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Posted by Andy Asberry on November 20, 2006, 5:03 pm
wrote:
>I just watched this episode of Dream House that raised some questions.
>http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_drh/episode/0,1806,HGTV_3831_47389,00.html
>
>The owners had hired a general contractor to take care of the new
>construction and remodeling, and the husband and wife were taking care
>of the demolition themselves to save money. Neither had any
>construction experience at all. If people want to take risks, well,
>that's their business and their limbs and lives at risk, right? But
>several questions came to mind.
>
>The general contractor, framers and HGTV personnel were on site while
>the husband and two buddies (again, no experience at all), were
>demolishing the roof. To say they were clueless and operating in an
>extremely unsafe manner is an understatement. Which made me wonder.
>
>With all of the construction experience on site, how is it that no one
>advised the owner on the best way to accomplish the task? The narrator
>kept repeating that it was highly dangerous work and that the owner
>could not afford to get injured, yet no one offered even the most basic
>advice in demolition. It was almost as if they turned the clueless guy
>loose doing dangerous work because it made the show more exciting. It
>seemed to me that if an accident did happen, there would be a fair bit
>of exposure on HGTV's part - contributory negligence or something like
>that.
>
>It also made me wonder about the OSHA safety regulations and how the
>show limits its liability. The owners of these shows are getting paid
>somehow. Whether it's free appliances, an appearance fee or whatever,
>so a case could be made that they are in fact employees of HGTV. In
>that case HGTV is required to obey OSHA regulations and is liable for
>any violations and accidents due to their flagrant
>risk-taking-for-TV's-sake.
>
>Beyond that, how is it that the GC or one of the framers didn't offer
>some basic demolition advice? Basic things like don't stand under the
>deck when you're knocking out the posts, don't start demolishing a roof
>from the bottom up, etc. Construction people love giving demolition
>advice, particularly if it is going to save someone major amounts of
>wasted time and potential catastrophic injury. So why not on this TV
>show?
>
>R
Every one of these reality type shows have a
self-imposed-almost-impossible deadline. Gotta have the drama.
--Andy Asberry recommends NewsGuy--
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