I hate my builder

[nessus]

That is all. I just really really needed to share that as I proceed to spend another night in the fucking place we were fucking meant to have fucking moved out of in December all because new house renov still is not fucking finished. All because the fucking builder continues to fucking lie about everything and anything. Mr I'll have it done for you tomorrow nessus is nothing more than a bullshitting shit eating fucking liar. And if he offers up 'weather' as an excuse one more fucking time I will scream because it has been fucking dry here all weekend and if he could have been bothered to check forecast in advance he would have known this.

I can't believe I thought he was all my prayers answered back in October. I cringe at every recollected recommendation I offered up about him.

Fucking fuck fuck fucking fuck.

[phoolani]

I hate my builder, too. Cept mine won't even start. Bastard.

[LondonGirl83]

I hate my builder as well for all the same reasons you mention above. I feel like you could be me!

[Morgause]

I hated ours as well. A few years ago in the middle of a massive job for us he fucked off to flooded Tewkesbury for cash in hand stuff.

Bastards.

[RosegoldRuby]

Me too, I hate my builder. He's back redoing work that wasn't done properly in the first place. We had to threaten him with legal action before he'd get his finger out and finish and correct the mess he'd made.

Some of the tradesmen have been great, reliable, communicate with you instead of fucking off for weeks leaving a mess and not returning phone calls. But this bastard, we had to track him down to his house and hand deliver a letter promising legal action if he didn't come and do the work he'd said he'd finish in summer2013.

He's put walls in the wrong place, calculated bricks needed wrongly so we ended up with too many or too little. Even used the wrong kind of bricks which is why he's rebuilding now. Think he's at last realised DH is at very end of his tether.

One of my son's a plumber and he'd never treat customers like this.

Aaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!

[RosegoldRuby]

That's an inadequately angry face for this purpose. It looks cutely cross instead of murderous

[FloralPuddles]

I feel the pain being expressed on this thread :(

Ours finished this weekend but some of the work I may as well done myself as the finish is terrible, but I'm to weary to get him back to tidy up some of the finished, I'd rather live with it I think. I'm so, so angry.

[FloralPuddles]

*finishes

[nessus]

It sucks doesn't it to have these dicks in our lives! We must keep reminding ourselves that it has to end soon one day...but till then we will keep pressing confirm on yet another faster payment request

P.s anyone else dealing with this as a single female? And if so do you wonder if they are taking the extra piss?? Maybe I should have hired a pretend OH for the duration of the work

[MummytoMog]

NO. Having a man does not help. My builders (supposed to be finished before Christmas HA) try and sneak shit past OH because they know he is a light touch. They live in fear of me.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is just a job to them, not the house they have to live in or the most money they've ever spent ever, and so they're not as involved in it as I am. And keep reminding them about all the stuff they hope I'm going to forget about (put the fricking cat flap in NOW you bastards) and keep a list of shit they have to fix (giant hole in my back garden for a sump which then never got used and I still have a child/cat killing hole filled with water and rubble in which I will bury the fricking builder if he doesn't sort it out) and refuse to pay them their final payment until they sort it out.

Here's a joke for you - when we were still being nice to the workmen, we bought some tickets for the carpenter using OH's discount, to the theatre so he could take his wife for her birthday. Still don't have that 60 back. Fuckers.

[Itscoldouthere]

I'm moving in this direction, at the moment I don't hate my builder but it could come in the future, we do however hate our useless, moaning architect who just draws whatever he wants, not what we want, doesn't treat us like the client and has draw the most expensive materials for everything... we have the most over specified steel work and the most unbelievable amounts of insulation and I won't even begin to bore you with the foundations farce.

God help me we've still got weeks to go!

[nessus]

Mummytomog, god that made me laugh. And boy do I need to release somehow. Yes, I so know what you mean about keeping a list. As much as I want him gone, he will not be going anywhere until he has seen to all the points agreed in the original quote that he may have forgotten along the road of railroading me into additional work not budgeted for (I am ashamed to admit he so frightened me with the possibility of roof leaking horrendously after new paint job showed up a leaky corner that I agreed to getting it done as a matter of urgency. Even though the same bastard had told me AFTER INSPECTION that my roof was fine back in October and just needed a couple of patches which was already factored into the original quote).

And I can take the edge off the theatre ticket business. The fucking idiot that I am got a fucking engraved metal cup thingy with words to the effect 'p r o j e c t m a n a g e r o f t h e y e a r awarded to bastard builder. I must add in my defence that I began to hate him only 2 days after order was placed after he got mad that i didnt want to pay the balance / final invoice. Um yes because the work is not fucking finished you idiot. I was going to bin the pewter thingybob but decided I was being unreasonably angry. WTF!!!

[LondonGirl83]

MummyTog, its the same for me. OH is a softer touch so builder tries to speak to him whenever possible. My OH is actually just better at hiding how much he hates the builder than I am...

[nessus]

Itscoldouthere, treat them like the employees that they are is my only tip. And without sounding on edge be as cold and detached as possible in your dealings with them all. And yes they are all intent on doing what they want Because someone died and named them creative directors of our lives or something!!! My builder has the cheek to congratulate me when he finally comes round to my choices for fittings, material and even bleeding paint!

Pace yourself its going to be a long haul and we will all be there when you need us to hold you whilst you scream!!

[RosegoldRuby]

Our electrician's great, the bricklayers were a well-oiled machine, but this builder! I startled one of the other tradesmen who on enquiring as to how we were getting on with builder got the reply
"We're polite, but if I meet him alone, walking the dog in the woods, I'll fucking kill him"

I'm usually so calm and easy-going you see....

[MummytoMog]

Oh yeah. That's how I feel. Not to mention I suspect one of their day labourers cloned our cards and nicked money out of the kids' money box, thieving little toe rag (he fucked off after a week because he got a "whiplash" payout and apparently £8k made him feel like he didn't need a job any more). Seriously, DS's money box is about thirty quid light. My own stupid fault for leaving it lying around I suppose. Fuckers.

Also how dare they think that they can dictate what fixtures and fittings I get? I do not want your cheap shitty doors. Fucking plumber used his own towel radiator valves, not the nice ones I bought specially (and took the nice ones). Ditto electrician fitted shitty plastic light fittings everywhere, not the nice ones I had bought and left clearly marked for him. I will be replacing them the minute the builders are gone.

[Lioninthesun]

Ah see,my builder is ace. Painter, fab. Plumber however was a knob of the highest order. Every time I went on site he was sat reading the Sun and picking his nose. He didn't even stop digging for his brain when I said 'Hello!' He spent 2.5 months putting in a bathroom, en-suite and downstairs loo. Moaned all the way through it. Told me he hated my taps. Made me re-order pop-up plugs from Germany only to then tell me they wouldn't fit (£40 on postage and 2 months of faffing over Xmas later, of course) and has now fitted the cheapest chrome ones possible after agreeing to order in white ones (begrudgingly). He forgot to put a washer on the water pipe to the boiler which leaked for 2 months onto my newly tiled floor -even I know that is the first thing to check - and kept telling me it was 'just a bit of condensation'. Builders were constantly rolling their eyes about him and were the ones to told me it was a frigging washer in the end... I have been v. lucky with mine other than that though. Anyone in E.Kent, as I can recommend them happily

[MrsFlorrick]

Get a Building Surveyor to manage it for you and use their recommended trades

To those who had items stolen. Please contact the police. Imagine what they will steal from the next person. Don't let them get away with it. Ditto trades who steal high end fittings and leave you the £10 b&q version. It's theft pure and simple.

[Lioninthesun]

Mary - I built a house, so there are good ones out there, mine do lots of work for a well know private school which is a good sign. I got 4 quotes and theirs was second cheapest but had a much better rep locally than the cheapest. Meet with them a lot before you sign anything and keep your options open.

[LondonGirl83]

Mummytog, if they are stealing stuff that's bang out of order. I suspect our builder stole about 8 pairs of rad valves but I couldn't prove it so let it go as it wasn't a huge expense. However, if I thought anything else was going missing I'd be livid. Luckily I don't think anything else has that I care about has gone missing.

[Lioninthesun]

Oh and if a big amount like yours I'd say to pay in stages. Personally I liked the clearly laid out invoices and knowing where I was financially so costs couldn't go over budget. Also you can then keep an eye on what stage everything is at, so if there is a lot left they haven't factored time for you know to keep them up dated on that and add a few more weeks on to the end time in your head. Only extra costs here should be upgrading of certain items - fittings - from their bog standard (or conversely cheaper looking but more expensive), so you can do a bit of research and get a better idea of your likely spend and source things yourself if you like. They can then take that off the invoice as that section is done eg. they quoted £4k for bathroom and I sourced it for £2.5, so they took that £4k off the last instalment to them.

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

Mary - I was going to ask the exact same question! To those who are unhappy with their builder can I ask how you came to choose them?

We are waiting for plans back before contacting builders but have had more than one recommendation from different people about a particular builder. One person is now using them for the second time on a different project they were so impressed with the first project. I've also seen photos of the project's progression and they seem to be working very quickly and efficiently.

So on the strength of that I am tempted to not bother with a number of different quotes as is alway advised and just approach this one.

However hearing these tales of woe makes me very nervous about the whole thing now and I'm wondering whose opinion you can trust?!

[ContentedSidewinder]

I had an amazing builder so they do exist! Turned up every day and on budget

Electrician was fab, so were the decorators, I had the cleanest plasterer on earth, and the digger man who dug foundations, levelled my garden and let my sons play on his digger while he demonstrated the patience of a saint was also amazing.

The only person who pissed me off was the kitchen fitter, kept moaning about stuff then proceeded to overcome the issue. It was like he wanted a medal for doing his job. He also slagged off the other tradesmen (see above) and I felt like I was ripped off a bit at the end by him.

So all in all an amazing experience to watch and learn about the whole build and to now have an amazing kitchen which I skip in every day.

It must be awful to hate your builder.

[Lioninthesun]

Mary - sorry this is Kent I have no idea on your area sadly.
Do feel free to ask me anything and I can try to help if needed