First-time house renovation

TomsMom

suisidevw wrote: »

TM, I assume no snow came your way then? I did indeed leave work early about 3pm and snowboarded for an hour and a half, absolutely brilliant, foot deep powder on the local hills! I'll never take for granted again a chair lift!

No, thank goodness, a few tiny flakes in the afternoon but didn't come to anything. In fact where we live the only way we know the snow has been is because it's still on the mountains, yet 9 miles up the road it's still very bad and the senior school is still shut. Big grandson thinks it's wonderful!

Son and d-i-l were going "proper" shopping today 45 mins drive away so I went with them and did a good shop at Aldi/Lidl/Tesco. Stocked up on a few things we can't get here so we're okay for a while. The hill to the hairdressers is clear so from Friday afternoon onwards the snow can come back :rotfl: .

Glad you enjoyed your snowboard, it's good to have a play every now and again!

latecomer

Edit - sorry about the length - its a bit of a rant!

Hi folks :hello:

Seems to have been a long time since I've sat down and gone through the latest posts. Our week away wasn't quite as long as expected due to problems with you know what. In fact we came back the day after we left to sort out some stuff and then cut it short too.

We came home early as we got a phone call at 8:30am asking if we had locked the inside door as they couldn't get into the house. Answer was yes but not deliberately. Thankfully it was the door thats had a cat flap in it in the past so was going to thrown out anyway. OH told builder to put a hammer through the panel and hopefully the key would be in the lock - which it was. Short while later we get another call about not being able to open the front door - its deadlocked by me on purpose but due to the snow they didn't want to have to take all the plasterboard etc round the back which is fair enough. We also had to sort out tiles for the bathroom so we thought we'd be as well coming home and getting it all sorted. We also checked the suite for the showerroom with the builder to make sure he was happy with the dimensions and then got it ordered.

Builder is now starting to cut corners which is not acceptable. I'm sure he's taking advantage of us not being there - and knowing inlaws were not going to be able to get up into the loft. He'd missed out the second lot of insulation that goes under the rafters completely and has used standard mineral wool in another place where its meant to be 100mm board insulation.

Plasterboarding was the final thing he was meant to do before getting his payment and when he asked for a part payment and was told by MIL that she had specific instructions that it was payment on completion of everything - they threw the plasterboard up any old way to get their payment. On inspection by FIL he says there were 1" gaps all over the place and on questioning the builder was told that it was fine and it would be hidden by the plasterer. Thankfully the plasterer has taped the gaps prior to plastering so fingers crossed they wont crack. It seems like the plasterer might actually be quite good and there is something odd about his relationship to the rest of them as he normally sits in his car and has lunch on his own? MIL has been befriending him with cups of tea while the others had been outside and she says he's very nice and he has appologised for the way its been done but has said not to worry as he'll fix all the mess when he plasters. Might need to get his number if his plastering is any good and get the rest done as a homer.

We also got the showerroom floor tiled but it was done in about an hour and it looks like it. OH is not happy at all and has said that they are not tiling the walls.

Plumber (head builder) was meant to be here yesterday commisioning the boiler but phoned on friday night to say he was knackered after fitting the stairs and would do it on monday.

The stairs had been partly fitted but they've obviously bought a straight stair and are going to make the winder section (pre-built winders are about a lot more expensive than straight ones from what I can tell online). So we've got the straight section but a gap at the bottom. Completely violated the architects plans which left 100mm for future installation of a stairlift. I phoned the architect and asked him to come out as we were driving home and he has approved it saying that the stairlift could be installed on the other side.

On the whole its still a mess. Going to have a chat to the builder tomorrow morning to explain that they are not doing any more tiling and to give him a list of things that need to be done before he gets any payment. I'm also going to make sure he understands that if I find one more cut corner or a single bit of poor quality work that he's finished.

I also went up onto the roof to try and trace where water was coming in and where the flat roof joins the slates is a mess and its no wonder water is coming in. There was also some missing slates which may have been the source of the leak. We had also arranged for the slaters to come back and finish the slating outside - they have managed to get some more slate which is a perfect match for what we have (the ones I got are larger apparently which means they are a lot more work) which means they should be able to slate the whole side in about a day. Trouble is that there is a minor change to be a made to front of the roof and they cant do anything until thats been done. Builder promised he would do whatever was required and hten phone them so they could come and do the slating but as its not been done I suspect he's simply not bothered so he can concentrate on his own bit. And as all the snow has melted there is no excuses related to health and safety either now. In fact I think its time to call the roofer and find out exactly whats happening.

So its not getting any better at the moment. Time to read the riot act for the last time and see whether that makes a difference. Might also be time to mention that next door were considering using them based on the work they did earlier on - maybe that might be the kind of incentive that makes a difference.

TomsMom

Oh Latecomer, what a sorry state of affairs. I do so feel for you and realise just how lucky we were with our builders whose workmanship was excellent. What a difference to yours.

When they came to re-felt the flat store room roof - as an extra as it wasn't on the schedule but they told us what a poor job the previous owner had done and they would put it right for us - they asked us to get some green felt locally, which we did. When we fetched it £30 a roll I think) and got it back, they refused to use it saying what poor quality it was, but not to worry they would bring some good stuff with them the next week and use the stuff we'd been sold on other jobs (not ours) where a lesser quality would suffice. That was the sort of thing they were always doing, they didn't use poor quality stuff and we didn't find poor quality work. How I wish I could say let them take over your job.

You need everything done properly at this stage, a cosmetic job which covers up poor workmanship will only mean that at some time in the future you may have to get the same job done again.

All I can say is stick to your guns, withhold the remaining payment until EVERYTHING is sorted to your satisfaction. If he threatens to take you to court then I would welcome it, you have enough evidence to prove poor workmanship. He seems like a prime candidate for Cowboy Builders or one of those other programmes on TV.

littlerose12345

jamtart6 wrote: »

Looks amazing stolt! It looks very "The Home Show" style, very posh indeed! I love it!
Can I ask where you got this piece of awesomeness? Is it a book shelf? I love it!!!!!

Wow Stolt (and Mrs Stolt) I love this, want one!! Quite pricy though, wonder if there's anything similar on ebay??

jimbugalee

oh dear Latecomer, I do feel for you Luckily we haven't had to use any builders and I think your post makes me grateful! Although TM has been lucky

I hope you make some progress this week and their work improves.

We didn't do too much this weekend. Our friend (a carpender) came round to fit the two bedroom doors for us. It's amazing how good a professional is compared to the one we did in the bathroom!

Next weekend we need a big sort out of the new room (where the bathroom was) and my OH uncle is coming round to brick round to where the new door frame is going to be for my office.

We seriously need to sort out our front garden - it's a real junk yard. I think the postman will refuse to deliver letters soon!

stolt

hi everyone, hope you all had a good weekend diying. Managed to paint the skirtings in the playroom, was going to finish the lounge but will start that next weekend now. Plumber came and fitted two rads but one was leaking so came back tonight and finished that, just spent the best part of the night blancing the rads because some were hotter than others.

Put some more pics on m blog of the nearly finished extension and the new rads...
http://projectneverending.blogspot.com/2010/01/plumber-has-been-and-gone.html


still busy designing the garden, still havent found the perfect bit of software for it, ideally i'd lik to do a plan and then be able to switch it to 3D view..

jimbugalee

Rads are a pain stolt ..... a few of ours leaked and we had to drain the whole system and start again grrrr.

We also need ours balancing but they're not all fitted yet so not much point. I actually turn ours off in the bedroom because it's way too hot.

I love that 'glassbox' at the back and the floor is just lovely what is it?

Sorry can't help with the garden plans. I don't know of any software. hmmmmm

stolt

jimbugalee wrote: »

Rads are a pain stolt ..... a few of ours leaked and we had to drain the whole system and start again grrrr.

We also need ours balancing but they're not all fitted yet so not much point. I actually turn ours off in the bedroom because it's way too hot.

I love that 'glassbox' at the back and the floor is just lovely what is it?

Sorry can't help with the garden plans. I don't know of any software. hmmmmm

hi yes radiators are a big pain. Checked them again this morning and i still think i need to tweak them alittle to make sure there all the same temp.

The floor is granite (dont go there, biggest nightmare of them all - tiles all damaged when they arrived). they look good now but didnt think i'd ever get to see them laid on the floor properly.

jamtart6

Thanks Stolt, it is a really nice feature! I have a friend who is an iron monger (handy!) so might see if he will do something similar for me!


latecomer - so sorry you are having problems i hate cowboys. hope you sort them out soon, if not can you walk away and get someone else in?

Well our brickwork is almost finished and the roof can be started! I am SOOO happy! Never thought we'd get to this point. The windows man is also coming soon.

Also I've ordered the kitchen *jumps up and down* and the bathroom tiles and tiling begins on Thursday. I'm SOOOO excited that the bathroom suite will no longer be in one of the bedrooms!!!

We've also looked at doors, and had a price of £25 per door to hang them, is that about right?

Fingers crossed we can move in before we get married!!!

jimbugalee

That £25 per door is an excellent price. You'd normally pay about £35-£40 per door. We paid our friend £50 for 2 doors (it took him about 4 hours - had to adjust the frames etc).