Apologies in advance - this goes on a bit, but I'm livid!!! I'm currently having a bathroom in my home adapted for my father and my a**hole builder is not doing anything that I ask him to!!!
The first red flag came on day one, when I asked whether or not I should go ahead and order the shower, toilet, etc. for the bathroom, so everything would be there for when it needed to be fitted. He said "oh, the plumber has ordered that already. It all comes in a pack." I was aghast at this and said, "but I thought I'd have some input" and he said "there's all the rails, a shower and a standard high toilet for a wheelchair. It all comes together in a pack". I had wanted a particular shower and different bits, but I was now faced with having whatever bog standard one that was ordered that came "in a pack". He had discussed none of this with me, nor had he checked what my father's individual needs were. It so happens that there is no need for any rails, as my father will be in a wheelchair, as he has now lost his mobility and he needs a low level toilet so that a shower/commode chair of a specific height fits over it.
When I checked what had been done later on that first day, after he'd gone home, I was horrified to see that he had instructed the plumber to place the pipes for the sink on the wrong wall and to place the pipes for the toilet very close to the sink. When I called him to tell him this, he said that I had told him to put the sink on that wall!! Well I know I didn't!! However I'll take that one on the chin, as I assumed that he knew what I meant when I pointed to the position I wanted it in and I had wrongly assumed that if he wasn't sure, he would've asked me.
Regarding the positioning of the toilet, the front of the sink was facing the side of the toilet with very little space in between the two for a wheelchair. When I said this, he said that the plumber knew what he was doing in a clipped tone and that there was definitely enough space. When I hung up, I was beside myself. My father is quite a large man and his chair is also large to accommodate his size. It just looked like a tiny space. Luckily, the Occupational Therapist was coming to the house the next day anyway regarding a different matter, so, I mentioned the situation with the bathroom to her. She was was able to confirm, on inspecting the bathroom, that the specific shower/commode chair wouldn't fit in between the sink and toilet and that the toilet would need to be moved further away (there was loads of room to do this!!!).
The builders happened to arrive without the contractor himself when she was still there and so, they called him for her to chat to him. When she spoke first, she mentioned the maximum toilet height needed and I think he thought it was me he was speaking to, because, he started to mansplain that it was a special high toilet for a wheelchair that was already ordered. She explained that she was the OT and that it couldn't be a standard wheelchair toilet, as it had to be a low level toilet for a special shower/commode chair. She gave the exact specs of everything that was needed to the contractor. She also asked for the toilet to be moved, as the wheelchair wouldn't fit in front of it and they had no choice but to oblige, whilst probably privately cursing us all in private. I was so thankful to the OT and thanked her profusely for her help, as she had all the correct measurements and was able to get around his mansplaining far better than I would've managed to. Flushed with relief I thought that was that. But now my heckles were raised to not trust him and by God, I was right.
We have a small shower room above the main downstairs bathroom that is currently being adapted. The shower above has always leaked through the ceiling on and off for years, to the point where we've had to stop using it. It is our intention to gut that bathroom and redecorate it eventually, but at a later stage. The contractor was asked to install a suspended PVC ceiling in the downstairs bathroom, so that in the likely event that any issues ever again arose with the upstairs shower after the remodel, we could at least access the pipes above more easily, without tearing down the whole ceiling again, as has happened several times over the years, with no real resolution.
When the lower bathroom ceiling was taken down, the main gable wall beam was found to be rotten, black and had chunks missing and from all the leaking over the years. Unfortunately, the (still in use) upstairs toilet was also found to be leaking. He said he'd investigate the toilet leak and I asked if he would remove the rotten beam. He said that he would remove it. But, he went ahead and put up the PVC ceiling, without mending the leaking toilet (it's still leaking - he said he just couldn't find the leak), but nailed the PVC directly onto the rafters above using nails at the sides instead of the usual slots, without suspending it. When he'd left for the day, because the ceiling was so roughly put up with nails and chipped away at the edges, I was able to put a knife up to check if the rotten beam was still in situ - it was. Moreover, I was able to easily chip into it with the knife and crumble the broken-off pieces between my fingers to dust. This was despite him agreeing to take it down. I have yet to mention this to him. The tiler has been in since and he has done a terrific job. I'm very happy with his work, but I'm now left with a ceiling that is warped in the centre and chipped at the edges, which is all the more evident given the lovely straight tiling job.
I also wanted a new window initially, but he refused to put one in, stating that there was nothing wrong with the one that was there. Well, it doesn't open, is nailed shut and it's so ugly now with the shiny new tiles against it that I'm not sure even a lick of paint will improve it, but that is what I'll have to do, now that it's tiled.
The icing on the cake came today. He rang and said that the plumber was coming tomorrow morning and he asked if I had ordered the shower I wanted (he said I could order that myself when I said that I wanted a specific one). I confirmed that I had the shower and I happened to ask again about the toilet, as he'd come to me last week and said he'd had trouble sourcing a low-level toilet. I couldn't believe it when he again said that the plumber was bringing a special wheelchair toilet, taller than specified (sounds much like the one he'd originally ordered... perhaps the same one?!?!). I said that this cannot be, as my father's chair can't be above the specified height, or it will not fit over it and so, it will be pointless putting the higher one in. He said in a very clipped tone "well it can't be sourced and it's ordered now and the plumber will be there in the morning. He brushed me off by be again asking about the shower and that was that. I was and am still livid!!! I mean, what the actual f*ck?!?! The OT gave the exact specs for the toilet to him over two weeks ago!!! I've been ranting and raving to anyone who will listen ever since. I called a local builder's merchant to check if they could source this type of low-level toilet with a separate cistern and they confirmed that he they could. What a farce from the offset!!! He's supposedly a friend of a family member, so that makes it all the worse!! I don't really know him on a personal level, but had I known his personality before I hired him, I'd never have ever hired him!!! Never again!!!
I have a fair idea how I'm going to handle this, but my question is, if you were me, what would you do?!?!
