Hi - so new home fab views and really really great price
Issues no paperwork
new roof - no paperwork - would't you think that after spending £4k+ one would have some kind of warranty??
not according to local builder
Down shower floods because outlet pipe drops into another pipe that is too small which then instead of dropping into what one assumes from another down pipe is a main drain running down the drive, instead winds back around the corner apparently up a gradient or two back into the wall where one assumes it meets the same downpipe used for the WC
I had many plans for this bathroom including to downsize the WC and swap in a cistern that actually works and does not take at least a half hour to fill
And put a cover on the fan outside
Upstairs a WC & sink have been installed into a cupboard and the plan was to cut a door through to the next door cupboard and then install a shower using part of the next door room and also downsize and move the WC to give more space and for more realistic use of the space
Simples says the first guy who quoted me £4k for that and to reduce height of trees outside, refelt shed roof, plaster coal hole walls, paint said coalhole plus kitchen hall and two bedroom walls and ceilings and add double sockets to the single sockets and move the existing BT socket to someplace smarter
I asked him to start on the bathrooms and had prepared the upstairs so that we would have continued use of the downstairs shower wc but he knew best - yes he did- and began to plaster the coal hole - i had felt that some jobs i could do myself unwillingly perhaps and there were some jobs i could leave for next year because there were jobs which required immediate attention
But he knew best
He said he would start at 8am and finish at 5 pm on the dot, but did not turn up before 1020 except for once and was usually gone by 4
He brought in another and we felted the shed together in a high wind
In all he and his helper felted the shed, plastered most of the coalhole, painted the kitchen walls, the hall and stairs and hall walls and ceilings, and one bedroom wall
He also went into the attic and fixed a leaking window which i reckon had caused a lot of damp issues down below although the home report stated there was no damp present - well it had been a long hot summer
After I think fixing the leaking attic window, I believe- because I have not actually been up to see it yet - he then tripped on a nail and fell through the ceiling into the bedroom below
He did pin the plaster board up promising that all would be fixed, before smashing down the cupboard wall and then the second cupboard wall both which seem to be made of plaster and a skinny breeze block from i suppose 1949
Then he watched as he made a few calls to wife and possibly future customers as I and his helper carted buckets of wall into the shed - since i did not want to upset the neighbours, and over the weekend I took some of this debris to the dump
We had a problem when he finally showed me the WC replacement and sink cabinet set he had bought
I did not like and he agreed to send them back while i ordered from Amazon replacement plus flooring - he did not want wet flooring he wanted waterproof laminate
I also ordered sound proof and moisture proof boards - he had already provided the wood for the stud work
He was unable to come then appeared later the next week to cut down much of the tree line - did i mention this was one of the jobs could have been left until another year/ i could have saved up to cover the following year. having been quoted £650 by professional who would also wood chip the lot
But apparently there was a van parked in the way so a couple, well several of the leylandii are still 5 to 6 meters tall, but i spent the best part of the day fetching cable for a chipper that refused to work
When I got back the branches were piled high, and because i had no chipper this took time to rearrange
Then he asked if I could help him out by paying him for what he had already worked on /paid for - i asked for a receipt which stated for work done
No itemised listing £1700
But he had kids and his wife had fallen off a ladder and his van needed fixing and then apparently he had root canal problems because I did not see him for a while
Well actually even again because then he cut his tendon working on another job so..
He still has my house keys
The thing is apart from the house keys I have a massive hole in a bedroom wall through to the existing WC& sink
And a hole in the ceiling pinned up admittedly
And it is lockdown and i am dangerously thinking about doing some of the stud work myself - i have a workmate and drill and saw
I am really really bad at sawing a straight line - I do have a black & decker what is that thing - a wee electric saw and tape measured and have spent hours pouring over plans i thought would work for the WC rearrangement but cannot really tell because the original furniture prevents a test run to see if it all fits in
A structural engineer told me that the 20" x 2" hole in the interior support wall at the gable end of this semi detached 3 bed council house was not any threat although the lady in the building control office disagreed
She was most anxious and warned that they might sue me if the building collapsed
A builder came by the other day and told me:
That the header tank upstairs which the Czech said was empty and non functional was vital
That I would need to take up floorboards and strip out walls to put in the cable from the mains to the shower because the cable for the now non existent storage heater would not work for the 10.5 kw shower i had bought
That my designs would not work
That the flow from the shower waste would be not high enough to meet the WC waste pipe outside although I would have thought that the a pipe through the wall might have met the down pipe outside
Did i mention that I had already got a quote from this and another for also a loft conversion which was supposed to start next month
I had applied to planning and discovered that i did not need planning consent
Yes but I would need a building warrant which they failed to point out - perhaps it is a wee joke
So finally thanks to a few sources after spinning madly around looking for advice I was pointed back in the direction of the Building Control - for those who wish to know where to speak to someone with regard to a Building Warrant
Apparently you submit drawings they tell you where to apply regs / structural support and then check it out at the end ... result paper work
But the lady in the planning office told me every door would have to be a firedoor - can you imagine a home with every room a firedoor
How are wee kids supposed to get around?
And there is something in the regs which says somewhere i cannot find now that if you have a great fire exit window you may dispense with the fire doors
Cant find it now
Perhaps i dreamed it
Because while I cannot imagine standing by a window waiting for the fire truck to get to this rural spot ... and from what I understand fire trucks with cherry pickers have failed on several occasions to get there in time sadly. and the idea of hanging a rope ladder outside a window really you would need to fix a ladder to the roof and let it have hooks that hung well over the guttering wouldn't you, i then found what seems to be an awesome option for those with a gable end to spare and the presance of mind to cut a window big enough to climb out and onto a ladder fixed to the wall outside
Except burglars no cheer, the ladder is actually an aluminium tin box that folds out into a ladder in an emergency, down which it seems fairly safe to climb
Definitely safer than standing under a window hoping the fire brigade have remembered their cherry picker at the least
I dont know if you are allowed to paste links here but for anyone interested in a possible solution to a problem I may never now be able to afford to have unless i pluck up the guts to do some of the work myself, without totally wasting the materials i have already bought and paid for.....here it is https://www.safelincs.co.uk/saffold-fold-out-fixed-fire-escape-ladder/?sku=SAF18&fGB=truefirst floor 90 degree no fire door.bmp
