ToughButterCup

Nahhhhhhh, sure its just you mate. Theres an art to complaining Good on ya for having the balls.

Oh how I know that feeling. It's horrible, jangly, itching powder down yer shorts, fart hard infront of the Bishop type of feeling. Not facing - directly - the kind of challenge that you have, could well lead to the kind of post that I have had to write: broadly they could all be titled ' Living with my mistakes '. Another one in that series is brewing later today. There's no easy way of putting this: ask him with a smile - for the invoice. You could say that you're just being cautious. Is there an empty cardboard box for the waterstop material : in the skip maybe? And if he gets defensive, then you'll know your builder better won't you? And you'll pay less. (no evidence) But if he shows you a valid invoice, then trust is beginning to be built. Just a thought: a time lapse camera - and permission to take images from the builder - saved me a few thousand quid. In the end I used two cameras......It might also reassure you.

And do you see any of the results of SE's advice being ignored? Once anyone steps outside the design offered by a professional, then they become the designer, and any money you've paid to the SE is thrown down the drain. Yes, builders often ignore SE's advice and get away with it. But I have yet to see anyone who admits to a calamity being caused by their own disregard of an SEs advice. I am not an SE. Get a couple of SEs advice ...

All that matters is what the SE specifies. That company has the Professional Indemnity Insurance. We are - at best - interested , reasonably well informed amateurs. You might decide to seek the opinion of other SEs.... In our case we did and in the process saved ourselves a significant amount of money. Which is now a kitchen.

The thread is the thing. Length can be cut and ground to whatever you need. Buy yourself one of these and put it on a hook in the workshop / garage/ shed / drawer. And put it back after use and hide it from your male children. I think I must have bought four over the years. Funny how they just vapourise.

No need to panic at all. None. "Please Mr Builder, could you show me the invoice for the Koster Quellbend Waterbar, please? " " Ermmmm, it's in the post...." "Oh, no invoice? Hmmm, well since it was in the spec, and there's no invoice, and no other evidence, how are you going to remediate the problem?" Do not pay without evidence. Yes, it looks like you don't trust the builder. My response (now) to that kind of challenge is - how do you expect trust to be built without evidence? It really isn't your problem - yet. I used to trust builders: laughable I know. But just scan some of the stories I tell here on BH .. it isn't pretty. Arm yourself first, pay later.

Does '...this...' above refer to Koster Quellbend Waterbar ?

No. For a condition to qualify as a pre-condition , the Planners must state that the condition as a pre-condition. You may pass Go, and collect £200. Congratulations. Welcome to the Sleepless Nights Club. You get used to it after a bit.

250 feet ... in the daytime. Thats asking a lot of a laser. But nothing to an optical instrument ... If you are set on lasers, at that distance, I'd use the laser rangefinder I use for shooting . That one's a bit expensive for what you want but there are many for less than £80

Whatever you do, do not pay (or even offer to pay) more than about 30% of the bill. Get another company (ies) to list the errors for you, and to quote to put them right. Ask the builder to list the errors. Just that list alone will be of value to you. When you have that information, go back to the original builder and ask for the works to be brought up to standard. If he refuses, or drags his feet , get the works sorted out by a proper roofer. Pay his bill, deduct that amount from the original builder's bill. There is no substitute for doing Due Diligence. Its hard niggly naggly work. Following people up and having to nag them most likely. But its either that or suffer low-quality work.

Oh yeah? What are you looking at now?

Realpolitik in action. Do as I say, not do as I do. At some point everyone has to come into stark contact with reality. The question is, how well is reality hidden? And from whom does it need to be hidden? Daily Mail readers for a low-level start.

Yes exactly @Ralph . The slur's the thing isn't it. If it sounds nasty enough that'll do fine thanks. Performative politics isn't confined to Marjorie Taylor Greene or Alexander Johnson Your comment made me think. I should have written '... nominally Communist ... ' above rather than merely Communist . I worked with nominally Marxist Leninist Communists every day in the 80s. You couldn't have wished for a better or more capitalist business partner . Except when it came to the final contract financial calculations. There, the simplest, crudest of arithmetic miscalculations always fell in their favour. One day, I lost it, and in a formal business meeting and in the presence of someone whom I later found out was a KGB operative, asked why the miscalculations always favoured their Peoples Own Company. My East German colleague flushed red and answered , "In the final analysis, sir, your company is a Class Enemy, because Capitalism has to be replaced." Later that day, I got a good kicking from my boss for asking that question in a formal context: our business partner could only ever have responded as he (they) did. With his political boss in the room, he had no choice. The slur's the thing, even at national level. Class Enemy indeed.

Ugh. Move North young man, move north. Beer's better, wimmin don't complain, fish and chips are better , fewer speed cameras, land is cheaper and neighbours build houses INSIDE their caravans. Honest.

Maslow's heirarchy. If you can't live safely, then financial well-being has to assume a lower priority. I worked for a good few years in a Communist society before the Berlin Wall came down. 30 years ago, Erich Hoeneker and his cronies were every bit as venal, mendacious and manipulative as our current crew. Absolutely nobody believed anything coming out of Erich's office

As so often, you are right. Here you are old fella: LABC guidance Its from their Step-by-Step Guidance booklet. Who says builders can't crack a joke? Ian

I remember that episode. I watched it again the other day, and laughed out loud. That was a leak, not a blow-out. That was a leeeeedl peeeeedl .... This, this is whatcha call a blowout. And yer right, it would have had a bit of an effect on the airtightness. I came as close as I ever have to pressing criminal damage charges on the facking bain-dead twat who knocked the blocks into line with a lump hammer. Had it all on time lapse camera. But I hadn't reviewed the film for a few days ..... Thats 5 year old news now. Moved on - so much wiser and such a lot nastier now than I was then.

Gaulhofer for us too. Quick heads up Jane - who is fitting the windows? Be sure to ask the manufacturer who is fitting them, and do your due diligence about that particular team. Verbal reassurance is just that - hot air. And watch them every second of the way. I'd video the fitting if I had my time again.....

Of course it will. And that delay leads to retrospective applications, and more aggro. So round here (deepest darkest West Lancashire) its common to '... just do it ...' Unless someone points the variation out to the Enforcement Team . And then they have a statutory duty to investigate. And that leads to - well if they do it and I keep schtumm, then when I vary something minor - they'll keep schtumm too. The only loophole I can see to that (just do it) method is the possibility of HMRCs team noticing a large item on the list of invoices: a claim for slates instead of metal roofing for example. (HMRC require a full set of building plans) Within limits, just-do-it is a sensible reaction to pifflingly niggly-naggly bureacracy. But there's always someone isn't there......

Ask a few....?

Something's not right here...... They agree to you replacing it you do so, and they say it looks ugly. The neighbour comes back and you've done what you think is the bee's whatsits.... what if they say it's even worse ? We'd all like our build issues to be sorted now , I've a list as long as my arm on our site. Sometimes - if you have to co-operate - then things take longer. This website is full of stories of people who have bent over too far to live at peace with neighbours. I'm not arguing you should just get on and do it, but I am saying only you can judge whether or not just getting on with it will NOT cause more aggro.

Well now: super-rich, mega super rich, ultra mega super rich, google, amazon ....

Hmmm, I think it did Gary.......... The bigger the handout, the more palatable the claw-back. Still, we've all had a good look at what old-style Socialism would do for us in the 21st Century. Now, no politician can ever argue that money cannot be found for [...]

That, lads, is why I suggested it. If Mr. ClaireB can hack scaffolding, he'll '... be a man my son...' quite apart from be able to throw a hefty punch when needed. As @Bitpipe says, money, if that's the focus, is in strategy-level choices. And @Claire B has that already. Which has me thinking about RICS..... Worth more than a passing thought Claire. So, how about a year getting his rough edges knocked off while applying for an RICS course? Now there's a thought.

Tiler extraordinaire, glazier with no fingers left, naturist and frizbee lover