Is there anything I can do about poor work from painter/decorator?

Tunstallstoven

Hi all

We hired a painter/decorator recently to do our external wooden windows and a few jobs....

He did a poor job in many respects, some of which we did not realise until after the job. We rather stupidly paid him, although we did take a little money off the quoted price to make up for some of the errors made and to allow for the fact that he did not finish them.

I decided to finish the windows myself, but the more I worked on them the more I realised how poor his work was. The result was me having to virtually redo them from scratch, often having to spend time undoing his poor work....

The reason for the thread is to find out whether I have to count my loses or if there is something I can do about it? I never usually pay for tradesmen to do work like this. But I've been so busy recently I thought it would be worth the money. The outcome has been me doing the windows myself anyhow, but also being hundreds of £s out of pocket..... Not happy

Any thoughts or advice would be great. I'm happy to post up details of the work I'm unhappy with if that would help.

And for the record, I have been trying to contact him to discuss this for the past two weeks but he does not respond.

Many thanks

Max

dollydiva

Once you paid him, that may be construed as an acceptance that you were happy. If youve now painted over, then Im not sure what evidence you have, as its only your opinion that they were poorly painted.

Tunstallstoven

dollydiva wrote: »

Once you paid him, that may be construed as an acceptance that you were happy.

Hmmm, that's what I wondered and feared....

dollydiva wrote: »

If youve now painted over, then Im not sure what evidence you have, as its only your opinion that they were poorly painted.

Well, I've taken plenty of photos to demonstrate. And I've also completely left one of the windows as "proof" of his standards and work.

maninthestreet

So what was poor/sub-standard about this work?

Tunstallstoven

1. One of his jobs was to fix our back door step which was rotting and quite loose. Felt ok to begin with but has since worsened and now the back door hardly closes. Got down to look at how he fixed it.... He simply filled a couple of the gaps with some putty. That's it. He did not even brush out all the crud, dirt and cobwebs, etc. Got some good pics of that one!

2. He also replaced some of the trim above the back door. He used thin strips of planed pine. He hasn't even painted the top of the trim (the piece which will stay wettest longest). Can't imagine that would even last the winter!

3. Another part of the job was to replace some DG units which had misted up. When he got the old units out he was very heavy handed with the chisel. The beading is now hacked up quite badly.

4. Worse still though, he used an oil based mastic to bed and seal the new units into place. The mastic states it is not to be used in this application because the product will break down the DG unit seals and cause them to fail prematurely. I checked with the tech support department and they told me the product can cause the failure within months. I've removed as much as possible, but being oil based it was difficult to get it all out without taking out the beading and DG unit.

5. A lot of the panes of glass (old and new) now have scratches caused by the sanding when the windows were being prepared.

6. Paint not adhering well. There have been issues with this, especially on the front windows. I think it may in part be due to insufficient initial preparation (not enough sanding, cleaning after sanding, etc.), and no (or insufficient) de-nibbing between coats. But I think it is more due to the fact that the second topcoat was painted on the same day the first coat was. The product states it must be left a minimum of 8 - 10 hours between coats. I have had confirmation that poor adhesion will be the result of not allowing the paint to dry properly between coats.

7. There are a lot of areas where there is paint on the glass and/or the cutting in was not very precise leaving wonky lines.

8. Primer showing through. There are also some areas where the topcoat was missed entirely and all you can see is the primer beneath. This was mostly on the first floor windows, especially at the tops.

9. Painting over dirt and cobwebs. We weren't sure whether the guy was going to clean the windows at all prior to painting, so we gave them a good once over. But we thought he would do the rest and would at least remove the new cobwebs and dirt. This has not been the case and there are lots of areas where dirt and cobwebs have simply been painted over leaving a very poor and lumpy finish.

There are also areas (especially on corners) where the paint was not brushed out and has therefore left drips and blobs.

10. Knots. I asked several times for a shellac primer to be used on knots to prevent bleed through. When I noticed that this was not being done I even reminded him. This was still not done though, and as a result a couple of knots are bleeding. I suspect more would in time.

11. Unfilled gaps. There are many areas where gaps were left between different sections of the frame. I would have expected these to be filled. I have since got advice about this and that has confirmed my suspicions that water will be able to get in behind these gaps, and ultimately behind the paint, which will cause the paint to crack and peel. It will also eventually cause the windows to deteriorate.

12. Rotten wood. The chap mended a small area of one of the window sills and used filler because the wood had rotted (something I had asked him to do). However, since he finished and I have been looking at the windows more closely I noticed that similar areas on other sills had rotted in the same way and required mending (preferably with a wood hardener prior to the filler). However, these were left and simply painted over.


That covers most of the issues but is not exhaustive.... Obviously some are more important than others.

Many thanks

Takeaway_Addict

How much are we talking about?

Tunstallstoven

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

How much are we talking about?

His charge? The total original charge was £720.

Takeaway_Addict

Seagull27 wrote: »

His charge? The total original charge was £720.

I would be looking then for him to come and rectify any problems there are that you have not already gone over.

Ultiamtely though if you want money you would have to goto small claims and show you gave him the opportunity to fix things.

Its alot of money but realistically I wouldn't expect to get all of it back, and then you have to question is it worth the hassle for a couple hundred quid or is it a take it on the chin moment and remember that word of mouth travels fast!

Others may have a different view and it may always be worth talking to CAB

Slowhand

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

I would be looking then for him to come and rectify any problems there are that you have not already gone over.

Ultiamtely though if you want money you would have to goto small claims and show you gave him the opportunity to fix things.

Its alot of money but realistically I wouldn't expect to get all of it back, and then you have to question is it worth the hassle for a couple hundred quid or is it a take it on the chin moment and remember that word of mouth travels fast!

Others may have a different view and it may always be worth talking to CAB

....not on MSE please! It's really restricted...and slow...and IMHO poor.

Slowhand

Seagull27 wrote: »

His charge? The total original charge was £720.

What was he contracted to do?

Tunstallstoven

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

I would be looking then for him to come and rectify any problems there are that you have not already gone over.

The problem is I don't think he is competent enough to be able to. He has demonstrated his knowledge and skill in the work he has done already, and it is sub-par.

It would not be possible now in any case as I have almost finished re-doing them myself. Aside from not thinking he would be able to rectify the problems, he also said he was going abroad for three weeks the day after finishing the work, so he would not have been able to do anything until after 3 weeks had passed, which would not be ideal with winter approaching.

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

Ultiamtely though if you want money you would have to goto small claims and show you gave him the opportunity to fix things.

I am going to look into the small claims option. I know nothing about it at all, so I'll get reading! However, for the reasons I gave above, I would not be able to show that I gave him the opportunity to fix things.

Slowhand wrote: »

What was he contracted to do?

There was no written contract. He came round and gave us a verbal quote after assessing the job. The quote was to:

- Paint the windows and repair, re-fill and re-seal as and where necessary.
- Fix the back door step.
- Remove/replace x6 double glazed units.


RE: CAB. Not worth pursuing that route then?

Many thanks for all the input and help.

Max