gah! bloody builder!!!!

[libelulle]

After 8 weeks of waiting, at the end of a 5 month building project, our beautiful set of aluminium sliding-folding doors for our extension have finally arrived. They cost nearly 5 grand. And I have just noticed that they are the WRONG COLOUR! - white instead of grey.

The builder had all the details, including colour, on the quote we gave him from the manufacturer. Knowing him, he probably lost the bit of paper and then just decided on white without consulting us.

Where the hell do we go from here? We've just moved in this week and the windows were going to be fitted this coming tuesday. I'm not sure I can bear the idea of waiting another 8 weeks with a flimsy hardboard structure instead of windows while they make a new set - let alone the bad feeling it would create with the builder.

What do we do?! Ask for a reduction in price from the builder, and if so how much? How on earth do we quantify living indefinitely with windows that are not the ones we originally wanted?

Or does anyone know if the manufacturer (kloeber) could respray the windows grey? They aren't fitted yet, they are just lying in our kitchen making me feel sick every time I look at them :(

Oh noooooo. I really feel for you. I think you will just have to take the plunge and have it out with your builder. You don't have to go in all guns blazing. Just point out you told him grey, you definitely don't want white, and see what he says. Waiting another five months would be a pain but not long in the scheme of things and you'd get over that part of it.

If you decide to live with it it will annoy you forever more. We bought a cast iron fireplace from a salvage yard and arranged for it to be sent directly to a company that could acid strip the white paint and buff up the metal. It took three months then I got the call to say it was ready and had 'come up lovely'. I dashed over there all excited, only to find it was the wrong fireplace. It had taken us months to find and choose the perfect one. When we contacted the salvage yard, they were apologetic about the cock up but the one we wanted had long since gone. Gutted. So we had to live with the wrong one. We would never had chosen it - too ornate for our taste - and for years I couldn't walk in the lounge without feeling annoyed. I've learned to live with it but even now when visitors say they like the fireplace I find myself bitterly replying that it's the wrong bloody one.

Sorry long story, what I'm trying to say is if you can get it changed, do, despite the hassle factor.

Oh what a nightmare! I think you need to talk to your builder, very nicely but firmly say they are not the colour you wanted and see what he says. Waiting for new ones would be a pain but better surely than living indefinitely with ones that's aren't what you wanted?

Thanks! You're probably both right - I guess we should at least ring the company to see whether they can respray without making the whole damned things again.

Still feeling utterly sick to the stomach about it all. Not only will it be delay with the windows, but also everything else that goes with it - making the house secure, laying the kitchen floor, etc etc, all while attempting to live in building chaos with two small children and everything covered in dust. Ahhhhhh!

Maybe white wouldn't be so bad after all?!?! Anyone have lovely white aluminium bifold doors on a victorian house that they think look really fantastic?

What colour are your other windows? If white then I think white bifold doors would look ok, but if they're not what you want will it annoy you forever more?

Yes, the other windows are white too, so in theory it should look ok. Problem is that I'm not actually sure whether it will bug me forever, or whether I won't even notice after a few weeks! The phrase 'first world problems' was probably invented for such awful dilemmas as 'should my windows be white or grey?' But on the other hand, it is a LOT of money if we do end up unhappy with them forever.

I would at least talk to the builder; it's possible that it's the company who've cocked up rather than him and he might be able to replace them at no cost to himself, saving builder-customer fall-out.

Possible, Daisy, but to be honest it would be so entirely in character for the builder to have got it wrong that the odds are v. strongly in that direction! He hasn't been completely rubbish, the extension looks pretty good overall - he's just overworked, chaotic and inclined not to check with us before deciding stuff. So far we've been lucky and there have been no major issues. So annoying that this was the very last piece of the jigsaw, and the only one that goes really pear-shaped!! I think you are all right, we have to discuss it with him and see what can be done - it's just so tempting to take the easy option and say 'sod it just go ahead'!

The builder has admitted that it was completely his fault, which is good news of sorts! He has offered to get replacements in the right colour, but we've decided that for various reasons we really can't afford to wait another few months for this all to be done.

He has agreed to give us compensation for us having to live with the wrong colour, but has left it up to us to suggest an initial figure. Anybody have ideas on what would be reasonable??? I'm at a loss. They cost 5 grand. Would 1000 off be fair??

Well at least he admitted it. I've no idea what amounts to fair compensation though, sorry.

We have white bifold doors on an Edwardian house. They look fine - all other window are white. We chose the white - thought grey wouldn't go with others. Glad we did!

Have it out with builder - insist on reduction in cost and live with it?

I feel for you. You spend months choosing and it's horrid when you end up with the wrong thing through no fault of your own.

You do have the option to get them
Redone by the builder at no cost which is great. To live with boarded up section of the house isn't ideal but it's doable over the summer.

If you just want to go ahead with the ones there, I don't think £1000 is unreasonable.

But you need to be sure you want to install the white ones. If you are going to feel bad every time you see them because they are
the wrong colour, then you should have them redone.

For what it's worth, I would have chosen white frames if the rest of the window frames in the house are white as it would
look odd otherwise. But that's just my view and if you want grey, then go for it. It shouldn't take that long to get them
redone.

Well, they are in, just about, and still covered in blue tape so hard to see the final effect! I am having major surgery in a few months' time hence the wanting to get things over and done with.

Thanks for all the votes for white - a couple of friends have said they'd have gone with white too, and though I shouldn't care what anyone else thinks, it does make me feel better! Our thinking was that the other windows are original victorian sash, whereas this is the 'modern bit' of the house, hence the difference in colour/material. I don't think we'll hate it, but still feel grey was our first preference, so we will push for a reduction. Thanks for all the sympathy - it feels so petty at one level to care at all, so I appreciate no-one telling me to get a grip:)

You might be surprised how quickly you forget about it not being what you ordered.

Not on the same scale at all but our electrician put in shiny chrome spotlights instead of the satin/brushed chrome we wanted. Didn't make a fuss at the time as he'd done quite a bit of extra work for the fixed price so we thought we'd just get the spotlights changed if we hated them. Haven't really given them a second thought since then. I think there are a lot of choices you agonise over, trying to get just the right thing, but in the end turn out to be fairly immaterial.

i'm a builder.
ok, he got it wrong and it's his fault. but may i just point out that a mistake like this will probobly depress him seriously, well it would me anyway. it does happen, clangers are dropped from time to time in construction, but it hurts.

Yup, I take your point chairmanmeow, which is one of the reasons why we haven't pushed for a complete replacement. On the other hand, his team have admitted that he can be extremely careless about this kind of thing - the verbatim quote this morning from the carpenter was 'he's rubbish at ordering windows'!!! And it isn't the only issue either, it comes against a backdrop of sloppy mistakes (ordering the wrong length steels for instance!!) and not reading the plans properly. In fitting the bifolds today, for eg, they had to dig out the screed and expose the underfloor heating pipes to sort the levels out, and there is still going to be a 30mm step whereas the plans showed the base of the frame coming level with the floor.

Like I said above, the build hasn't been a complete disaster, but neither am I prepared to completely absolve him from blame the way I would if I thought it was just 'one of those mistakes' that could have happened to anyone, if that makes sense?

Given that backdrop, I'd be interested to know if you still think we're unreasonable asking for some compensation?

How much has the whole job been? 1k compo on a 10k job, excessive iyswim?

I would have chosen white, grey very 70s imho.

It was a v. big job! So nearer 1% than 10% of total

I don't think you should feel bad about wanting exactly what you spent time researching and choosing!! And you shouldn't feel bad about asking for some money off to compensate you.

However your description of the 30mm change in level which the builder had to dig out where you had wanted no change in level. Is there any technical or practical reason why it cannot be evened out?? If it can then this is what you should push for rather than the compensation.

If your intention was to have the inside and out side level, then having a 30mm step will annoy you. And offering the builder the opportunity to correct that with the incentive not to ask for money for the frames, would probably motivate him to sort that out. And I think it would give you what you were looking for in the first place.

Check with the company first - there is usually a difference in cost between white & grey. White is usually cheaper. I have grey doors but my friend has white, it's just a different look and both are fine.

The fitting is usually quite a specialist service - did the company offer one? Were the doors low threshold? i.e limited step? We had a great service from our door company and they are wonderful.