When the skip didn't turn up in Southport

I'm in Southport, and I'll be honest: I put this off for far too long. I'm a small builder, and my skip company let me down the day before a frame inspection. I had a mess on site and a certifier coming.

Formwork timber, concrete spoil, offcuts of cladding, flattened cartons and about twenty bags of sweepings.

Southport is the Gold Coast's CBD, blending commercial towers, older homes and student housing, and getting things out isn't always simple. We can work around loading zones and timed docks in the CBD core.

I half expected to be put on hold, but it was the bloke who'd actually be doing the job. He asked about stairs and parking, which made me think he'd done this a few times.

Two of them turned up right on time in a tipper truck. Before they lifted anything, they walked the route from the pile to the truck and pointed out a couple of spots where they'd put down protection.

The concrete spoil was heavy, so they did two runs rather than overload the truck. It meant an extra trip, but they'd told me that up front with the price.

When they were done, they swept up and walked me around to check. I paid the price we'd agreed, and that was it. The whole thing took less time than I'd spent worrying about it.

My advice to anyone in the same situation is not to wait as long as I did. The relief was worth more than the cost.