New roughcasting cracking, please help!!

[loril772]

I dont think Im being ott at all he reckons I owe him £550 for labour and I reckon he owes me about that to have someone come and replace the windows he has put hundreds of chips in. Ive had an expert take a look at this and he agrees that he has done a terrible job. I will give him a chance to come and fix this ie remove it all and start again but im not just gonna roll over and accept this. I now know where I stand legally im not being unreasonable here, there is a standard to which I expect this job to be done and it by no means meets that standard in my opinion or that of other tradesmen. I dont have his tools and if I did im not inclined to hold peoples possesions hostage.
The scaffolder/builder who was hired by the roughcaster to put scaffolding up at my house came round this morning and told me honestly that when he had been called by my contractor and told to take the scaffolding down as I didnt want them to finish the job had told him he wasnt surprised as its a mess and has since told another potential customer to rethink using him. He has also told me he will not be working with him any longer as he doesnt want to be associated with workmanship like this.
Taking all this into account I disagree with you saying im being over the top.
I also think the situation you had was entirely different and im assuming you hadnt made a complete cock up of the job your customer didnt want to pay you for. I on the other hand have every right to not want to pay a couple of guys for approx 10 hours max labour for a job that will cost me as much time if not more to undo.
What would you do?
Does anyone else feel I am being over the top or unreasonable?

 

[Alastairreid]

Does anyone else feel I am being over the top or unreasonable?

No you are not!

The pictures alone speak a thousand words.

Good luck.

 

[loril772]

Thankyou Alastair, Im going to stick to my guns on this one.
Thanks again, Lori

 

[plstering]

to pay a couple of guys for approx 10 hours max labour for a job

i really dont see were you get the right too tell a tradesman how much too charge on a job weather its day rate or fixed price

are you in the trade NO do you know what your doing on the job NO
you just cant go round telling trades im not paying you the price you want

have you seen white van man on the thunderbox

were the trade fits a bathroom for a dick
and when it comes too pay day the dick says im not paying you the £1000 ill pay you £600 take it or leave it

 

[loril772]

Im just telling you how long they have worked at my property - 3 hours one morning and definately no longer than 7 hours the next day. Im not making up a price here, this is what he has told me I owe him for labour. If the job had been done satisfactorily I would not have hesitated to pay him in full with a smile on my face but it wasnt.
My father has been a joiner for over 30 years as was my grandfather who was well known and respected in his job with the local authority. Maybe I have just been spoiled with these exceptional tradesmen and expect the same from others. Your right im not a tradesman but im also not zipped up the back and from your comments its not surprising tradesman get such a bad reputation.

 

[Alastairreid]

**** id stick a hamer in his head
im not saying iv got anger problems but dont p**s in my pocket and tell me it raining ok

Constructive advice Jon?

Read the posts again, the guys chipped her windows, the jobs a mess.

The op was not arguing about the price, it was the end product.

Which is a mess.

 

[darrington]

to pay a couple of guys for approx 10 hours max labour for a job

i really dont see were you get the right too tell a tradesman how much too charge on a job weather its day rate or fixed price

are you in the trade NO do you know what your doing on the job NO
you just cant go round telling trades im not paying you the price you want

have you seen white van man on the thunderbox

were the trade fits a bathroom for a dick
and when it comes too pay day the dick says im not paying you the £1000 ill pay you £600 take it or leave it

Doh,,,,

 

[plstering]

im with the custy on it m8 as for it being a **** job and id be ****ed if it was me
your right in what your doing but im just saying its not the custy too make the price its the trade to price the job i charg about 150 per day 70 for a lab

go with what your doing but try too sort it face to face first calll him over make a cup of tea and talk about it if all elce fails slap him

iv looked at pics of the work and it looks like id needs too come off and re doing what did he use on the job i may be able too help if its a bodge job as too what he done rong maybe was it hand applyed or sprayed
what scrach coat was it wha butter coat ws it
ws it a prebaged ger was it meshed ????????? hhelp us to help you

what you need too rember is your talking too people in this trade about the trade

 

[Alastairreid]

@ Jon

You cannot go around slapping people or burying hammers in their heads every time you have a disagreement

And i dont think its legal to barge through customers houses team handed without their permission...even to fetch your tools.

Have you escaped from somewhere?

 

[plstering]

rrrr sorry m8 so if it was you and your tools and there was not uther way
to get them back even the police said its not clasted as theft as it was in there house in the first place
and its a civil matter for you too sort out
sorry m8 its my tools that ern me money too put food on the table for my kids
and clothes on there back no one and i meen no one will stop me from being the best dad too my kids

i really cnt say its the best thing too do but some times its needed

and as for going to get my tools mob handed i called the law first and told them about it and gave them the crime number and i was asked if id like a cop too come over with us just too keep the peace so yes im in my rights there



but its allwaze better too try too sort it out face to face first as a bad reputation spreads faster then a good one
so please please try too cover all aspects befor going too court and stuff

not all trades are bad and imm sorry you may of got one but who here in the trade can say 100% of there jobs are bang on all the time
we are human and we make mistackes

 

[spc]

After reading the whole story, my advice to you is to allow the plasterer to remedy his work before you go any further, contract law is a very grey area.

Now if I had done some work and in the unlikely event it failed, before being threatened with legal action etc i would and should (under contract) be entitled to put it right.

its only a small wall, I personally would have hacked it off, scratched it one day, and harled it the next at my own expence. Reputation is everything in this game.

Personally pebble dash looks bloody awefull anyway (just my opinion)

 

[jrplastering]

agreed as i said it does need to come off but if i had messed up a job (as trades people are human and are susceptable to human error) i would hope to be given the chance to rectify my mistakes before being dragged through the courts and ruining my reputation all together.
but i do agree with the OP the works bad.
out of interest if he does rectify the work to a good standard what is goin to happen with the windows?

 

[loril772]

When I called the contractor and said I had a real problem with the work he had done and that I had been advised that it should all come off and be redone his response was to tell me, using some colourful language, that there was nothing wrong with the job and no way did it have to come off. When I told him he should have had the windows covered he said that was nonsense and that he had never in 15 years covered windows and never once had any complaints about windows, which I personally find hard to believe.
My concern about giving him the chance to come and fix this is that he has made so many errors in the first place Im unsure as to how he would make a good job second time round. Also as I have said before I am a single mother and after an extremely intimidating phonecall with this individual, I am slightly uneasy to have him back to my property. All this said though, I will go through the correct channels and write a letter to him giving him the opportunity to correct this, although I am quite sure, as this will be done at his time and his expense and he will be held liable for the windows also, that he wont take me up on this offer. We'll see.

 

[Alastairreid]

Personally pebble dash looks bloody awefull anyway (just my opinion)

Dashing is a lot more common north of the border due to our more extremes of weather.

Most of the crofts in the far flung highlands and islands are wetcast or slurry dash (regional variations) or are constructed from 4ft thick walls from local stone.

Just thought i would point that out

 

[Micilin]

loril,

The dashing is very poor. The cable being half buried is enough to tell you that he is not a tradesman. (Apart form the look of it, it will let water in behind your dashing)

I've not seen the windows , but they should be covered if he can't dash without hitting them.

If you've got legal advice on it , follow it. Make a note of your conversations with him, times and what was said. If you want, record the phonecall but remember you must inform him at the start you are doing so if you want to use it later.

You should offer him a chance to put it right at his own expense - but as you say he probably won't take this. Contact NHBC, Trading Standards , trade bodies for some background /advice. as you are aware, you will need some third party to help set out what is 'acceptable'.

You can't hold any of his hand tools - even in a case of liquidation where materials and plant are held, you can't hold a tradesman's tools.

(As for the merits of dashing,another debate I know - it's a matter of taste but as pointed out it's excellent for weather proofing - with larger surface area than render, capillary action around the pebbles etc)

Finally, advice/comments on smashing people's head etc in have no place in a diy forum. They are easily made over the internet, but in real life I have seen the consequences of such action, and nobody involved benefits from it.