Builder not using a roofer

[eandg]

Just now, MVanDam said:

Hit another snag today, but rather than start another thread I’ll just ask in here

 

The screed flooring in the extension is an inch high at the back of the house. He took the level by the front door and actually took a brick out to get a visual too but neglected to check the floor height at  the back of the house and it obviously slopes to the rear to the difference of an inch

 

So we’re level at the front and an inch high where we’ve knocked through in to the kitchen

 

His solution was “you’ll just have to ply the kitchen out with 25’mm ply then use an inch threshold to cover the drop in to the living room”.

 

No mention of him covering the cost of the ply (measured up and it’s about £350 worth)

 

Ive has a little look online and 90% of people in this situation seem to recommend just getting him to take the screed up and do it again

 

What would u guys do?

 

obviously if we go the plywood route he’ll have to stand the cost as it’s his mistake

 

Whats the recommendations gents? 

 

Bit of a grey area one but if you've given him his datum of the front door and the floor levels are out and you've not advised him of this then it's arguably your fault rather than his. But either way I can't see what other resolution you have - maybe suggest to builder that you'll pay materials if he'll cover the extra labour and resolve to agree specs, measurements etc. together in future - but in the scheme of things £350 is not a lot compared to delays and the risk of guys walking off jobs. 

[MVanDam]

Just now, eandg said:

 

Bit of a grey area one but if you've given him his datum of the front door and the floor levels are out and you've not advised him of this then it's arguably your fault rather than his. But either way I can't see what other resolution you have - maybe suggest to builder that you'll pay materials if he'll cover the extra labour and resolve to agree specs, measurements etc. together in future - but in the scheme of things £350 is not a lot compared to delays and the risk of guys walking off jobs. 

I wasn’t involved at all pal

 

He came in and did what he wanted in regards to getting the correct floor level

 

He chose not to check the back of the house

[eandg]

1 minute ago, MVanDam said:

I wasn’t involved at all pal

 

He came in and did what he wanted in regards to getting the correct floor level

 

He chose not to check the back of the house

Perhaps you should have been - otherwise how can the guy be wrong if he's not working to instruction? And how would you have addressed the level change? Unless you're on top of the detail and on site to make a call if there's any issues then your screeder would have had to make the call anyway unless you want him walking off the job while the screed cures. 

[MVanDam]

3 minutes ago, eandg said:

Perhaps you should have been - otherwise how can the guy be wrong if he's not working to instruction? And how would you have addressed the level change? Unless you're on top of the detail and on site to make a call if there's any issues then your screeder would have had to make the call anyway unless you want him walking off the job while the screed cures. 

The builder did the screed himself mate

 

Tbh we haven’t yet seen if the floors are level at the front yet. He just told me that the floor must slope to the rear which is why the screed floor is high

 

It May be high at the front yet, knocking through tomorrow 

[bassanclan]

If his screed is level then you can have no complaint, you have a problem with your existing house, the new extension is not the problem. However if its actually your existing house that's level and the new bit is out, then you have grounds to complain

[MVanDam]

8 hours ago, bassanclan said:

If his screed is level then you can have no complaint, you have a problem with your existing house, the new extension is not the problem. However if its actually your existing house that's level and the new bit is out, then you have grounds to complain

Makes sense

 

We’ll see what transpires when we knock through at the front today

[Dave Jones]

starting to feel sorry for this builder.

 

Next will be he's built the extension square and it doesnt match the existing which is a banana. I want money off!

 

 

[Jilly]

The issue is that building work is never straight forward, you have to accept some give and take, and that there’s more than one way to do things. Not being on site is a major disadvantage you’ve given yourself as there are loads of minor questions each day, which he is taking a view on because you aren’t there, and things are now catching up. It’s course correction, which after a while compounds and worsens. The same thing will happen when your mates take over, so make sure the communication is good, preferably by being on site. Everyone has to make a living, I suspect doing the roof himself has let him recover from mid quoting the price of the tiles. 

[saveasteading]

Few buildings are level.

 

You might be surprised how out of level, but nobody notices.

 

I know an indoor tennis court with 50mm difference in the court  length. 

(It wasn't my project)

 

Only i and the manager know.....players haven't noticed.

 

I doubt anyone will notice in a domestic room....

 

otherwise why do kitchen cabinets and washing machines need adjustable feet?

[joe90]

4 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

Few buildings are level.

Or square!!, I fitted a kitchen for a customer and luckily the units fitted the width exactly (when I measured it) but found the building was so out of square i ended up taking 50mm off the plaster and  wall in the corner to get the units in 🤯

Edited July 7, 2023 by joe90

[MVanDam]

Knocked through enough at front to see what’s going on. Extension floor is out

 

Slightly low at front and gains an inch or so over the length of the extension. Not quite level

 

Hes gonna finish knocking through and come up with a plan to rectify

Edited July 7, 2023 by MVanDam

[MVanDam]

19 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

Few buildings are level.

 

You might be surprised how out of level, but nobody notices.

 

I know an indoor tennis court with 50mm difference in the court  length. 

(It wasn't my project)

 

Only i and the manager know.....players haven't noticed.

 

I doubt anyone will notice in a domestic room....

 

otherwise why do kitchen cabinets and washing machines need adjustable feet?

It’s just a shame it wasn’t high at the opposite end as that’s an enclosed room so we could have just used a 25mm threshold in the doorway and called it a do

 

But the kitchen is open plan through to extension so the floor needs to be decently level and a nice smooth transition if that makes sense

Edited July 7, 2023 by MVanDam

[saveasteading]

Latex screed. The kind where you can add sand as a  bulker.

[MVanDam]

Still having issues with screed floor

 

As stated a while back in this thread it was high to the rear of the house (just gonna ply the kitchen out to match levels then put a threshold in to the living room) but the screed had also bubbles up in the corner where knocking through in to kitchen

 

Me and builder agreed he would take the screed floor back to where it was 18mm high and flat and level it off to an 18mm ply board in position in the kitchen then we could continue the 18mm ply 

 

I was at work and came home to find that the builder merely chipped away the high points of the floor that were bubbles up and didn’t take the screed floor down at all to get a nice clean edge that would allow sone decent depth for filling across to the ply board

 

plus he didn’t re screed the floor he just used a bit of an old mix he was using to lay block to level across the gap where knocked through and where he had chipped the screed back

 

 needless to say once dry the mortar mix cracked as soon as anyone walked on it as it was levelled to a couple of ml if that and in general the mortar isn’t as hard wearing as the rest of the screed floor and will more than likely continue to crack and give way as it is already

 

 

 

Builder is on holiday this week so I’ve left him to enjoy that but how do I go about getting him to sort this lot out upon his return?

 

The screed finish in general is rough all over so would be unable to lay flooring on it like this anyway

 

Thats just a basin waste pipe that needs to come out once we start on the bathroom. That obviously needs capping off a decent way below floor level to allow decent covering above it once done which obviously hasn’t been done either

Edited July 26, 2023 by MVanDam

[Brickie]

Think he should’ve used a water level to transfer a metre above ffl from adjacent rooms. Any discrepancy would’ve become apparent at that point & a plan could’ve been made. 

[MVanDam]

5 hours ago, Brickie said:

Think he should’ve used a water level to transfer a metre above ffl from adjacent rooms. Any discrepancy would’ve become apparent at that point & a plan could’ve been made. 

Yeah. Bit late for that now though

 

I think bare minimum that needs to happen is he gets rid of that load of gobo he’s packed in there that isn’t fit for purpose, he stihl saw’s behind the point in the screed that he’s had to start chipping it away in order to make it level, dig it out to allow a good depth to be achieved and have it re screed and hope it bonds properly to the existing

 

Then ply out the kitchen

 

But was looking for second opinion on what would be a reasonable hard wearing fix for this. Because I don’t think the builders efforts are up to par (multiple cracks already after a couple of days weight bearing) 

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2023 by MVanDam

[Dave Jones]

confused.

 

So was the new screed he put in level ? Did this level match the adjoining slab/threshold ?

 

Photo of the whole area would be good to see standard of work.  The close up doesn't show screed it looks like concrete. Screed is completely different.

[MVanDam]

6 minutes ago, Dave Jones said:

confused.

 

So was the new screed he put in level ? Did this level match the adjoining slab/threshold ?

 

Photo of the whole area would be good to see standard of work.  The close up doesn't show screed it looks like concrete. Screed is completely different.

The finish is that bad it just looks like concrete

 

He laid a concrete pad then screed it

 

The stuff that he’s used to level it to the ply is some mix he was using to lay some block elsewhere on the job (confirmed by the plumber who was here at the time)