine, but I can make all right with a bit of soap. The house is dry, but the water drives right through the 9 inch, that’s certain, for the wall at the bottom of the hollow is soaked; but nothing is showing inside, though the maids were quack-quacking about a bit of sweating there is which is only what you must expect in a new house. [“Sweating” is here loosely and inexactly used by Grigblay to signify condensation.]
The matter I am taking the liberty to write to you privately about is this New Novelty Super-Paint the old gentleman insisted I use and which is going to be a bit more of a novelty than he bargained for. The ripple is much more than it was, and is forming in ridges. Sir Leslie may think it looks pretty so, but he will change his mind when it begins to fold over on itself and break away in flakes—which is what comes next, for I found a place behind a radiator in the bathroom where it is doing a bit of private rehearsal. The worst place is on the wall of the kitchen where the furnace flue goes up behind. The maids have brushed it over and washed it down till there isn’t any paint left, scarcely.
As you know, sir, I refused to take responsibility for Riddoppo and gave warning before the painters left the job that it would all have to come off again—except what came off of itself—and I hope you will bear it in mind, because when Riddoppo gets a move on and shows how super it knows how to be (and we shan’t be long now) the dogs will begin to bark; and as I don’t want to be bit, and you, I take it, don’t want either, and as I have perhaps had a little more experience of mix-ups of this kind than has happened to come your way, I take the liberty, with all respect to your superior judgment, of dropping you a friendly hint—which is just to take no kind of notice; and if the old gentleman says anything or makes any complaint, to hold out that the paint is no concern of yours any more than it is mine, for I understand you objected to Riddoppo and only carried out instructions in passing on Sir Leslie’s orders to me. Please be very careful, sir, what letters you write to Sir Leslie; and do not write any if avoidable, for lawyers are wonderful fellows at proving words mean the opposite to what they do.
I hope no harm done by me addressing you, but thought best, as I am afraid there is trouble ahead.
I am, sir,
Yours faithfully,
For a builder to write such a letter to an architect is most unusual, although the understanding established between Grigblay—a builder ripe in years and experience—and Spinlove—an architect mature in neither—would render it easy for Grigblay to make the same communication in conversation; for Grigblay’s individuality is masterful, and Spinlove, although he has great tenacity and can show spirit on occasion, impresses us as lacking personal force. Grigblay has, however, formed the habit of dissipating the evening preoccupations of his active mind in well-purposed letters to Spinlove, which, though intimate and fatherly in tone, are perfectly respectful, and that is all there is to say about it. It is necessary to call attention to the oddness of the circumstance, or an experience few architects are ever likely to have might be supposed usual.
The meaning of the letter is that Grigblay, in visiting the house, is reminded of the imminent failure of the inside paint work; and that he is uneas . Apparently, he feels that his original disclaimer, and Brash’s acceptance, of responsibility for Riddoppo, does not perfectly secure him; and he is afraid that Spinlove may be led, by characteristic exuberances, to countenance an interpretation of the facts prejudicial to Grigblay’s position. Spinlove, of course, cannot by anything he may write or say commit Grigblay, but he may readily mislead Brash as to what Grigblay’s obligations are, and thus foment contest.
FIRST NEWS OF EXTRAS
GRIGBLAY TO SPINLOVE
Dear Sir,12.3.26.
We shall be glad to receive your certificate as this matter has been standing over some time.
Yours faithfully,
On completion of the work to the architect’s satisfaction—an event which befell on 10th February—the retention of 10 per cent of the value of work done was reduced, under the terms of the contract, to a 5 per cent security for the builder’s performance of his covenant to make good defects appearing within nine months. Grigblay was at any time entitled to require the value of extra work to be included in the computation of
Spinlove’s certificates, but does not appear to have asked for it.
GRIGBLAY TO SPINLOVE
Dear Sir, 13.3.26.
Mr. Grigblay visited Honeywood yesterday and is of opinion that the damp on chimney-breasts is due to rain driving into the brickwork of the chimney. It also drives through the parging into the flues which may account for complaints made to Bloggs of the flues not drawing. We think that the trouble can be cured by treating the face of the brickwork with soap, unless you prefer Application of some special waterproofing. If you will let us know what you wish we will estimate cost of same.