cowboy builders

[grim_d]

Looks like the place ive beeb working on today.

Is there any reason the linings were different heights or someone bodged it.

The house was a long time ago one big house, then split into 3, then 3 became 2 with the middle house being absorbed between the other 2. I imagine at one point one of the doors led to another room. It's now a cupboard.

It's still appalling.

GRIM_D.......
pulled out the dishwasher when I moved into my place (didn't fit under the couter) and had a 3 phase connection just like ur's hanging off the wall......
The previous owner was an "Electrician" and work at the Nuc/power station down the road.....
oh... even had 3 phase sockets in the bedrooms !!!!!!!!!!!

I'd actually be delighted with that, not the shoddy work but the 3 phase in the house, lathe in the living room.

 

[500e]

At least there is some symmetry to it @grim_d

3rd go before I packed his tools & suggested he leave, first go loops to the floor

 

[grim_d]

That's pretty awful.

Microbore looks garbage at the best of times.

 

[500e]

The sad thing is he thought it was good he also had an apprentice, the first fit was horrendous second not much better, the 3 was when I showed him the door even though the builder was employing him, a big row ensued,with me suggesting they should not be allowed to bread, how is the apprentice ever going to be any better if not shown it is a downward slope.
The builder said he was one of the better ones
Rant over

 

[grim_d]

Sadly it's the case everywhere now, the "that'll do" attitude. I would be ashamed to leave anything less than a good job with a customer, but sadly a lot of customers are happy with the rubbish some tradesmen leave.

I rarely pay to have work done because I'm never happy with it, I always end up rectifying little niggles I'm of the opinion that if I'm paying for work to be done, materials aside, the work should be perfect or as close is a humanly possible, regardless of how much I'm paying.

I'm more than happy to pay good money for good work but until I see some good work I'll be holding onto my cash.

Another problem is the people with the skills are often not interested in small work. For example I needed a small bit of an internal sandstone wall that was pointed with lime mortar repaired, I wanted it to look as inconspicuous as possible so thought I'd have it done properly. The big names had no interest what so ever, eventually found someone willing and he plops a bit of sandstone in with boggo grey cement mortar.

He wasn't paid. Eventually I did it myself.

 

[Stingray]

Got My boiler replaced, I got quoted anything from £2600 to £2900, I asked for itemised quotes, boiler was £1500 and £1400 exactly (a few years ago) I could get the boiler for £778 and they’d probably get it cheaper being in the trade, anyway bought the boiler myself and got an electrician who said boiler installations were his thing and he’d bring his own plumber, the boiler needed to be relocated due to being a condensing boiler and for the condensate to run to a drain, I made a stand for the boiler to sit on due to the outside level being higher than inside, the guy said that’s good We usually sit ours on some breeze blocks, anyway the Sparky turned up 8am sharp and started on the electrics, I said when’s your plumber arriving, he said shortly, The Sparky said I’d be better shifting my thermostat to my lounge and wanted to cut a track for the cable, I told him no, I’ll put it behind chimney breast at back of TV and hide cable in square trunking as I just had wall papered my lounge, anyway he had no trunking so I said I’d go and get him some , unfortunately when I was away the plumber arrived began to make a hole in my wall for flue with kango hammer, the 2’6” horizontal flue was pointing 2” up in the air off level, he had drilled a 1” diameter hole for the condensate from the inside of my garage and knocked about a foot square of render of the outside wall, the steam was coming out of my ears, I said have you guys not got core drills for the hole for the flue and asked him why he didn’t drill a pilot hole for the condensate and drill 1” hole from both sides he then started to run the copper pipes, he started with the long runs, I said to him would you not be better starting at the boiler side and making all the bends and everything up on the bench but he said I’ve never had a leak in my life so he ended up soldering all these fittings in a 8” space between the boiler and the wall, when We turned the boiler on and bled everything there were two leaks so had to drain everything back down and fix them, we got everything up and running, I went in to check that night and could smell heating oil, he had overtightened the compression fitting for the oil luckily I had some 10mm olives and a bit of play to fix that, there was a leak from the union at the pump and I had no hot water only heating, I called him as I wasn’t sorting everything for him and he said I’ll be there in the morning, another guy come and he tightened up the union at the pump, I said can you have a look at my hot water mate he said “I can’t do that I’m a car mechanic mate” anyway he come back, bled the hot water and asked Me if I could get him a job offshore as he’s sick of being self employed and all the hastle that’s involved with it, I told him that I don’t think the offshore life would be his thing as he’d waste all his money on mist, survival, medicals, etc!

 

[Robotstar5]

No comment....

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

From todays job. Built in spring.
One pillar in the middle. (Inside property)
Expansion joint in the middle is about 25mm out at the top

Same company made a farce of blockpaving the garden

Out front (no pics. Tarp covering it with wet saws on) sandstone paving laid full bed and pointed with sand.
Its all over the place now.

 

[Stingray]

Scary if that wall collapsed!

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Scary if that wall collapsed!

Aye. 4 inches of exposed footings inside.
Same width as wall and willing to put money there barely a foot deep.

Id have made a better job and im a chippie these days.

 

[brightspark]

No comment....

View attachment 148824

lol I got a callout one night at 1am in the morning the stupid kitchen fitter cut his fitted cupboard in front of the db. I carved the trim off with a saw and pulled the cupboard down to get access that would teach him a lesson

 

[DAPPH]

I've had a hard time trying to convince the guys in the social group I used to belong to that if we do a big stud wall in the building that we will be sharing with others we have a public liability & we have to have it made to building control approval. They say BCA is planning consent & does not apply & they don't need to work to a drawn plan either.


They built it when I was on 2 week holiday. It's got several cross halving joints in a single 5 mtr x 100 x 50 mm collar running along what should be a 5 mtr long double thickness 100 x 50 mm collar in a wall 3 x 5 mtrs . The whole opening is a roughed in & skimmed over rectangular arch made of covered 15" or so " I " girders . The frame sides are not joined but simply plugged & screwed into the thin mortared over board/wood that boxes in the girder ( it seems to have a void between the plaster & the steel of the girders ) . I think air & a thin mortar & plaster are holding up the top frame collar timber as they reckon they hit steel a few inches in & had to drill to the side to get a fix point

I was dismayed when I came back off holiday and saw the part finished mess & made a comment that it did not look safe .
A few days later , hissy fits , ranting & dummy spitting by some aged gents of the group in supposedly responsible positions in my direction that it was just a social group thing & nothing to do with building control standards ensued . ​

Not something I want to be involved with anymore due to the liability aspects if it collapses on some kiddies playing in the building on the other side , so I resigned from the group .

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

I've had a hard time trying to convince the guys in the social group I used to belong to that if we do a big stud wall in the building that we will be sharing with others we have a public liability & we have to have it made to building control approval. They say BCA is planning consent & does not apply & they don't need to work to a drawn plan either.


They built it when I was on 2 week holiday. It's got several cross halving joints in a single 5 mtr x 100 x 50 mm collar running along what should be a 5 mtr long double thickness 100 x 50 mm collar in a wall 3 x 5 mtrs . The whole opening is a roughed in & skimmed over rectangular arch made of covered 15" or so " I " girders . The frame sides are not joined but simply plugged & screwed into the thin mortared over board/wood that boxes in the girder ( it seems to have a void between the plaster & the steel of the girders ) . I think air & a thin mortar & plaster are holding up the top frame collar timber as they reckon they hit steel a few inches in & had to drill to the side to get a fix point

I was dismayed when I came back off holiday and saw the part finished mess & made a comment that it did not look safe .
A few days later , hissy fits , ranting & dummy spitting by some aged gents of the group in supposedly responsible positions in my direction that it was just a social group thing & nothing to do with building control standards ensued . ​

Not something I want to be involved with anymore due to the liability aspects if it collapses on some kiddies playing in the building on the other side , so I resigned from the group .

Can sympathise. Wasnt too happy building this one tbh but had my orders.

Came out very solid.
3 months later when the second half had been erected it was pulled down. Thankfully not by me. Would have been a right pita. Made it strong.

 

[owas]

Sadly it's the case everywhere now, the "that'll do" attitude. I would be ashamed to leave anything less than a good job with a customer, but sadly a lot of customers are happy with the rubbish some tradesmen leave.

I rarely pay to have work done because I'm never happy with it, I always end up rectifying little niggles I'm of the opinion that if I'm paying for work to be done, materials aside, the work should be perfect or as close is a humanly possible, regardless of how much I'm paying.

I'm more than happy to pay good money for good work but until I see some good work I'll be holding onto my cash.

Another problem is the people with the skills are often not interested in small work. For example I needed a small bit of an internal sandstone wall that was pointed with lime mortar repaired, I wanted it to look as inconspicuous as possible so thought I'd have it done properly. The big names had no interest what so ever, eventually found someone willing and he plops a bit of sandstone in with boggo grey cement mortar.

He wasn't paid. Eventually I did it myself.

Everytime i go to a garage, something gets screwed up and i have to sort it myself ... so when a garage did a job properly, and on time .. i gave them an extra few quid and now anything i need doing goes to them.

 

[malcolm]

Can sympathise. Wasnt too happy building this one tbh but had my orders.

That's my MOT place!

There are people around who will do the job properly, but they are rare and it takes a while to find them. My window guy is brilliant - his stuff should still be good in 100 years time - his work is far better than in my surviving 110 year old windows. Found a good plumber too. Missing most of the rest of the trades so tend to work slowly and DIY.

In the past the trades were more respected. You had master builders and the like. My place is 400 years old and has been added to a lot. The work generally (apart from in the Georgian period) seemed reasonably well done. From 1950s to 1980s the work was misguided but still reasonably executed. Most of the work I'm doing seems to be replacing things done no more than 20 years ago. That seems quite a sudden dive in quality of work. When did the colleges turn themselves into universities?

The feeling I get is modern builds focus more on cost and speed than on quality. Even if you pay by the day the trades seem to want to cut corners and finish things as quickly as possible and more than half I have allowed over the threshold seem to have been poorly self taught.

 

[Hopefuldave]

Some of these remind me of my mate Phil the painter - he went to Goldsworth Park to decorate a bedroom, soaked down the old wallpaper so he could peel it, grabbed the top of a sheet and pulled the stud wall down on top of him...

Dave H. (the other one)

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

That's my MOT place!

There are people around who will do the job properly, but they are rare and it takes a while to find them. My window guy is brilliant - his stuff should still be good in 100 years time - his work is far better than in my surviving 110 year old windows. Found a good plumber too. Missing most of the rest of the trades so tend to work slowly and DIY.

In the past the trades were more respected. You had master builders and the like. My place is 400 years old and has been added to a lot. The work generally (apart from in the Georgian period) seemed reasonably well done. From 1950s to 1980s the work was misguided but still reasonably executed. Most of the work I'm doing seems to be replacing things done no more than 20 years ago. That seems quite a sudden dive in quality of work. When did the colleges turn themselves into universities?

The feeling I get is modern builds focus more on cost and speed than on quality. Even if you pay by the day the trades seem to want to cut corners and finish things as quickly as possible and more than half I have allowed over the threshold seem to have been poorly self taught.

Dead mans cross.
Did all the first fix on the left side.
Fell out with the chap I was contracting for before phase 2 started.
He was a bit of a bodger too. Always cutting corners to save a few quid.
Not a nice way of working. I knew I could do the job better but wasnt given the chance.

Unusual for new sashes to be better than old. Hes definetly a keeper.
I do enjoy restoring old sash windows.
Spent a few years doing nothing but that.

Every job I go to im working around bodges.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Aye. 4 inches of exposed footings inside.
Same width as wall and willing to put money there barely a foot deep.

Id have made a better job and im a chippie these days.

The plot thickens. Spoke to the customer about it today.

The original wall was just the 2 curved panels visible in my pics.
He had to get another builder in to build the pillar in the middle and a wall intersecting with the far end at 90degrees to support it.

Footings are apparently none exsistent.
After having a closer look today its mortar about 4" deep sitting on the sub base for the pavements.
Sort of thing my old boss would have done.

 

[DAPPH]

Can sympathise. Wasnt too happy building this one tbh but had my orders.

Came out very solid.
3 months later when the second half had been erected it was pulled down. Thankfully not by me. Would have been a right pita. Made it strong.View attachment 148838

Impressive, How did you fit the horizontals to the verticals .........… cross halving joints & glue ? What was it clad in and was it clad with the same sheeting on both sides?

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

90mm rim shanks and a nail gun mate.
Hilti gun into the girders with hd L brackets (would rather have bolted but my hand were tied.)

Clad externally with 18mm osb.
2 days on my tod. Scissor lift thankfully.