House works this week

McClane54

Hello,

I have a builder and his son who are currently re-rendering the oustide of my house. All the window reveals are open to the elements. Holes in the wall we have all scaffolding all up with sheets everywhere etc. My question is.... is he allowed to come up and get this finished to make sure the house is water tight. all the tools and materials are here as they finished hacking off last week. they just need to put the last cement coat on.

Jeremy535897

Travel for essential work? Really it is up to the builder. If he says he can't come there's nothing you can do except stuff up the holes as best you can. It is not a hard job to fill holes with cement, which you have on site. Just don't leave it protruding and in the way of the future rendering.

McClane54

he said he's happy to come but doesn't want to break rules

calcotti

There are no detailed rules. It is work which can’t be done by the builder at his home so, to me, is within the rules. He’d better bring his own tea though.

bradders1983

And in any case, the police have better things to be doing then stopping a builder doing some work on a house, its not a mass gathering and in any case they will have no details yet about enforcement. That will take days and they are overstretched as it is.

7Phil

People are still allowed to go to work if they cannot work from home, and obviously is not a shutdown business. 
Construction sites are able to still operate but check what part of the UK you are in. 

As long as he has his own transport, which he would, then soldier on. And ask him politely to prioritise making the home watertight ASAP in case restrictions get worse. 

rubble2

Sorry to hijack this but we have a contractor booked in for next week to lay a new patio for us. We have previously discussed the logistics due to Covid 19 (prior to last nights announcement) and have agreed the following - all work will be outside, no need for the contractors to enter the house, we will communicate if necessary from a distance of 2metres but by preference communicate by mobile phone.

He has a delivery of materials scheduled for this Friday so work can start on Monday - he wants the materials cost to be paid by the end of this week. My main concerns are - getting a delivery of materials which I will have paid for and then him not being able/allowed to carry out the work, of him starting the work and being unable to finish due to further restrictions being imposed.

I think I will see how things pan out over the next few days and make a decision then.

Jeremy535897

The risk is that they tighten up the rules on travel for work. The current announcements focus on eliminating travel if you can work from home. Building sites are staying open with social distancing, but in Scotland the First Minister thinks they should be shut down. It's hard to see how a patio is essential if things are tightened further, but the materials won't go off (except possibly cement) if it has to be delayed.

rubble2

Jeremy535897 said:

The risk is that they tighten up the rules on travel for work. The current announcements focus on eliminating travel if you can work from home. Building sites are staying open with social distancing, but in Scotland the First Minister thinks they should be shut down. It's hard to see how a patio is essential if things are tightened further, but the materials won't go off (except possibly cement) if it has to be delayed.

I quite agree that it is non essential, on balance I would rather wait than get things underway and have to postpone then. I suspect that the contractor will want to press on as after all it is his livelihood . As I say, I will wait until the last minute to finally pull the trigger and see if there is any further clarification over the course of the week

HornetSaver

@McClane54 I would imagine that because the work is half-finished, that finishing it would be classified as essential (whereas, had the work not started it might not have fallen into this category). What Bradders1983 says is IMO a fair reflection of where we are - in the absence of explicit guidance all we can do is consider whether our interpretations are reasonable.

@rubble2 waiting until the last minute definitely the way to go here (the one constant we seem to be able to rely on at the moment is that the national situation at 8am in the morning tends not to change until at least 5pm). Just curious if having the materials at yours would be the worst situation to be in? It can be taken as given that when restrictions are relaxed there will be logistical issues with getting back up and running - having those materials on site would seem to be a good way of ensuring you're at the front of the queue when things are able to get back to normal again? Obviously the one question mark is whether the delivery itself meets the rules, but by Friday I imagine this would be known.

FtbDreaming

I know of an electrician that has gone to work as normal. And also a cleaner in a shopping centre. I don't think these are essential jobs (unless the electrician was required due to a power cut/ safety issue) but they see them earning their money as essential work.

Everybody does and thats where we’re failing. If 20,000 individuals think their work is important enough to carry on regardless then those 20,000 people are out spreading the disease and bringing it home to their families. It is so frustrating.

As for deliveries of the material I would take it then you're good to go when we get back to normal. If food etc deliveries are going ahead I assume they will be unless the company risk assess the factory etc and decide to shut down as unable to social distance. 

At the end of the day all we need is our health and that of our family. Its a short term sacrifice and we will get back to normal one day.