Remove wall & install balustrade - Is this 'made good' or taking the proverbial?

Savvy_Saver1

Hi,

I hired some joiners to take down a partition wall at the top of my stairs, and replace it with a balustrade to let more light and space into the upstairs landing.

They quoted £950 for the job, using primed materials, and I made sure that 'making good' was including in the quote. I'm not happy at all with the finished job for two major reasons.

Firstly, to me, 'making good' after removing a wall should mean that the end result hides the fact there was ever a wall there. Instead, these guys attached a timber frame to the ceiling, vertical wall and floor, to fill the opening left behind by removing the wall (see photo 1). I totally get the baseboard on the floor, and that's fine, but I hate the timber on wall and ceiling as it juts out from the surroundings.

Secondly, as seen in photo two, the new newel doesn't reach the floor, and instead, they just attached to it the remaining bottom of the old newel, so it doesn't match up at all.

I had them back and explained why i wasn't happy, they said i was now looking for a better finish than the original scope, and they have just emailed me a new quote for £471 as follows:

• £312 plus VAT - Patch in ceiling and around where new opening has been created, using fast set tape and fill method not skimmed plaster.
• £159 plus VAT - Joiner works to patch areas where stud wall has been to allow tape and filling to commence, not to exceed areas effected by downtakings works to include for supply of material
• £0 Patch in around bottom of newel post

Photo 1: You can see the wooden frame on the ceiling that isn't level with the rest, and also the wood attached to the wall. The whole thing juts out a lot as well (30mm). He said you have to have an overhang to get a good finish - is that true? And if so, surely it doesn't need to be as pronounced at this!



Photo 2: Newel

Doozergirl

I agree with you that it isn't how I'd want it finished, but looking at the price, I also wouldn't have expected plastering to be included, iyswim.

I would expect them to have clad the bottom area around the newel post in a better way and included in the price because that is pure woodworking and it obviously hasn't been made good in any meaningful way that could be finished off by a decorator.

tonyh66

Its rubbish, handrail should be centre of newel, not attached to side, probably should have had 2 newels, that would have moved the handrail across a bit and you wouldn't have had the timber sticking out from the wall. Bottom of newel is also rubbish, very amateur DIY standard. Not even going to comment with plank across ceiling, you know the gap left by the wall should have been plasterboarded and skimmed.
Did you get more than 1 quote? was this the cheapest quote? did you find them on a 'trade' contact website?

just a caviat though my opinion is based on what I can see in the photos, in reality there may not be space to move the handrail over.

Savvy_Saver1

I'm glad that it's not just me being fussy! We did get three quotes - one was £2000 but from a major company in the area so we thought it would top end price, another from a plasterer we had used before to just remove the wall (but we'd need a joiner to do ballustrade afterwards) for £350, and we expect about roughly £500 for the joiner to finish the job. So we thought it was easier to go with them, but really regretting it now! And yes we found them on MyBuilder.com - we won't be using it again, as we also had a dodgy roofer from there too. We are first time house owners, so have learnt a lesson!

I think they know the bottom of the newel is rubbish, hence them charging £0 in the new quote.

What would you go back and say to them in terms of how to proceed? My preference would be basically to say to them "Yes, do the work, put it right, but we aren't paying anything extra as it is all part of the original quote, and when you have done the work, we'll pay you the original quote amount" as we haven't paid them anything yet. My concern is that if they say no, and we refuse to pay, they'd take us to small claims court and not being a tradesman I wouldn't feel confident out-arguing them in their area of specialism.

Doozergirl

The idea is that you have a written specification before starting. It can be produced by either you or the tradesperson, but on the most basic level it agrees what will be done.

For your job, it needn't be pages long, but "making good" for a carpenter will involve wood, not plastering. Plastering would be separated out on the specification as there's definitely something happening that can be described easily. I wouldn't be taking anyone to small claims if a plasterer wasn't specifically included.

You can employ your own plasterer, of course. That would almost certainly be cheaper than paying them to organise one.

You need to agree together exactly what they will do to make good before the plasterer comes though.

I think £500 inc VAT was a bit too ambitious for the woodworking element of the job at a good level from a decent carpenter including materials.