Another From The North Of Ireland (and a hell of a lot more information and self-build chat.)

[JamieM]

5 hours ago, DeeJunFan said:

I had a sample dropped out.

I know the Local Rep so he sent me a few photos etc of installations he did.

If you want to send me your email address i'll forward them on to you.

I didn't end up going with it as i got a great deal on natural slate which actually worked out slightly cheaper than the snowdons.  Although the fitting will be more expensive it think.

Mind if I ask where you got your natural slate? 

[DeeJunFan]

I got them from Slate supplies 

My Sister-in-laws cousin is the rep and they are building, he did them a good deal and my brother asked would he do me the same deal and he agreed.

 

[DeeJunFan]

F**kin Ragin here,

Just off the phone with Sun Renewables (Took 3 weeks to get them to pull the finger out and call back)

I was dealing with David, but he is no longer there.  He gave me a quote and all the info back in Feb, but was looking to place an order and they are after doing a new quote.

So i was looking the in-roof system and was quoted £5200 in Feb, but they are now saying in-roof system would be £6500 and are saying David is no longer there so they have no idea how he came up with that price.

Standard 4kw System (On-roof) is £4800, and he was working off a premium of around £500.

So i'm looking to see has anyone else got an in-roof system in the north, who from and how much?

Really pissed off with the service from Sun Renewables obviously David was the one who gave the place a good name.

Any suggestions.

At the minute i'm wondering if just ordering an extra 500 slates and going on-roof is the way to go.

 

 

[PeterW]

Do you need MCS to get payments..? 

[DeeJunFan]

1 minute ago, PeterW said:

Do you need MCS to get payments..? 

For the next few months it makes sense, when the FIT goes down again it will be border line.

So yes for the time being

[Declan52]

As far as I know David is the boss. There based at Lisnasure interiors shop as it was his mum and dad I got talking to when I went to buy a sofa. So if he is not there anymore then I find that a bit strange.

[DeeJunFan]

1 hour ago, Declan52 said:

As far as I know David is the boss. There based at Lisnasure interiors shop as it was his mum and dad I got talking to when I went to buy a sofa. So if he is not there anymore then I find that a bit strange.

He is very ill so I think he has retired.

He was working from home in February when I spoke to him so must have taken a turn for the worst. 

[Declan52]

Didn't know he was ill, was such a nice guy to deal with.

[DeeJunFan]

Yeah I had a great chat with him and he seemed to know his stuff.

Pity the current crew are running the show. Didn't seem to know what was happening and shocking for returning calls. 

[DeeJunFan]

So anyone who has read this thread all the way through will see i was struggling with my Truss manufacturer.

 

They pulled the finger out and finally got around to sorting the measurements and getting them delivered (in a manner of speaking)

 

But alas when my roofer tried to put up guide trusses for the house we discovered that the months of back and forth about in-correct measurements, over hang and corbel detail went in one ear and out the other.

Trusses were delivered to site to big.  As we are not going with facia/sofits etc we are having a corbel block which is already in place we needed the trusses to finish up inside the cavity.  As shown in the drawing (done by the Truss company)

 

 

Unfortunately as the Guy who measured up our house did so incorrectly twice with a laser tape (God knows how), he also sent a design that had the wall plate on the external block!  He also made a small but meaningful mistake on our first quote.  Pricing 3 Double trusses at 1.93 instead of 193.00 which made them look like a much better deal!

 

They have come out 30mm to long at the Joist and with 20mm extra overhang (Garage Trusses have 100mm extra overhang).  So they all need to be trimmed before they can be craned onto the roof.

 

Not a big deal i hear you say, well in some ways not but in other ways yes.  (Lets go back to the Delivery)

 

Day the Trusses were due to arrive, i got a phone call around 9ish asking "Do you have a crane on site"  No was my obvious reply.  Truss guy said, because your trusses are so big (10 metere) They will only fit on a 40ft Lorry and we have nothing to take them off the Lorry (I'll add they were paid for delivery)

 

So i had to cancel my roofer and the crane i was getting to lift the things onto the roof and spend a week (as it was over the builders holidays) trying to arrange a tele-handler or something to lift the trusses off the Lorry for the truss company.   All was eventually arranged and after first getting the house measured for trusses in January, they finally arrived on site in July! (Noting has happened on site since March due to the delay)

 

For some unknown reason the 40ft couldn't reverse down our drive (as the slate lorry had)  so they tried to off-load the trusses at the road, spent 2 hours, attempted to put them into a neighboring farmers field and eventually gave up and left 30 trusses at the entrance to our site, blocking any other deliveries (all other deliveries had to be taken down the driveway with forklift.

 

As they had chosen to basically abandon the trusses they were not being kept together by the ties so a bit of a balls up.

 

Fast forward again and the roofer wants to fit the guides, size is wrong as because they trusses are all over the place they cannot be easily trimmed on the ground.  As the corbel block is already in place, they cannot be put in place and trimmed on the roof (This was the reason we spent so many weeks trying to make the truss people understand why we needed to reduce the overhang.

 

So Joiner goes nuts saying he is going to have to man handle the trusses and cut them one by one before the crane arrives, and truss company should be offering some form of discount/good will towards his labour which is required because of their mistake.  

 

Truss company response it "Nothing we can do about it"

 

During a number of phone calls they were not exactly decent to deal with, they tried to tell me that the house was out of square (which is why the trusses had to be bigger)  even though 2 other joiners have measured the house and said its exactly square.

 

There answer was "Tell the Crane man to lift each truss and have them trimmed while on the crane"  I said thats grand but who will pay for the extra time for the crane and joiner, they said "Thats not our problem the trusses are made to specification"  My response, no they are too big for the house, they do not fit.  Then said he would phone back and never bothered.  I got talking to my other rep who said the truss dept are standing over them and they are refusing to do anything.  I asked for someone to come out and check the measurements, they refused.  At this point I said then come out take the trusses back and give me my money back.  Again they refused said the trusses were made correctly and they had no reason to take them back.

 

I know to some this may seem like a trivial tale, but the point of the matter is.  I paid over £6000 for trusses, including delivery.  Then i had to pay more money to get a machine there to "help" them deliver the trusses and then when there is a small issue (that was entirely their mistake) that could have been rectified by saying fair enough we'll give you £100 credit on your account to cover the labour (even if that didn't cover it all) It shows the level of contempt they have for self-builders.  Had i been a big developer there would have been guys on site checking things out and discounts galore to smooth things over.  On a number of occasions i asked to speak with a manager and was told the Branch Manager was on holidays and the truss manager wasn't available.  I'm going to try and find email addresses for them as i want to make sure they were aware of the decisions made.

 

So a cautionary tale to all you Self-builder in Ireland.  Avoid Murdocks building Merchants for your trusses!

 

 

[Declan52]

I take it they have been fully paid.

[DeeJunFan]

1 minute ago, Declan52 said:

I take it they have been fully paid.

 

They will not start production until fully paid.

 

But i have cancelled a £500 order i had with them for other materials.

[Declan52]

Go in and ask to speak to the main branch manager. Stop all orders of everything. Tell them that unless you get this sorted you won't be buying another nail from them. Take no shit whatsoever and make a big song and dance in the shop in front of people. If he doesn't give you what you want phone the main office and give off stink and tell them all and same again that not 1p will be spent in there joint. 

[DeeJunFan]

2 minutes ago, Declan52 said:

Go in and ask to speak to the main branch manager. Stop all orders of everything. Tell them that unless you get this sorted you won't be buying another nail from them. Take no shit whatsoever and make a big song and dance in the shop in front of people. If he doesn't give you what you want phone the main office and give off stink and tell them all and same again that not 1p will be spent in there joint. 

 

Done that,

 

Told him to cancel everything (they had special order slate trim)  and he said thats fair enough, that i wasn't the first.

 

Didn't give a shite

 

I went nuts with 2 of them on the phone.  1 even hung up on me.

Edited July 28, 2016 by DeeJunFan
typo

[Declan52]

What about an email to head office with a link to this stating how bad this paints them.

[DeeJunFan]

Thats the next port of call,

 

I have this up here and on boards and i'll be posting a bad review on their facebook page.

 

Trying to get the bosses email address so it can t be avoided

[Declan52]

Could you lift the truss as normal but set them on another off cut of wall plate so they sit higher. Cut the truss to suit then lift, kick, prise truss to where it needs to be. Wouldn't slow you down that much .

[DeeJunFan]

Not sure what the joiner is planning to do with them at the minute.  He is going to be on-site tomorrow.

 

Had a crane booked for today but had to cancel him for the 2nd time.

[vfrdave]

How long should I expect a building control application to take? Haven't got the plans approved yet but think we are close. Haven't done any work yet like laneway which was previously approved. Now trying to gauge my timescales to prevent a rush to get things done. Been enjoying the summer months with the kids too much.

[Declan52]

Mine was only a few weeks but with the amount of civil servants who all took the big money and ran it will no doubt be much longer.

[DeeJunFan]

Mine still isn't approved as they are waiting on certain things.

 

But I think it took 2 weeks to get our Building Control number and assigned an inspector.

 

Once we had that we started and just phoned the to book in first inspection.

[vfrdave]

So your saying Dee you dont need their initial approval before you start?

 

Indications from planning I hopefully will have my approval early sept, architects doing technical drawings soon in prep for BC application.  Sounds like I dont have as much time as I thought to get my lane etc in before the pressure to start building really hits.

 

 

[vfrdave]

On 7/28/2016 at 11:32, DeeJunFan said:

Not sure what the joiner is planning to do with them at the minute.  He is going to be on-site tomorrow.

 

Had a crane booked for today but had to cancel him for the 2nd time.

On another note what came of your trusses?  Your leading me to think a cut roof may be the way to go with the 5.5m spans that I have.

 

[DeeJunFan]

1 hour ago, vfrdave said:

So your saying Dee you dont need their initial approval before you start?

 

Indications from planning I hopefully will have my approval early sept, architects doing technical drawings soon in prep for BC application.  Sounds like I dont have as much time as I thought to get my lane etc in before the pressure to start building really hits.

 

 

I got a letter saying that they couldn't give approval as they required additional details.

 

There was a disclaimer stating that if we started to build without approval there was a chance that we would have to redo certain things etc.  But I found the BC inspector very helpful and he has given up guidance on any issues that I was concerned about.

 

But yeah, you can build away without final approval as long as your BC is inspecting regularly and flagging any potential issues.  But given the Building regs I don't think you'll have any issues.

[DeeJunFan]

1 hour ago, vfrdave said:

On another note what came of your trusses?  Your leading me to think a cut roof may be the way to go with the 5.5m spans that I have.

 

 

I got direct contact details for a number of the company directors and outlined my concerns, they were in contact pretty quickly and offered to resolve all the issues at their expense.

 

So I'm happy enough with the eventual response.