Cowboy builders

Ush1

Probably brought up a million times but just recently had a nightmare with a builder and plumber renovating my bathroom so interested to hear others worst experiences with building work being done on their house?

I think it's important to know when to cut your losses.

corner of hells

Ush1 wrote: »

Probably brought up a million times but just recently had a nightmare with a builder and plumber renovating my bathroom so interested to hear others worst experiences with building work being done on their house?

I think it's important to know when to cut your losses.

My neighbour would be a cowboy builder , he drifts between working as a barman and then presenting himself a self employed builder.

His wife is the earner in the house having a decent job.

Anyhow, two summers ago , he decided to build an extension on the back of his house without bothering with supporting girders/RSJs or marrying in the new roof properly.

Winter arrived and the extension moved ever so slightly pulling away from the main body of the house.

His wife noticed this , one neighbour is a brickie and another a structural engineer.

He disputed what they told his wife saying they were talking bollix.

She threw him out,ending up having g to employ a contractor to take down the extension and repair the damage he did.

Loafing Oaf

corner of hells wrote: »

My neighbour would be a cowboy builder , he drifts between working as a barman and then presenting himself a self employed builder.

His wife is the earner in the house having a decent job.

Anyhow, two summers ago , he decided to build an extension on the back of his house without bothering with supporting girders/RSJs or marrying in the new roof properly.

Winter arrived and the extension moved ever so slightly pulling away from the main body of the house.

His wife noticed this , one neighbour is a brickie and another a structural engineer.

He disputed what they told his wife saying they were talking bollix.

She threw him out,ending up having g to employ a contractor to take down the extension and repair the damage he did.

sounds very like

Ush1

corner of hells wrote: »

My neighbour would be a cowboy builder , he drifts between working as a barman and then presenting himself a self employed builder.

His wife is the earner in the house having a decent job.

Anyhow, two summers ago , he decided to build an extension on the back of his house without bothering with supporting girders/RSJs or marrying in the new roof properly.

Winter arrived and the extension moved ever so slightly pulling away from the main body of the house.

His wife noticed this , one neighbour is a brickie and another a structural engineer.

He disputed what they told his wife saying they were talking bollix.

She threw him out,ending up having g to employ a contractor to take down the extension and repair the damage he did.

Classic. At least it was his own house!

the beer revolu

Ush1 wrote: »

Probably brought up a million times but just recently had a nightmare with a builder and plumber renovating my bathroom so interested to hear others worst experiences with building work being done on their house?

I think it's important to know when to cut your losses.

How about sharing your cowboy builder story?

Ush1

the beer revolu wrote: »

How about sharing your cowboy builder story?

It's not that interesting but the bathroom renovation, the tiled floor is crazy unlevel, he put backer board on one section so there's an inch drop in parts, never leveled the walls so enclosure is off. The shower tray was leaking and uneven so water pooling. Mad defensive and ridiculous attempts at gas lighting.

Then his plumber messed up the upstairs and downstairs radiator zones and said it must have been wrong before(it wasn't). Just cut my losses at this stage. Me and my da who's a plumber fixed their mess as best we could.

Some people are just thick and dishonest but what can ya do?

whomadewho

Got an extension built by an man I've known 20 years. He was good friends with my dad and I've played football with his sons. He has been in the building game 45 years but the man hadn't a clue what he was doing. Took my hard earned cash, done about 6 weeks work over 2 years (A couple of hours here and there, then go missing for weeks, ) and constructed a badly built shell, then just gave up and left me in the s**t without the the decency of a phone call.
The highlights of his workmanship was
Putting the wrong thickness of insulation in, the extension should the warmest room but now it is the coldest in winter.
putting the wrong size steel over my 5m sliding door, using the wrong size rsj from the old build to the new build.
All drainage pipes where 150 dia at a gradient of 1 in 300 when they should be a minimum of 1 in 60, which blocked recently and backed up into my house, as there was no self cleansing velocity.
Got a roofer in to look at the roof after he had gone and he said it was the worst job he had ever seen, and advised me to strip it all back and do it again, which will cost me 10 grand at least.
It cost me 1000's to get another builder in to finish it, the right thing to have done would be to knock it down and start again, but I hadn't the money to do it.
I'm now living in a house that I probably could never sell, as all that man's handywork would turn up in the building surveyors report, so I doubt anyone would buy it.
I see him around laughing and joking, what I would love to do. The ultimate cowboy of all the cowboys out there.

KevRossi

I had these lads doing my roof. Shower of cowboys.

Fils

In their Lidl pants and stocked with third world quality screw fix materials.

FromADistance

whomadewho wrote: »

Got an extension built by an man I've known 20 years. He was good friends with my dad and I've played football with his sons. He has been in the building game 45 years but the man hadn't a clue what he was doing. Took my hard earned cash, done about 6 weeks work over 2 years (A couple of hours here and there, then go missing for weeks, ) and constructed a badly built shell, then just gave up and left me in the s**t without the the decency of a phone call.
The highlights of his workmanship was
Putting the wrong thickness of insulation in, the extension should the warmest room but now it is the coldest in winter.
putting the wrong size steel over my 5m sliding door, using the wrong size rsj from the old build to the new build.
All drainage pipes where 150 dia at a gradient of 1 in 300 when they should be a minimum of 1 in 60, which blocked recently and backed up into my house, as there was no self cleansing velocity.
Got a roofer in to look at the roof after he had gone and he said it was the worst job he had ever seen, and advised me to strip it all back and do it again, which will cost me 10 grand at least.
It cost me 1000's to get another builder in to finish it, the right thing to have done would be to knock it down and start again, but I hadn't the money to do it.
I'm now living in a house that I probably could never sell, as all that man's handywork would turn up in the building surveyors report, so I doubt anyone would buy it.
I see him around laughing and joking, what I would love to do. The ultimate cowboy of all the cowboys out there.

If I was you I wouldn't hesitate to let social media what I thought of that arsehole. Some people have no pride or morals.

Thespoofer

I can safely say it's the Celtic Tiger all over again. Currently working on an old boom time development that stopped building halfway through and was left to rot since.

Main contractors covering up a load of ****e work again, people with more money than sense driving in for a look and wanting to throw down a deposit ( I was nearly going to warn a couple of ladies not to ).
It's back lads, plenty of material for the next batch of reeling in the years.

Fils

This tiger won’t roar as long. Every thing is puffed up, it will go down with a bang.

Ush1

It's definitely silly season, some of the quotes for building work I'm hearing would make your eyes water .

policarp

F.I.D. Work is back again.
F.ck it'll do.

Higgmasta

Advice Needed. Myself and my wife bought a house. We hired a plumber to do a new heating system and advised him, that other work work need to be carried out, such as new bath installation, showers etc, good bit of extra work. Said no problem. Work was started, left the bath hanging and not supported and no sealant, broke & chipped brand new tiles(installed on the Saturday) on a Monday fitting the showers. Didn't seal around the shower tray, caused huge leaks. changed the pump, caused a leak and didn't tell me, i had to walk into my kitchen on a friday evening to see my ceiling soaking. Put in new radiators and gouged the walls, holes 3 times as big needed cut and not filled back in. Any works to walls for pipe work, just cut open and left exposed. Damaged a brand new bath with a deep scratch in it and also a lump gone out of the inside of the bath. I have proof of all this. All this work was going on in Nov/Xmas. My wife was expecting our third child on the 27th December, that was the rush to have the house completed. I haven't paid them a cent. They sent me a mickey mouse invoice on the 18th of December but I said nothing being paid until the wrongs were righted. The owner called on the 22nd of December, said he was ashamed of the work, so he came back the next morning, told me he'd fix everything, he spent an hour here , rubbed his arse to a couple jobs and left. Told me he'd be back the 2nd of Jan. No contact from them until 9th of February to say he'd be here the following tuesday to complete works. I told them to get stuffed as I had to get another plumber in to fix the works because I now had 3 children living in the house that needed to be washed and cleaned. Now they have issued me a creditors notice for nearly 3k for 2 days work. they are charging 1750E for just the labour for two days. Absolutely criminal, this price was never agreed. I have 6 days to respond, I want to just send back a laughing face as there's no way in hell im parting with that kind of money to them. Considering I had to get another plumber out to fix everything. Advice Please!

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122064885#Comment_122064885

consult a solicitor and document with photos etc the work they’ve done and get and expert in to also document it

redoctober

Hi there,

Similar to above horror stories. We got a guy from tradesmen website to build extension. His quote came in a little bit cheaper than the next guy so we went with him. The list of mishaps is embarassing: couldn't get a plumb line for the foundation (the extension was a little bit out in front of the original house but should still have been in line!!). He didn't seem to get it even.

Then he said he didn't price for the large patio doors and surrounding window with protruding porch (major feature of the extension) so would be an extra 6 grand! Didn't seem to know how to construct a patio door with window above it. Windows weren't ready for measuring twice despite him calling them to come out.

He then went on to use cavity block, single leaf walls. I didn't know the difference and stupidly trusted him. The engineer should have called a halt but didn't for some reason. So then the engineer says we need external insulation to remedy the lack of proper cavity construction. Builder says that will be an extra 4 grand.

So I asked him what I owed him to that point. He told me a figure. Short time later he sends a text having come up with an extra 8 grand that "he needed to pay suppliers etc." I paid him what I owed and told him the job was on hold cos we needed to figure out our budget (total 10 grand extra because of his screw-ups). Then some of his guys turned up a week later. I told them everything was on hold. I rang the head guy and told him I didn't want to continue with him. He was a bit thick but didn't say too much. Turned up a week later to take some of his stuff. He took a lot of insulation boards which I probably paid for! Has anybody had experience with a cowboy builder based in Newbridge area? You can PM me if so. Just curious about others' experiences.