Replacing Fascias and soffits - PVCUe

newlifeahead

I have had a quote to remove my old fascias, soffits and guttering with new white PVCUe ones. I have a 3 bedroom semi plus an extension on the ground floor. Quote includes 3 downpipes.
My question is what is PVCUe I have tried to search it but noting really comes up about it. They are saying that it is much stronger than PVC?
I am thinking of cancelling this work because things don't seem right. They have quoted my £2000 after haggling for over £6k.

I don't want to be ripped off and they all seem to blame other companies that rip people off for giving the trade a bad name. Well it seems as though the bad companies also refer to the programme buliders from hell and say they are nothing like that....:rolleyes:

dreams_R_free

Hi

I don't think my answer is going to be much use to solve your dilemma but you might be interested in our recent experience of having our similar work done.

An Everest rep called (he was 'in the area') and DH thought it wouldn't do any harm to get a quote as we were thinking seriously about having this work done. We have a detached 3 bedroom house with a small one room extension(brick with one normal window, not a conservatory, and with a tile roof). The quote started at, wait for it......£13400 with £500 cashback for taking the interest-free credit:eek: . He could see we were gobsmacked and made a big thing about cutting the price and offering discounts etc. Before he left(which seemed like 3 hours later) he was down to £7500. He could see we just couldn't afford that sort of money and left. Since then he's phoned 3 times, each time offering us a 'never to be repeated' discount but was still at around £6500 which is ridiculous.

We had 3 other quotes from well-respected local companies with recommendations from people we know and we've just had the job done for £2400. Everything is in white uPVC except the gutters/downpipes which are in seamless black aluminium(we could have had white if we'd wanted) which never needs painting. They also did some extras which we hadn't asked for(for free) such as replacing a couple of roof tiles and repointing the chimney! as we said we'd had damp coming in from somewhere in the roof area. There were 3, occasionally 4 men on the job and they took 2 and a half days altogether. They could no doubt have done it in 2 days but we had a horrendous downpour one day and they had to hang about waiting for it to ease. They soon got back on the job though. They were a company that only does roof and gutter work, wore a 'uniform' and had very clean andprofessional vehicles and equipment. they'd been in the business for 15 years and we thought them exemplary in the way they did everything, including the tidying up at the end. The paths and driveway looked better than they had before they started!!!

All in all a fantastic job and we are highly delighted. I'm not sure what the PVCUe is(and our men have gone now so I can't ask) but the stuff they used for the fascias etc seems a lot stronger than the old stuff they took off so maybe that's the new standard material now. PVCUe might be what it's called nowadays. Will check with DH when he gets back as the guys left us a brochure but I don't know where it is at the moment!

If you aren't happy I'd advise you to get a couple more quotes(not Everest though unless you want to be in debt for years;) ). Do you know anyone who has had this sort of work done and can recommend anyone reliable?

Good Luck!

andrew-b

pvcu-e is "unplasticised expanded cellular polyvinyl chloride" and i believe it is currently the best material to use (see freefoam.com for one of the manufacturers) for soffits/fascias.

I think if they start quoting "builders from hell" and slagging off the competition i'd be very wary of them. You are interested in the quality of the job they are going to do for you...not the job they aren't going to do or how they won't rip you off without providing any evidence to prove it. Ask them if they can give you the addresses of some properties in the area that they have already done and then go take a look and knock on their doors. If they can't do that send them packing! A genuine satisfied customer will be happy to recommend them..and an unsatisfied one will soon let you know! And before you agree to having any sorts of buildings works done ALWAYS get at least 3 quotes regardless of how good the first quote may seem.
That they can give a discount of £6k doesn't bode well IMO! They intended to rip you off by £6k ...but you happened to be fussy and push for less. Ask yourself how many people haven't been as fussy and paid the £6k more?

Andy

ormus

any company that quoted me 6k then dropped to 2k to get the order, would never get any business from me.

plus ive got a rough idea of what the actual material costs are. and i know that 2 men could fit the whole lot in one day. that alone tells me its a rip off company.
id rather buy the materials and pay a chap to install it.

loulou41

Booking to have ours done as well. How do you use and find a reputable firm? Lots of people knocking on the door but not very keen to do business that way. I was thinking of getting everest for a quote but not now after that quote the op I got. My double glazing was done by them. Getting somebody from the yellow pages is a bit risky, just interested how do you find a reputable firm. Thanks

dreams_R_free

loulou

Sorry if I scared you off Everest:o . As an existing customer you may get a fantastic deal from them so its worth having them quote you for the job even if you don't eventually accept it. But they must have a fantastic advertising budget and a vast team of reps and cold-callers to pay so they aren't going to be cheap.

We just asked around anyone who had had similar work done. Everyone seems to be having this type of job done and it wasn't hard to find several reliable people that we know or known of by people we know, who could point us in the right direction of good companies. Everest offer a 20 year written guarantee for the work, but so does the company we had. It's underwritten by Barclays the same as Everest.

Poppycat

Never go with Everest, they will hound you for years with calls and mailshots. There salesman was at hour house for about 4 hours and right near the end the hard sell, I basically told him I had to go which I did have to go out to get rid of him. Then the trouble started he conned us, he was a rogue salesman who eventually got sacked. In fairness it could happen with any company its just they pester you for year with offers

My next door neighbour is having it done as we speak, 3 bedroom house front, side, and rear, including down pipes, from a company called Duraclad they are also doing next door at other side as its a joint semi.

Our house is slightly different we have roof struts or whatever they called coming out about 6 inch that need painting every so many years.

andrew-b

I didn't mention but we need to get our soffits and fascias done. We had intended to get them done this year but decided it would now be wiser to wait until after the winter. We know that the bottom rows of tiles need to be removed in order to replace the sarking felt thats falling apart so it needs to be done when its not raining.
here we are lucky in that there are a couple of companies that do nothing else but fit soffits and fascias. I'd look for these sort of companies as they will have alot more experience. One of the companies here is a supplier of soffits and fascias to the trade but also has a team of installers (which is who i'm hoping to use - will still get 3 quotes though). One of the other companies did next doors soffit and fascias but my neighbour wasnt totally happy with their job because they sloped the fascias down to get the fall for the gutters but i may get a quote anyway and just make sure they dont make the same mistake!

Andy

sethsgran

Just has facias soffits down pipes done. Really pleased it cost us about £3000. We used a recommended local builder. Men were excellent and the job is fantastic. Ask friends for names of builders they recommend

Ncave

Apologies if this is going over old ground on this forum!
I have been gathering qoutes for new PVC soffits fascias and guttering (and one downpipe) for my end terraced, 3 bedroom house. 22 metres on 3 sides. Quotes have ranged from £900 to £1800. Currently the S's and F's are wooden, generally in good nick apart from one corner of the gable end is slightly rotted. Most companies have suggested removing all the existing S's, F's and guttering, but one (the most expensive quote) recomended putting new S's and F's over the exisiting. My questions are:
1. Whose right? remove the old stuff or install new over it?
2. What's a fair price for this kind of job?
3. Would it be possible to chop out the rotten section of the current wooden S's and F's and just replace that section? The house is quite old and I'm a bit reluctant to remove woood and replace with plastic! Any advice on this would be greatfully received.

Poppycat

I would have the old facia and soffits removed particularly if its going rotten and it will continue to go rotten if its attached to the old one's unless its properly treated and repaired