Yaffles

Painful experience__ and very frustrating for you. It’s so upsetting when multiple little bad decisions all decide to join up to make a big appearance, I think it’s called

“accumulative error “  each one on there own seems trivial but......... I am sure it will be worth it in the long run. Extra natural light will be a big bonus in a shaded aspect. Good luck and thanks for sharing the good the bad and the ugly. 

That sounds pretty typical TBH albeit a horrible experience. You’ve paid for something so you are committed and from that point every change be it large or small costs a fortune. It seems ridiculous that a supply and fit quote wouldn’t include lifting the damn things! Surely that should have been something the company made you explicitly aware of at the quote stage! Hoping that the installation event goes smoothly. 

 

 

Are they really that heavy they need a crane?  How about stepped scaffold and a group of mates to lift them up a step at a time?  ALL my house windows went in this way and I am sure they are heavier and larger than these roof lights.

 

This was my "scaffold stairs" used for the job, in my case inside but could equally be done outside.

 

 

 

The heavy one is 260kg and 2.2m diameter so that is the problem one.  The others are around 90-135kg so not light either. With time now also being against us we are where we are. As has been said here, a series of trivial decisions (mistakes) accumulating into one big issue. Quite correct and interesting how it compounds. Will post again after installation. In the meantime off to work to keep the money coming in (not faster than we spend it at the mo!!)

Thanks all for the support. It helps.

How about lift them up onto the roof with a telehandler?  Is there a tame farmer nearby who would do it for a bit of beer money?

A lorry mounted hiab would also do this.  In the meantime just cover the holes with some osb or whatever to stop the rain.  Don't cut it to size.

We used a telehandler to get our 5 PK10 veluxs onto the scaffolding and then man handed these into place, but these were relatively light at 60kgs each compared to the weight of your roof windows.

 

I think you should just bite the bullet and go for a crane rather than a telehandler @Weebles, as personally I think once you have roof structure built and parts become less accessible this is where the use of a telehandler becomes less effective. 

 

That company sounds like a nightmare to deal with. One point that might make your situation slightly better, you mentioned VAT in the hire of the crane. As this will be provided with an operator can you not ask the crane hire company to zero rate their invoice? As you ain't going to be able to reclaim the £270 on the DIY scheme or go back to them afterwards. I would suggest you speak to them about this ASAP.

 

Here is VAT guidance for your reference.

 

Plant and machinery may be hired with or without an operator.

The hire of plant and machinery without an operator is standard-rated.

However, the liability of hiring plant and machinery with an operator will follow the liability of the work that the plant or machinery is used for (such as demolition, site clearance, ground works, and so on). This supply can be zero-rated when supplied in the course of the construction of a zero rated building.

 

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/vat-construction/vconst02740

 

I hired a telehandler myself for our non VAT registered joiner to use, so unfortunately I had to accept £100 VAT would not be recoverable, but had two weeks use which I maximised as much as possible (offload the trusses, fit them, put in steel beam. put in timber beam , lift veluxs. And I would have put pallets of slates onto the scaffolding but these were delayed.)

 

One final point, have you got any materials such a slates, tiles or any think else heavy that you can utilise that crane on site for? Put on scaffold etc, perhaps save on labour costs later?

 

 

 

Edited November 9, 2018 by Thedreamer

4 hours ago, Thedreamer said:

. As this will be provided with an operator can you not ask the crane hire company to zero rated their invoice? As you ain't going to be able to reclaim the £270 on the DIY scheme or go back to them afterwards. I would suggest you speak to them about this ASAP.

 

One final point, have you got any materials such a slates, tiles or any think else heavy that you can utilise that crane on site for? Put on scaffold etc, prehaps save on labour costs later?

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the VAT tip. Am on it.

 

And we do have some spare MBC roof trusses on the top scaffolding that we could lift down rather than having to saw in half and throw off. So at least we can save a bit of time there.  Thanks 

I had a telehandler to lift many of my windows but only as far as the first floor and I wouldn't have wanted to take them any higher with it. Our driver was really careful but it was still a heart in mouth thing until they were done.

I sympathise on the water - it's so distressing and so difficult to solve. Plenty getting into my place at the moment.