, am I?
Mr Marsh: No, I do have[35] a meeting in about half an hour, but I’m at your disposal[36] until then, so please carry on[37], Mr Weston.
Mr Weston: Well, this is a point which concerns the outlet duct[38] for the main ventilator.
Mr Marsh: Ah, yes. You asked to be sent the final plans, didn’t you? Did you get those?
Mr Weston: Yes, thanks. Your secretary sent them on to me. Now I see from the plans that you intend the duct to be placed alongside an existing chimney. Do you recall that?
Mr Marsh: Mm. That’s right.
Mr Weston: Well, what I’d like to know is whether the chimney’s strong enough to support the duct, or whether we shall have to construct independent supports. Now unfortunately, at the time of our survey, we didn’t think to inspect[39] the chimney.
Mr Marsh: No, of course, because at that stage we still hadn’t decided exactly where the duct was to go.
Mr Weston: Quite. So can you give me any idea of the strength of the chimney? You see, if we can use it as a support and bolt the duct brackets directly to it, this’ll mean a simpler job and it should also save a certain amount of time.
Mr Marsh: And it’ll be cheaper, too.
Mr Weston: Yes, quite a bit cheaper, in fact.
Mr Marsh: Mm. Well, all I can tell you at the moment is that the chimney was only built a couple of years ago, and is in good structural condition. What I can’t tell you, with any degree of certainty, is whether it’ll stand up to the kind of stress you’re proposing to put on it. As far as I can remember it’s a pretty strong job, so it should be all right.
Mr Weston: Yes. Well, it looks quite strong on our plans, but I can’t really tell, because they’re not sufficiently detailed.
Mr Marsh: No. Well, look, Mr Weston[40], I think we’d better not take any risks over this. I’ll call in a building expert and get him to examine the chimney, and perhaps you’ll be good enough to send me brief details of the loadings[41] involved and the kind of brackets you’re thinking of using and so on. And I’ll put them in front of him and see what he thinks.
Mr Weston: Yes, I can get that in the post this evening.
Mr Marsh: You can? Fine[42].
Mr Weston: Well, that answers my question, Mr Marsh. Thank you very much.
Mr Marsh: Not at all[43]. And thank you for letting me know about the report so quickly. I’ll get things moving[44] here, and we’ll expect your men to start work on Thursday morning.
Mr Weston: Yes, they’ll be there. Good-bye, Mr Marsh, I’ll be in touch again when the work’s started.
