AIBU to think I'm more likely to find the Holy Grail than a builder who wants our work?

[Downandoutnumbered]

We have a problem with our new house, which I've whinged about on here already. We need someone to come in and do some work asap. Three people have come and looked at it so far and none of them are interested. I don't get it: it's a few days' work for a general building firm, and it must be obvious to anyone who comes to look that we're likely to want other work done in the next year or so - so potential longer-term customers - and they still don't want it. I don't get it. What am I doing wrong?

are you demanding that the work be done straight away?

what is the work, if you can describe it.

No, not straight away, though I would like it done soon - but we haven't even got as far as talking about timing! They just come and look, suck their teeth and tell us we need someone else. It's sorting out the aftermath of having a lot of rainwater come up through the floor, probably involving work to the damp course - so it's cold, wet and dirty work.

I'm going to call a surveyor tomorrow and ask exactly what the work is, in builder-speak, in the hope that the next lot at least just turn me down over the phone rather than making me wait in for them.

Sounds like you maybe need damp proof course specialists who will guarantee the work. I expect that's the problem. It's too specialist for general builders. Did you renegotiate the purchase price or did it happen after you moved in? Likely to be expensive I'm afraid.

It happened three days after we moved in! We are insured but God know what the insurance will pay for.

I think I do need a surveyor - the trouble is that it's only our best guess that the damp course is the problem, so we could get in damp course specialists only for them to suck their teeth and say it wasn't really their bag..

Get your insurers over for a look then. They will send a surveyor. If they won't cover it then at least you'll know better what to ask for.

Yes, you must speak to your insurer.

They will send someone who can tell you whether you are covered, and also provide a schedule of works. You can then, IME, choose to have any remedial works done by their approved contractor, or take a cash settlement and find someone to do the work yourself

I"ve been trying to speak to the insurers but haven't been able to get hold of them because of the damn bank holidays - will call them in the morning.any idea how long they might take to send someone?

I'm actually in a screaming panic about this and just haven't known where to turn. I so wish we hadn't bought the house!

I had this problem with roofers when trying to get a flat roof replaced. Just getting them out to look at it was hard enough, but could I get an actual quote? Could I hell. It took about three years to find someone willing to come in and do it. And he bodged it. It leaked in the first heavy rain and he is denying it's a bad job, claiming I need to replace the roof lantern too (which he can of course quote for)

Insurers won't cover it because it's not an "insured peril". I am actually quite tempted to lie on the floor and scream.

I've got a call out to the surveyor who looked at the house in March (it's definitely not his fault: whatever is causing this it's a very recent problem, and he didn't have access to the neighbour's garden where almost certainly the water is coming in), so I'm hoping he'll be able to come over today and tell us what kind of work we need done to fix it.

You can't do any fixing until you stop the source of water so completely and utterly pointless getting the builders in. They can fix it, but it will just get damaged again in a short space of time and they have no desire to leave themselves open to claims of not doing the job poperly.

So yes, to getting the surveyor back in to identify where the source of the problem is. If the water is coming in from the neighbours, they may well be liable anyway!

Gosh, find out how the water's coming in and fix it. How clever of you to think of that, it would never have occurred to me.

Just wanted to say I feel your pain.
Just had £7k work done on our house including laying an engineered wood floor in the the basement level (which is our kitchen/living room). Every time it rains the new (very lovely expensive) floor bulged up, expanding due to damp. Fortunately our builder is lovely and has come back and taken up the new floor and put a damp proof resin over the underlying concrete floor. It's all drying out now and the wood will hopefully be relaid and back to normal on Monday.
But we've asked him to quote on digging up the patio alongside the back of the house, and laying a damp proof membrane up to the house and relaying the patio. No point in dampproofing inside if you don't stop the water coming in from outside, right?
Cue lots of tooth sucking from the builder who plainly just can't be arsed to do this despite us paying him more. Grrr. Yesterday DH pinned him down and he will (probably) quote on it. But it's like drawing blood, don't know why he doesn't want to do it.
BTW we had proper damp proofing done 5 years ago on our walls with a damp proofing company. If do you get damp work done pay for the insurance backed guarantee. Our company offered their own guarantee but have now closed down and are trading under a slightly different name so won't honour the guarantee any more

Where are you - my hubby does damp work?

It's all right in the end - got the surveyor back and also had a brainwave and called the very good firm of builders who did some work for us on our old house. They're based in Essex so I thought they wouldn't be interested in this job, but actually it sounds as though they're low on work and are pleased to take it. They've had a look and have suggested a way of dealing with it, which we're running past the surveyor, but it all sounds very sensible (essentially involves digging a drain between the neighbour's flowerbed and our wall and coating the below-ground bit of the wall with silicone).

thing1, yes, can't be arsed is exactly it with some of the people we've seen over the last week! It makes me very annoyed when people say they'll come and quote, then realise it's actually going to be quite hard work but won't come out and say they don't want to do it. We had it with our last house when we needed a supporting post of the porch replaced: we eventually found our lovely Essex builders, who did a great job, but in the meantime the wretched porch nearly fell down on our heads.

West London, Betty - would that be any good to your husband?

No, funny enough we;re based in Essex too but thanks anyway!!

The damp company name doesnt begin with S does it?