Well I paid peanuts....and live to regret it! Help?

Dawn248

Well, I'm a single mum with little money and no DIY expertise so I got a man in to do some jobs in my new flat and he has probably done a worse job than I would have done! He was the cheapest but had 40 great reviews online so I thought 'why pay more' and took him on.
I asked him to fit a shelf in the airing cupboard- the result is wonky and made of hardwood, rather than the slatted kind of shelf you would expect.
He had four curtain poles to put up and now I notice he's put the brackets too far in so the curtains will block light when they're open. A couple of them aren't even straight. I could have measured this myself, it's not hard.
Worse of all, I asked him to hang a small mirror in my daughter's room. He drilled into the wall and hit metal. The drill has gone through the metal and now I'm scared there may be electrical work inside-the other side of the wall is my bathroom wall holding the heated towel rail. The mirror is set higher than the towel rail so hopefully it's OK. His excuse here was, he didn't have his scanner with him!
I could have bought a scanner to check the walls myself but thought it was a better idea to pay a 'professional'!
Now I have unsightly holes behind the mirror through which I can see metal. He 'reassured' me it was safe by saying "if I had hit electricity I would have gone through the window". I am not reassured by this weirdly.
I explained the point of me paying someone was so they would check before drilling into the wall. I could have done this crap a job myself. He said it's fine and wouldn't take a reduction in price. I paid him just to get rid of him but I am worried about any possible safety issues.
I'm getting a large mirror delivered soon and will get another person in to fit it, correct all the curtain poles and look at the holes in the wall.
I paid him because I wanted him to leave but am gutted at the awful work. The flat is a conversion in a 1930's building (we had a long conversation about why he assumed there wouldn't be metal in the walls).
Please can anyone shed any light on the safety issues (without scaremongering please because I am already freaking out). Thanks.

Owain_Moneysaver

1930s building may well have had metal conduit for the original electric wiring (and the conduits might have been reused for new wiring, or may now be redundant)

Steel conduit is pretty tough and being scraped by a drill won't do it any harm. If he's gone through it through it's probably redundant, as drilling through live electrics would have fizzed a bit.

Conduits will usually run vertically or horizontally from electrical accessories, but that's not always the case, particularly if the property has been altered considerably over time.

The only way really is to expose a bit more of the metal and see what it actually is and where it goes to ...

Norman_Castle

Dawn248 wrote: »

I asked him to fit a shelf in the airing cupboard- the result is wonky and made of hardwood, rather than the slatted kind of shelf you would expect.
He had four curtain poles to put up and now I notice he's put the brackets too far in so the curtains will block light when they're open.

There are a lot of very nice hardwoods. Did you ask for a slatted shelf or suggest what you were expecting?

Did you explain where you wanted the brackets? He may have been trying to avoid the gap between the lintle and the brickwork.

Has he hit metal or wires? If he hit live wires its likely the fuse would have tripped.

FreeBear

If the wall sounds hollow when tapped, it is likely to be a stud wall - If this was put up when the conversion was done, it is quite possible that the metal that was "hit" is just supports for the plasterboard. If this is the case, the metal will only be 12mm or so from the surface and nothing to worry about.

Alternatively, if it is a wood with plaster & lath stud wall, it could be he hit a large nail that was used to fix the timbers in place. Again, nothing to worry about.

trailingspouse

Whatever happened to 'odd job men'? I mean people who could turn their hand to pretty much anything and do a competent job. When my parents moved into their current house in 1971 there were lots and lots of jobs that needed doing - a door that needed fitting, new curtain rails, a dripping tap, new glass in a window, tree roots removed etc etc etc. They had a guy who came off and on for about 6 weeks - almost became part of the family!! There was nothing he couldn't do.

When I moved into my current house 4 years ago, I also had lots of jobs that needed doing - I never managed to find anyone who could just come and sort things out for me.