Bad Job on New Fence

xxJudexx

texranger wrote: »

but if the builder mentioned this and you still asked him to carry on then its not the builders fault.

The way I understood it was they were not told the fence would not hold until after the work was done and they had received their receipt?

If_it_can_go_wrong

texranger wrote: »

but if the builder mentioned this and you still asked him to carry on then its not the builders fault.

It is absolutely the builder's fault. Tradesmen deal regularly with customers wanting impractical jobs doing. It's part of the job to inform the customer and if the customer still insists on going ahead with a job that would be structurally unsound ,as this definitely is, then the job must be refused.

BigMarv

Thanks to all for your posts (no pun intended).

I like the picture of the wall/fence submitted by mttylad; that at least looks reasonably stable, although that looks like its got breezeblock-sized bricks. My wall is only 1 brick thick - I think its really an ornamental wall.

Annoyingly after I spoke to the builder yesterday about repairing the wall, he mentioned the tiles at the top of the wall were not strong enough (something about only one side of the tile not being "water proof"). Basically the top of the wall was not strong enough to hold a fence anyway. So the builder is suggesting that we need to remove all of the tiles (again, extra cost). However I could argue that it should have been the builders responsibility to check/flag that the top of the wall was not strong enough before doing the work.

Looking at the damage, its the tiles that were the weak point, not the damaged parts of the wall.

Also, I spoke to him about putting posts into the ground attaching the fence/wall flush ,etc. He said that this will strengthen the fence, but he cannot put the posts into the ground with concrete as the wall foundations are in the way. He said instead he can attach the posts to the sides of the wall (not great IMO).

Hintza

BigMarv wrote: »

He said instead he can attach the posts to the sides of the wall (not great IMO).

It will at least spread the load a bit.

I think you need a long hard look at the wall and decide whether it is worth keeping (in the long run). The danger is you could keep throwing good money after bad.

We have had three/four storms this year (two in he last week and possibly another tomorrow) we have lost a chicken coop (May) and the caravan which we moved out of three weeks ago is looking a bit sorry for itself.

My point being the weather is getting more unpredictable and you need to factor that in.

BigMarv

I understand that I probably need to give the builder a reasonable chance to rectify the problem before going down the small claims route.

If the builder is now telling me, I need to remove the tiles on the wall, replace them with bricks, etc, and this is an extra cost that was not mentioned until the wall was damaged by a poorly implemented fence, can I realistically say no, I want my money back, you should not have implemented the fence so poorly, on a wall not designed to take a fence? Especially as he didnt check until after the fence was implemented, later damaged?

Can I argue that the wall was damaged by his poor choice of deisgn and claw some money back that way?

BigMarv

bump :money:

BigMarv

Hi,

I posted a thead a few weeks ago about a builder who did an awful job on installing a fence.

He installed a fence on top of a wall (not really fit for purpose), and didnt check or warn that the wall/fence were suitable. In the strong winds that followed, the fence blow over, damaging the wall in the process.

He started the work on a Friday, and he was due to return on the next Tuesday to finish the fence (he had not installed all the screws, a couple of panels were not yet done, etc, but it was almost finished).

We had strong winds on the Monday, so he didn't give me suffcient warning that the wall needed work (he mentioned it on that Friday after he completed the work, but didn't say that it was urgent - nor did he highlight the area that needed repairing - he said the base of the wall needed repairs when actually the top of the walls did).

As the fence was not finished before the storm hit, does that make him liable to fix the wall/fence?

Thanks

bod1467

Why didn't you find and continue your original thread?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3672005

BigMarv

Because I asked a question, and bumped, and noone replied.

The question I want to ask now is, if the fence was unfinished, and was damaged during "work in progress" i.e. if left overnight, doesn't that mean he is at fault?

BigMarv

Bump.

Anyone...Anyone...?