Poor finishing from tradesmen

itssmallstuff

So, I only blame myself for trusting a tradesmen with my new Utility room. Here are the issues

1. Small inset (not the undermount) sink fitted however he did not put any supplied clips underneath. Just silicon and adhesive maybe. Left water in the sink and asked not to drain it until next day as it's providing weight for it to fix.

2. He cut a curve on the edge of our new oak veneer worktop, but is not put the supplied edging strip. The tradesmen said it's too rigid to bend the strip. Not I have exposed edge curve 

3. Other straight edge of the worktop has a exposed edge. He did not cut it cleanly and now the edge strip looks like a patch 

4. There is a bit of a gap between worktop and wall behind in one place. Again, it wasn't cut perfectly. He has put silicon in there. Its easy fix if we put a wooden strip along the length of worktop where wall meets the worktop. We have similar thing in our kitchen. Any other ideas? We are not doing splashback all around as it's just a utility room.

If I take time myself and watch videos etc, are these fixable things? He was not very expensive so I guess I got what I paid for .... So not blaming the tradesmen.

itssmallstuff

1. Curved edge with no strip

2. Other edge (about 10cm) has a strip stuck but cut isn't fine. So looks very ugly

3. Small sink, but no clips attached underneath

Megaross

Worktop is an issue.

No idea what they were thinking when they cut that curve and applied the finishing tape, if supplied with a rigid strip they should either have not cut a curve or sourced flexible finishing tape. Not acceptable, fixable with the proper finishing tape or you could use a steel finisher and bend to shape.

You always have some gaps because plaster is never fully flat or square.Silicone is a fair fix provided it's not a huge bead, you can also run tile, splashback or worktop upstand - the last is what you're referring to, 10 minute job to fit.

Sink? Wouldn't bother me, not uncommon to see the clips disregarded as silicone is a strong hold and sometimes the clips don't really fit. The weight of the water would help get it flatter to the worksurface.

Norman_Castle

The unfinished rounded end is a mess. If the edging is to brittle to bend cutting the corner at 45 degrees would work. Its not clear how limited the access is under the sink, fitting the clips is part of the job.

A single line of tiles might hide the gap.

itssmallstuff

more pics ...

Norman_Castle

The other ends a complete bodge. Cut wrong then shoddily hidden with plywood. You'd need to remove the worktop to cut it properly or use a multitool and aluminum edging to cover any imperfect edges.

flashg67

A bit of the end strip cut carefully and glued in would probably hide the small gap in the sink end of the worktop. 
Might not be 100% correct, but I've fitted small sinks with silicone only - likely be fine.
I'd re cut the curved worktop to a straight degree angle and add the end strip to that.
A small wooden beading, as you suggest, will hide the gap at the back of the worktop.
 

TELLIT01

What an absolute mess.  As Norman_Castle suggests, cutting the end to form a 45 degree, but straight edge might help.  You would still have to work out how to cut the edging strip so the end grain wasn't showing.

Megaross

Blimey, how did they screw up that cut so badly? What the hell were there cutting it with?

Section62

itssmallstuff said:

So, I only blame myself for trusting a tradesmen with my new Utility room. Here are the issues

1. Small inset (not the undermount) sink fitted however he did not put any supplied clips underneath. Just silicon and adhesive maybe. Left water in the sink and asked not to drain it until next day as it's providing weight for it to fix.

2. He cut a curve on the edge of our new oak veneer worktop, but is not put the supplied edging strip. The tradesmen said it's too rigid to bend the strip. Not I have exposed edge curve 

3. Other straight edge of the worktop has a exposed edge. He did not cut it cleanly and now the edge strip looks like a patch 

4. There is a bit of a gap between worktop and wall behind in one place. Again, it wasn't cut perfectly. He has put silicon in there. Its easy fix if we put a wooden strip along the length of worktop where wall meets the worktop. We have similar thing in our kitchen. Any other ideas? We are not doing splashback all around as it's just a utility room.

If I take time myself and watch videos etc, are these fixable things? He was not very expensive so I guess I got what I paid for .... So not blaming the tradesmen.

There's so much wrong with that job it is difficult to know where to start.

From a safety point of view leaving the square edge on the worktop next to the door is a really bad idea, sooner or later someone is going to hurt themselves on that - and if it is a child then you could be dealing with a very nasty facial/head injury.

It was also a poor choice to put the tap right in the corner.  It might work Ok as a single lever, but means it would be impossible to use the same hole for a different style of tap.

With fundamentals like this wrong, it isn't surprising the quality of finish is poor.

The radiused corner of the worktop also looks like it has just been cut with a saw.  To get the edging to look good the radius will need to be routed with a jig, or carefully sanded with a belt sander, to make sure the edge is square vertically, and that there is a smooth transition from straight to curve.

Was the worktop an expensive one?

Norman_Castle

Megaross said:

Blimey, how did they screw up that cut so badly? What the hell were there cutting it with?

I'd suspect a circular saw with a limited depth of cut so they've cut from both sides. Unfortunately one cut was in the wrong place.