Fox News has this story from the AP Newswire today.

It seems a Russian woman returned from a visit to the country to find that her city home was gone, demolished by mistake by over-eager builders who were supposed to be tearing down a different building.

Ooops.

Of course, errors in demolition can only happen in Mother Russia. Surely.

Apparently not. Looking back to August of last year, it seems that in the US, there is a bit of a muddle in New Orleans about what buildings damaged in Hurricane Katrina should be on the demolition list. According to Associated Press/MSNBC,

“Homes that were only damaged have wound up on a list of 1,700 condemned properties. Some houses on the list have been gutted for rebuilding or are in move-in condition”.

According to a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, there have been cases of ‘do not demolish’ notices issued for buildings that they’ve already bulldozed because they were on the ‘demolish’ list.

The American Bar Association also picked up on this issue in August last year (which means the lawyers are circling… always a sign of a trainwreck). And in a case cited in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) a homeowner was told by city employees that their home wasn’t on the demolition list and then, effectively, went home to find it demolished after she had spent money clearing the property for renovation and rebuilding.

My grandfather was a master plasterer and carpenter. One of the most important rules of thumb he taught me as a kid was “measure twice, cut once” to avoid waste and rework. Does that rule apply to demolitions as well?