Sometimes Nightmares are exactly what I needed

[ToughButterCup]

30 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

 

I was also thinking that you could play a mental game of offsetting it against the 10k+ you saved on that use of SPONS to catch an overpriced quote. [...]

 

We are operating a day rate. We have no contract or quote. Just a guesstimate, reviewable at anytime by either party. And regularly discussed.

 

A very loosely itemised invoice (I hesitate to call it that) has been submitted, but not paid yet, on Debbie's firm advice.

So there's a largish block of money waiting to be paid. 

Itemised, well-documented  remedial works (images, video, time lapse, and documentary) are currently in train, and we'll see how much that amounts to.

We're determined to be open and fair. And everyone involved knows the score. 

 

My learning can be summarised easily.

Watch more closely. Don't be embarrassed to do so. Trust my instincts more, think, ask for advice, question, act.  Act much earlier.

[Gone West]

38 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said:

Itemised, well-documented  remedial works (images, video, time lapse, and documentary)

 

I found filming the labour aspect of our foundations a crucial part of our evidence when the foundations had to be replaced.

[Lesgrandepotato]

Do we need to organise a working party to get it dropped and ready to salvage what could be kept? I'm sure if we found a few locals and lit a BBQ we could make a decent dent in it?

 

With that in mind I may delay my visit to site - might not be much to see :-) 

 

 

[Nickfromwales]

"Ahhhhhhhh, shhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit."

The words uttered, or yelled, when youve looked at something, realised its wrong, then realised its never going to be right, ever, then you realise there's only one way to rectify it, then you think "no, wait, maybe XYZ will solve it", and it's right at that moment when the blood just runs cold...........and you finally accept that its F****D, and that's that, end of chat, end of hope.

After a bit of loosing it, you come to your senses. The cup goes from half empty back to half full,  and then you get a pen out and start to formulate a way through. Soon after starting the recovery action, you realise this is actually the quickest route to the correct, and ( most importantly ) FINAL conclusion. Your blood returns to its normal, or possibly slightly elevated temperature, and then the boots and gloves go on. It's time to get to it.  

Salute yourself for choosing this route Ian, and so swiftly executing it. You can't get time back on the build, but other recourse can wait. 

I've been there a few times more than I should, and you want to take a hammer to someone, but you can't. Not because of the law, but more because usually when things are found to be wrong it's too late and the culprit has fled the scene, cash in hand. You can't go after them with said hammer then, as that's pre-meditated murder, but if you club them to death at the scene, upon discovering them DOING something so disrespectful, whilst charging you for it, well that's different as you can plead temporary insanity and maybe get a suspended sentence. Maybe.

Moral of the story :

Only problem with the above goon hammering is the satisfaction is only very short lived. The satisfaction of doing what you're doing, and the subsequent feeling-proud-of-yourself for pulling all his shite down and starting again will make you smile for the foreseeable future, and beyond. That satisfaction will last forever. Sitting in a home YOU built, smugly sipping a fancy cocktail made from puréed newt, you'll look back and realise it's the best decision you ever made. 

"I salute you sir, the whole damn country salutes you". 

Now get back to work. ?

 

[ToughButterCup]

18 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

[...]You can't get time back on the build, but other recourse can wait. 

[...]

 

 

Well Nick, (Welsh one)  if the contractor gets up and goes off to another job with 30 minutes notice and stays there for three weeks - several times- you get used to making the down time work hard for you. Hence the Piggery thread

 

Perfect little pilot study of all the decisions needed; gives me a good view of what needs to be done and space to make a few mistakes, correct them and then be able to talk to the trades folk with a bit of authority.

 

@Lesgrandepotato, do drop in any time, we can't take down what's already been concreted, and the guys that are sorting me out are Durisol trainers.... They know their oats. And they've just slotted me into their schedule next week because of a cancelled contract.

 

We'll see.

Meantime, ah jus' lurv ma digga man! Ahhhhhsum

[Nickfromwales]

@Lesgrandepotato

Id take some work clothes with you ? you know, just in case. 

[Jeremy Harris]

Part of me wants to publicly name trades people that are incompetent, or that mislead and have poor customer service, primarily as a way of warning others about them.  However, the more rational part of me reigns that in most of the time, and I just try hard to bite my tongue, and only warn people off privately. 

 

It does seem to be a significant problem, though, as can be seen by reading many of the threads here.  I know people will tend to highlight badly done work, or problems with suppliers/trades people/builders etc, and perhaps be reluctant to praise those who do a competent job, but even so there seems to be a fair few here who have been on the receiving end of poor service, or downright shoddy and dangerous work.  There aren't that many of us on this forum, and at a rough guess (I've not taken the time to try and gather data) I reckon maybe around 20% or more have experienced unacceptable work or service.

 

Our build went pretty well, but this is the list of things that went wrong:

 

1.  The brickie who was supposed to build the boundary wall on top of our retaining wall repeatedly failed to turn up, and after three missed start dates over a period of a month I had to sack him and get another chap in (who was brilliant).

 

2. The DNO kept delaying and delaying the work we had already paid for, to move a pole and lay a new underground cable.  From the date I paid them to the date they eventually turned up to do the work was around 4 months.

 

3.  Openreach were worse than the DNO, and in the end I only got them to do the work needed when I managed to find a number for the local engineer - their main office was a shambles.

 

4.  The electrician who did our initial site supply installation left things in a dangerous condition, loose connections, a crossed line/neutral, no sleeving on earth wires, a wrongly terminated SWA cable, etc.

 

5.  A labourer I employed on a day rate was permanently pissed.  I found several empty half-bottles of vodka in the skip and eventually caught him red-handed, coming out of the site bog whilst slipping a bottle of vodka back in his pocket.  He was off site in minutes.

 

6.  Our window supplier were bloody appalling to deal with, and frankly couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery.  When the windows arrived they had got the order wrong and had to make a new window, delaying the build by a few weeks.

 

The experience of all the above was one reason why I changed the way I'd planned to tackle the build and took over managing everything myself, with a lot of hands-on work.  I felt it was the only way I could be reasonably sure that things would be right.

 

To counter the above, I can say that we did have some really brilliant people on the job.  The chaps that did the rendering, plaster boarding out and plastering were very good indeed, as were the electrician we used for first and second fix, the decorator and tiler and the joiner that fitted the doors and stairs.  The chap that laid our drive and did all the landscaping work was also outstandingly good.

[daiking]

I can't help but I share your pain as acutely as anyone.

 

If I were Elon Musk, I'd stop messing about with cars and put all these cowboys out of work, permanently.

[daiking]

@JSHarris

 

I reckon 80% of people in the industry are shoddy and I can't afford the other 20%

[Barney12]

15 minutes ago, daiking said:

@JSHarris

 

I reckon 80% of people in the industry are shoddy and I can't afford the other 20%

 

That quote is bang on the money!

[SteamyTea]

53 minutes ago, daiking said:

I reckon 80% of people in the industry are shoddy and I can't afford the other 20%

If the 20% charge twice as much, that will be £40 out of every £100, so actually cheaper than the 80%, which collectively would charge £60.

Trouble is, as my partner is finding out, the 80% all claim to be brilliant.

I have kept well out of her quite minor restoration.

[ToughButterCup]

15 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

[...]

I have kept well out of her quite minor restoration.

 

Lots of ways of reading that @SteamyTea 

[SteamyTea]

Humour is reappearing then