[Help] Have we been ripped off?

[sydney]

always use steel btw...

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Yes you have, almost every job I go to I'm either fixing someone's bodge or I notice a bodge. I'm currently doing some plumbing at a friend's house and the builders are dodgy as f***! I can tell within seconds if someone's legit

EveryTradesmanEver says the previous guy bodged it. Them's the rules

 

[Elbow750]

Bounce. Update please, this has been the best thread for ages. Seriously, I'm interested to know how you got on with the £700 gutter bill?

Would strongly advise a reputable surveyor before you replace the beam. Might be a serious problem, might be nothing. Lets hope nothing as £3,000 - £5,000 is not beyonds bounds for real structural stuff.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

always use steel btw...

And ensure that friendly/awkward local builder doesn't insist on using that special German steel and platinum alloy

 

[atfc village]

Just had a quote for a new patio and the guy gave us a breakdown of materials and even the place where he is getting them from . Now i could look it all up online ,but know the guy who owns the place the materials are coming from The builder doesn't know this . Tbf his material cost and what i've been told by the owner is £100 different ,i don't mind that everyone has to earn a living . We pay him on delivery for materials ,the rest on works completion .Now i'm not big on FB but found this guys work online ,so easy to check people out these days . Sounds like the op has been conned.

 

[Icy Gull]

EveryTradesmanEver says the previous guy bodged it. Them's the rules

Whilst sucking in air through their teeth. If it’s really bad a Stan Laurel head scratch is often employed

 

[Elbow750]

Update after visit this morning...

The boss didn’t come so I still haven’t paid.

Youngish chap came on his own. He was assistant yesterday but has been promoted as the other bloke has left the company!

Very personable young man who answered my questions and did a good job.

1. Replacing the gutter was completely impossible. There is no plastic gutter there. It is all made of integrated lead sheeting (see photo) that would genuinely be an expensive nightmare to start messing around with.

2. The levelling was required due to bowing and pooling. The German goo is described as “very expensive liquid plastic”. But they only used “half a large tin” so I am clear that £500 for materials can’t be right.

3. The leaking/overflowing after rain yesterday was due to blocked downpipe - it was blocked at the bottom and completely full of water. He cleared it and resealed at the top.

4. I am happy they have done a decent job that needed doing. £200 for labour feels about right now after 3 visits (checking with Mrs G this morning, they were also here for an hour on a first visit when they partially cleared the gully

). Before paying, I intend to try and get clear information from the boss about the cost of the material used.

Looking at that photo there seems to be all sorts of problems. The lead flashing at the rear looks ok, if not a bit old, but the flashing in the foreground doesn't look right. There is a pointy thing like a nail / staple thingy sticking out and the flashing isn't flush with the brickwork, but looks to come out. The foreground flashing looks like iit isn't lead and that it goes over a rounded edge before it goes into the wall. I'd be very worried this could be a cause of endless leaks in the future. There also look like some loose sealing strips at the bottom of the panels above the butter/ channel .

I hate it when water is drained towards a house. The conservatory should have been built so the slope was totally away from the house.

If it was my house I'd get a surveyor and builder in to look at this as I suspect it will leak again in future, and almost certainly will if the current builder changes the beam

Conservatories are a bit like sheds, anything over 20 years and you living on borrowed time and they will leak and be such a pain you'll soon end up smashing them down and replacing them or moving (which is what I did at my last place).
.

 

[Wrong-Direction]

Whilst sucking in air through their teeth. If it’s really bad a Stan Laurel head scratch is often employed

I do this almost every day but it's real I tell ya real!

Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

 

[Icy Gull]

I do this almost every day but it's real I tell ya real!

Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

Part of the apprenticeship isn’t it?

 

[HAILSHAM SEAGULL]

Whilst sucking in air through their teeth. If it’s really bad a Stan Laurel head scratch is often employed

A little bit Graham Potter like

 

[Seagull58]

A little bit Graham Potter like

So the OP will learn from this and take the positives?

 

[Bodian]

Conservatories are a bit like sheds, anything over 20 years and you living on borrowed time and they will leak and be such a pain you'll soon end up smashing them down and replacing them or moving (which is what I did at my last place).
.

Repair the leak, have a good winter, starts leaking again somewhere else in late spring, rootle around and try a few things which fettles it - lo and behold, six months later it leaks somewhere else. It's endless in my experience!

 

[Moshe Gariani]

Bounce. Update please, this has been the best thread for ages. Seriously, I'm interested to know how you got on with the £700 gutter bill?

Would strongly advise a reputable surveyor before you replace the beam. Might be a serious problem, might be nothing. Lets hope nothing as £3,000 - £5,000 is not beyonds bounds for real structural stuff.

Sorry, no further juicy update available on Das Guttergate.

Waiting for invoice or other request for payment. Will let you know how it goes.

Next episode starts tomorrow with decking and fence work. From one end of the scale to the other - I have got a really good bloke booked in for 2+ days work charging me only £250 labour. Travis Perkins definitely saw me coming though with £900 cost for materials. No German goo but apparently decking boards and fence posts cost a fortune these days too...

 

[Moshe Gariani]

p.s. I did talk through with Mrs G what was said to her at the time of booking the gutter work in.

Apparently there was definitely a reference to “sourcing the special liquid plastic material from Germany”...[emoji23]. So the fact they nipped round the corner, and then used only half a tin of whatever it was they picked up, does now shed a bit of doubt on the quote for materials!

 

[Easy 10]

We've just had some Karndean wood flooring laminate laid in our living room. Very happy with the result, it looks great but oh my life what a trauma. Emptied the living room of all furniture on the Weds and pulled up the old carpet and underlay in prep for them to come and pour the resin the next day (Thurs), and lay the floor on Friday after the resin had dried. So Weds night we had sofa and armchairs out on the patio, which we had to cover in tarpaulin as rain was forecast, and the rest of the lounge stuff scattered around the house. Disassembling the TV unit (+Sky box, +PS4, +Surround Sound, +Alexa, +Wireless router) was an absolute MISSION.

So they pour the resin on Thursday, and come back Friday to lay the floor. Friday morning comes, and I get the old GP teeth-suck. There's still a few dark patches, meaning not fully dried, meaning moisture, meaning they can't lay the flooring that day. "So when then ?" "NEXT Friday" (a whole week away). With my house in furniture chaos. I'd bargained for maybe 3 days of chaos, but not 10, especially as I'm WFH and all my interbob is disconnected from my desk.

I had a bitter grizzle at the shop and got it shifted to the following Thursday at least, but they wouldn't knock anything off for the aggro because I'd been "quoted down to the skin on this job", but they'd give me 10% off on the next one if we used them again (yeah, right). Plus the fact their herberts didn't even arrive till f*cking lunchtime, which meant it carried over to the next morning before they finished the job.

They've done a great job in laying it, the floor looks great. But what a cuffing TRAUMA. Bloody tradesmen.

 

[WATFORD zero]

We've just had some Karndean wood flooring laminate laid in our living room. Very happy with the result, it looks great but oh my life what a trauma. Emptied the living room of all furniture on the Weds and pulled up the old carpet and underlay in prep for them to come and pour the resin the next day (Thurs), and lay the floor on Friday after the resin had dried. So Weds night we had sofa and armchairs out on the patio, which we had to cover in tarpaulin as rain was forecast, and the rest of the lounge stuff scattered around the house. Disassembling the TV unit (+Sky box, +PS4, +Surround Sound, +Alexa, +Wireless router) was an absolute MISSION.

So they pour the resin on Thursday, and come back Friday to lay the floor. Friday morning comes, and I get the old GP teeth-suck. There's still a few dark patches, meaning not fully dried, meaning moisture, meaning they can't lay the flooring that day. "So when then ?" "NEXT Friday" (a whole week away). With my house in furniture chaos. I'd bargained for maybe 3 days of chaos, but not 10, especially as I'm WFH and all my interbob is disconnected from my desk.

I had a bitter grizzle at the shop and got it shifted to the following Thursday at least, but they wouldn't knock anything off for the aggro because I'd been "quoted down to the skin on this job", but they'd give me 10% off on the next one if we used them again (yeah, right). Plus the fact their herberts didn't even arrive till f*cking lunchtime, which meant it carried over to the next morning before they finished the job.

They've done a great job in laying it, the floor looks great. But what a cuffing TRAUMA. Bloody tradesmen.

But on the bright side you'll get decades of mincing round your lounge without any worries about carpet, wood or laminate flooring. I'm an absolute Karndean disciple

You did get underfloor heating laid at the same time didn't you

 

[Easy 10]

But on the bright side you'll get decades of mincing round your lounge without any worries about carpet, wood or laminate flooring. I'm an absolute Karndean disciple

You did get underfloor heating laid at the same time didn't you

Considered it, but decided not to bother. Its never a very cold room, we've got an electric fireplace that only needs a 10-15 minute blast plus central heating obvs, so there just didn't seem much point. Plus I don't actually like being constantly warm. It'd be like when I bought a suite with recliners as it seemed like a nice idea - I probably reclined about five times in the 7-8 years we had it. Gave me cramp.

Might have it in the bathroom when we have that done.

 

[Moshe Gariani]

THE INVOICE has arrived....

Not sure what to say but the £700 discussed above has now become £840 with the VAT added..!!

"The work has been carried out to the above property as per our Verbal Estimate and your instruction.

Details:

Supplied and applied liquid plastic to the gulley"

Classic row with Mrs G followed who thinks we should just pay as that's what we've agreed. I managed to get consent for an e-mail requesting an itemised bill.

"Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you for the invoice received today in regard to work carried out at Moshe Towers last week.

Please can you review this invoice and supply us with a fully itemised version? Please include specific details of the material applied including the brand and product name/number or code as available. Please also state the purchase cost, quantity used and therefore the cost to us of the material used on our job.

Please also itemise separately the labour costs including hourly rate.

It is probably helpful to be upfront about our concern that the bill seems very high in relation to the amount of work that was done and the quantity of material used. Effectively we had a straightforward length of ground floor gutter, access by stepladder, swept out and "half a tin" of a locally purchased liquid applied/brushed on.

Is it possible that there has been a mistake with the invoice as I know that originally it was thought this might turn into a bigger job?

yours faithfully
MG"

Views on the likely response?

 

[HAILSHAM SEAGULL]

Call trading standards or Matt Allwright. That is a ludicrous amount for what has been done.

 

[zefarelly]

Sorry, no further juicy update available on Das Guttergate.

Waiting for invoice or other request for payment. Will let you know how it goes.

Next episode starts tomorrow with decking and fence work. From one end of the scale to the other - I have got a really good bloke booked in for 2+ days work charging me only £250 labour. Travis Perkins definitely saw me coming though with £900 cost for materials. No German goo but apparently decking boards and fence posts cost a fortune these days too...

Try these guys . . . https://www.acornfencingsupplies.co.uk/

good guys, very fair and quality.