To wonder whether IABU?

[GetOrfMyBin]

We've just had our smallest bedroom replastered. The tradesman that completed the job was recommended to us by a family member who had recently had work done by them. The room they've done looks fine but I'm not happy about a few things.

When they turned up yesterday to prep the room they took the carpet and underlay up and told me they'd put it all back when they finished. The vent was taken off the wall, as well as the radiator and the piece of wood that the curtain rail was attached to. They asked about the piece of wood and I'd said that was fine so that's not too much of an issue. The other things I expected to be put back once they'd plastered. They prepped the room yesterday and were here for about 2 hours at most - there were three of them in total.

DH was at home with youngest DC today who is unwell and I went to work. Plasterers turned up just before 8, again there were three of them, and were done for 12. DH was asked two seperate times to go up and check the room and he did, he's happy with the actual plastering.

DH said that the main guy had been upstairs for a while and he assumed he was tidying away. Plasterer came down, said he was finished and DH paid him. The plasterer said the floor was wet and the walls were wet and it wouldn't have been good for the carpet to go back down yet - fine. After he had gone DH went to look at the room again and the floor has bits all over it - they've been quite messy - and both the vent and radiator haven't been put back on. There's bits of plaster in the bath and sink and footprint marks on the toilet room floor. The ceiling in the bedroom is wallpaper that's been painted over in white (old house, god knows what the old owners were thinking) but we'd decided to just leave that in place. There are splodges of the blue mix that they used to prep the room with on the ceiling, which is white, as well as it being on the cupboard door and on the radiator pipes.

The main guy mentioned numerous times that they'd used twice as much as they normally would for a room that size for both the prep mix and the plaster, but we paid £430 for them to be here no longer than 6 hours in total having left a mess behind themselves. It's literally a box room. It was more expensive than we thought it would be in the first place but we were just wanting the job done as we'd had a couple of tradesmen not even turn up to quote.

AIBU to think that they should have at least put the vent, radiator and carpet back? And if not how should I approach asking them to come back and do it? My DH didn't know what to say to him about the carpet but they told me yesterday that they would put it back the way it was. DH has depression and anxiety and isn't very good in certain situations, this being one of them. Like I say, I'm happy with the plastering just not the way they've left the room/bathroom/toilet room floor, especially after saying that they'd put the underlay and carpet back.

Any views/advice on how to approach this with them would be very much appreciated.

[AnnetteCurtains]

Just ring them and ask when they are coming back to finish the job

[Allthebestnamesareused]

You know that he should have checked before paying!

Anyway he didn't so just ring them up and ask them to come back to finish up - as they said they would.

[GetOrfMyBin]

I know he should have insisted before they left but unfortunately he didn't. Just don't want to appear rude and was wondering whether I'm expecting too much.

Thank you for your replies.

[disneykid]

He should have checked before paying them but just ring them and ask when they're going to finish the job.

[SoupDragon]

Can they actually put those things back when the walls and floor are wet?

[RhiWrites]

Your contract should have included "make good" at the end. They haven't finished the job and should come back.

[Caselgarcia]

Surely the plaster would have to dry out before they can put the radiator and vent back?

[BlahBlahBlahEtc]

You can't put vents etc back on with wet plaster..and plasterers are usually pretty messy, there is exceptions but usually.
You can contact them and ask if they're actually going to come back and put things back in place when the plaster is dry though, but they can say no now they've been paid ofc.

[Justmadeperfectflapjacks]

Did you pay cash /cheque?

[GetOrfMyBin]

Crisis over - they're going to come back once things have dried out. Phew. I got a garbled message back at first about things drying out but just clarified them coming back and they've said to contact them as soon as everything looks fully dry.

Thanks again for the posts

[QuiteLikely5]

You have been well and truly ripped off at that price

[GetOrfMyBin]

Come back to post because we're now in a dispute with the plasterer. We took the opportunity to paint the room ourselves when it dried fully, as we're a bit skint to really get anyone else in to do it. After that had dried I tried to clean away any dust/mess that had been left over and we moved the underlay and the carpet back into the room.

The carpet had been left where they'd put it in our DDs room, folded up. We'd decided to unfold it all ready, as I was going to call them to arrange them coming back to re-fit the carpet and put the radiator and vent back. When we had unfolded it, it became clear that there was damage to the carpet in more than one place, which definitely wasn't there before the carpet had been taken up.

I called the plasterer straight away who tried to feign ignorance and then asked me to send pictures of the carpet to him, which I did straight away. He tried to say the damage for two of the areas was already there but that he'd never seen the other one before. He acted really offended via text that we'd accuse them of ruining the carpet. I said I'd not accused them of that but that there wasn't any damage before it was taken up, so it needed to be rectified. He said he'd speak to a carpet fitter he had about getting us another carpet or discount. I didn't reply to that message as I wasn't going to accept having to pay for anything, but wanted to see what the plasterer came back with.

It's been 9 days and he'd still not gotten in touch, so I went and got a quote for the carpet and fitting from where we'd originally got the carpet from and text the plasterer the info. He's text back to say he's not accepting liability, that the carpet was ruined (it honestly wasn't - it was the best bit of carpet we had it the house) and that he'd been waiting for information off me. I've not responded to this yet.

I'm so cross. I agree that we were ripped off to start with but they'd had so many good reviews, they were recommended to us by a family member (who now seems to be having problems with them) and we'd been let down by other tradespeople before. We were desperate to just get the room done and get DS back in there asap.

All of their reviews talk about how good they are at tidying up etc but they left the room a mess and now this. There isn't anything I can realistically do now is there? A friend suggested small claims but DH isn't keen to go down that route and the cost to replace the carpet with fitting is just under £140.

I just need to vent my frustration in here, I can't believe how shit some people can be. Clearly this is why they didn't lay the carpet back down before getting the payment for the work as they wouldn't have got any of the money until it'd been resolved. I'm kicking myself for not taking the day they finsihed the plastering off work as I would have double checked that they'd lay the carpet again and done the radiator and vent etc, whereas DH came up twice to check it - the last time being not long before they were finished as the actual plastering was done and they were just "tidying up" - and then paid. In his defence he is suffering with severe depression and anxiety so hates any type of interaction with people he doesn't know at the best of times, but I couldn't get the day off or even work from him due to other commitments at work that day.