To have said no to plumber asking not to finish the job until Monday?

[Cheeseismymiddlename]

First, will say, good plumber, In demand, been worth the wait and has done a really good job. No complaints at all with the craftsmanship.
But..... the job of replacing a small bathroom in a 3 bed semi ( our only Loo ) is almost into week 3. Will also add . I work in dentistry so very close up to people in very warm PPE. I need to be clean.

Plumber asked if he could start a week later than planned. Not ideal for solid reasons but these things happen.
Week 1 -day one , old bathroom out. Just a shell , no door , no light, Loo left In situ without the cistern so bucket of water needed to flush away. Also large hole in floor around the toilet so was quite an act to use the Loo at night with no light and avoid the hole. But we managed. No shower by the end of week 1 so booked into a Premier Inn for 2 nights to use the facilities. Thought it would only be another day or so of washing in the kitchen so cracked on.
Now at the end of week 2. Flushing Loo, Floor, Lights, Bath All in . No running water to sink. No shower. No door. Plumber could not work for us today but his colleague came and finished off a few bits. Sealing , fiddly grout etc. Plumber started another job as out bathroom small and difficult for 2 to work in at once . I get that but plumber’s mate had finished by 1pm so he could have come then I suppose, but instead arranged to come in the morning.
Tonight we receive a text. Can he have the weekend off and finish on Monday... . It’s 3 hours work.
DH was about to say ok. I said no way, but if he wants a lay in he’s welcome to start whenever he likes so long as it’s finished tomorrow.

Just to add, it’s a small house and there has been stuff in the hall and dining room waiting to be fitted and a skip on the drive . And builders dust. Not complaining, all part of the job I know but just wasn’t expecting it to take so long.
Anyhow, Plumber text back and says he will be hear At 8am. Good man.
DH won’t be here. So I’m going to have to be around. I just feel a bit awkward about insisting he comes back before the start of week 3.
Tell me IANBU. It’s not like me to put my foot down but 2 more days of no usable shower, sink, or bloody bathroom door just isn’t on .

YANBU

Side note- I also work in dentistry and after an AGP all you want is a shower so I'm impressed you've lasted this long!

I got my bathroom and downstairs toilet done in just under 2 weeks. What is taking them so long?

And our bathroom included installing a new shower over the bath

God no, YADNBU. It’s taken so long because he’s flitting between jobs. If he’d concentrated on yours he’d have been finished much sooner. My electrician pulled this stunt on me. Left early on a Thursday, said he’d be back on Sat to put lights in the downstairs loo, which was the only thing left to do. He then vanished for a week and a half leaving us literally, in the dark.

@ifiwasascent

Seriously, I don’t know how I’ve kept it together this long. The surgical caps have been good for covering my wild poorly rinsed hair mind you.

Meh.. after all this I think I would have just given him his weekend

No YANBU, our builder did this with our bathroom, they told us it would take 2 weeks, it overran into the next week, they stopped coming everyday in week 3 and when we asked how much longer it would take, the builder had the cheek to tell me that as it should have only taken 2 weeks they now had other jobs on as if it was my fault they only booked out that much time and overran.

It depends. My husband runs his own plumbing & heating company and I occasionally help out. I have worked on bathrooms with him where we believe the job will take 2 weeks but actually take 3. Reason being is that you cant see what you can't see when quoting. Example is where you rip the bathroom out and realise that all the floorboards are rotten and need replacing OR you rip tiles off the walls and the walls crumble and need replacing OR bloody plaster isn't availible anywhere because Covid stopped the production
I am sure in your work you may come accross things you weren't expecting and have had to alter the way you work to fix the problem?
That said, he shouldn't have promised to complete the bathroom on a weekend and ask to change that without good reason so I don't think you need to feel awkward without him giving you a genuine reason.
Hope the bathroom is lovely

Don't give it another thought. He's a pisstaker.

Yanbu!! I don't know how you've lasted either.

I had to get 2 fillings recently and although I felt a bit sorry for myself I really felt for the dentist and dental nurse with the huge amount of ppe they were having to wear. I felt uncomfortable just looking at them.

Of course YANBU.

@Lightsoutallout,
I’ve read my post again and appreciate I sound like I’m moaning about having a bathroom taken out and replaced. It was never going to be plain sailing and there were snags like you said . A rotten floor for one. The nearly finished bathroom is beautiful, he’s done a good job.
But thank you confirming it’s not ok to not come back and finish as promised without a good reason. For the sake of 3 hours work I really would appreciate a shower before work in Monday.
Hoping thing return to normal for you soon. The plumber did say he was glad to get the plaster .

YANBU he’s dragged it out enough already. If he has been more efficient this week, then it would probably be finished by now. So no he needs to finish it tomorrow

We are having ours done too and are also delayed. Apparently the plasterer he lined up is in hospital and so he had to ask another who now can’t come till Tuesday. So Fri and Monday nothing is happening at all waiting for the plasterer to turn up. Therefore he now thinks it will be finished by the Friday after next rather than next Friday as originally planned. At least we have another bathroom and toilet so not that bad but still annoying. He also kept the bathroom door on and kept it shut while he was working which helped keep down the dust. We also have stuff everywhere and the new toilet, sink and shower tray are in the lounge.

Why is it these experienced professionals are so poor at time estimates and time management? Do they under quote to win the job? Do they take in too much work, or are they just incompetent with their time management?

YANBU and good on you for holding your ground.

@NewPapaGuinea

Why is it these experienced professionals are so poor at time estimates and time management? Do they under quote to win the job? Do they take in too much work, or are they just incompetent with their time management?

Like PP said up thread, there are often problems with people's homes that you can't see until you've already started the work.

Damp, mould, rotten floors, walls that need re-plastering before they can be tiled or painted - lots of those issues can be fairly well disguised and by the time you notice it needs doing, you've already ripped the previous bathroom out.

It's not necessarily a case of poor time management or an inability to quote correctly. Most self employed people are on their own and will also be buggered if the person they've contracted in to do, say, the plastering suddenly can't make it on time.

2 weeks??? My father did our large bathroom (separate shower, tiles etc) in 7 days- he is very experienced but he is also a hard worker. Would have been quicker but I chose fiddly things that were not straight forward.

[quote Cheeseismymiddlename]@Lightsoutallout,
I’ve read my post again and appreciate I sound like I’m moaning about having a bathroom taken out and replaced. It was never going to be plain sailing and there were snags like you said . A rotten floor for one. The nearly finished bathroom is beautiful, he’s done a good job.
But thank you confirming it’s not ok to not come back and finish as promised without a good reason. For the sake of 3 hours work I really would appreciate a shower before work in Monday.
Hoping thing return to normal for you soon. The plumber did say he was glad to get the plaster .[/quote]
The last time I had a small bathroom replaced ( only one in the house,) it took 3 weeks. I was on holiday for two of those weeks .but I still remember the two days and one night without a working loo in the week I was home Only one person could work on it as well because it was so small.
It is one of the reasons I have put off.getting the grotty (only) bathroom in our current house refine.

He did a great job though so I was very happy after the fact

No two bathrooms are going to take the same amount of time, plumbers don't have x-ray vision, nor are they likely to be ripping up floorboards to see what the pipework and floorboards actually look like. So its pointless saying 'oh well my bathroom only took x amount of time'. An estimate is just that - an estimate. You wouldn't believe the mess some so called plumbers make of pipework when installing it, meaning that the next plumber who comes in is left to deal with that mess and bring it up to standard.

@Lightsoutallout

It depends. My husband runs his own plumbing & heating company and I occasionally help out. I have worked on bathrooms with him where we believe the job will take 2 weeks but actually take 3. Reason being is that you cant see what you can't see when quoting. Example is where you rip the bathroom out and realise that all the floorboards are rotten and need replacing OR you rip tiles off the walls and the walls crumble and need replacing OR bloody plaster isn't availible anywhere because Covid stopped the production I am sure in your work you may come accross things you weren't expecting and have had to alter the way you work to fix the problem? That said, he shouldn't have promised to complete the bathroom on a weekend and ask to change that without good reason so I don't think you need to feel awkward without him giving you a genuine reason. Hope the bathroom is lovely

But the issue is when other jobs are taken in between and you're left in the lurch.

Yes he shouldn't be doing jobs in between unless its an emergency or unless he can't move on with the bathroom he's doing (e.g he is waiting for plaster to dry). Sometimes if things crop up- eg the rotten floorboards that OP says cropped up then it will take an extra day or so to then source materials and fix that and you've then got to let other customers down who you've promised to start work for on that day. That can't be helped and you have to hope people will be understanding.
When my husband gives time estimates it is exactly that- a time estimate. He would always explain to the customer what the hold up/ delay was.
The plumber at OPs house has clearly overran due to unexpected problems that have come up and you would have thought he would want to get the bathroom done with for OPs sake and also so he can be paid. He shouldn't have promised to come in on a Saturday and then change his mind. Hopefully OP will get her clean on today