Help help helpy help...what do we do now? Not sure who is responsible or how to resolve it.

[bobkate]

So, to try to avoid drip feeding as best I can I'll give some info.
We started our extension back in April, walls knocked out, double extension out the back, loft converted. So a big amount of work and a huge expense.
Very happy with our choice of builders, they did various neighbours houses and we've seen their work. Main guy, project manager really, has been on site v regularly until about 3 weeks ago. Up until now the work has been great, all done well.
At the beginning we had a discussion about UFH and the main guy said in the space we have (60sqm) it would be worth doing, and we could have karndean on the top, no problemo. So we thought okay - it's an extra expense but many people said we'd be glad that we did it.
So, the majority of the 'building' work itself has been completed. A few snagging things to be done but on the whole it's nearly there.
Cue the plumbers coming back for the second fix. Again - the work he has done up until now has been great. His pipes up in the loft are very neat, all great.
We get to the underfloor heating and the big problem.
The flooring in our kitchen/diner/lounge is made up of the old suspended wooden floor and the new concrete over pot and beam floor. So the plumber suggested a system using boards that the pipes are pushed into. Soliflex warm board I think the system is called. Builders still saying that either latex liquid or 9mm board could be fitted on top by whoever was doing our flooring but failed at the time to say how this was to be fixed and we didn't think to ask. ( mistake!! )
The plumbers did seem in a bit of a rush doing all the second fixes of radiators, etc and then onto the kitchen.

The flooring guy came round tonight ( he's an acquaintance of my DH ) and was a bit shocked I think about the work that's been done. I have attached a couple of photos, but the problems seem numerous.
A lot of the pipes are still slightly proud ( not the most major issue and the flooring guy - I'll call him FG- has said he'll go round and bash them down if needs be ) but surely this should have been done as we'll now be paying twice for that bit.
At the edges of parts of the room they have not used either the cement board or the black plastic board so the pipes are sitting on the floor - FG wonders how he can fit the 9mm ply where there's nothing there to fix to.
We can't use latex screed type stuff as the black plastic boards have numerous precut holes in them so the latex would simply seep through and be lost underneath and possibly lift the boards.
Some of boards do not have great joins, where some are slightly proud of the board next to it.
It all just seems a bit of a bodge and I don't blame the FG for being hesitant about how to lay a floor on top.
My main problem is that the main builder guy seems very hard to get hold of at the mo ( possibly moved on to a new job? ) and because it's all been great so far my DH and I are unsure of how snarky to get about it all. Both of us are really, really fed up with the issues surrounding the bloomin floor ( had issues with the bifolds as there seemed to be a lack of communication between the builders and the window people about the floor height,etc so this last has been far from plain sailing.)

Soooooo - awards go to you all if you got to this point -

What do we do now.....do we send the builder the photos and ask what he thinks and say we're not happy with what the plumber has done. Do we have any right to ask him to do it again? Should we just suck it up and hope FG has success patching in the holes and finding a way to stick the ply to the UFH boards? Are we being unreasonable in thinking it looks a bit bodgey?
We haven't paid for this part of the job yet - we have already had to postpone the kitchen fitter and arrival of the kitchen twice now. It won't be long before they get the hump and I wouldn't blame them.
If anyone has any thoughts on how we should proceed, or what you would do in this situation, or what a good resolution would be.
pigletjohn I am aiming this your way - does this look like a good job? What do we do if it is a bad job like I think it probably is..... waaaaaah I am fed up of living in the bloody caravan
I feel we've done so well up until now - and this is really souring the whole thing.

Adding another couple of pics. One showing the black boards with all the precut holes - therefore no liquid stuff.
Plus they have not been fixed down completely so the edges are properly flapping about.

It does look a bit messy but I don't really see why the screed can't be used.

I had similar boards for my UFH and the black plastic things had holes in them too and there were some gaps. The black plastic things should be screwed down anyway so won't lift up. The screed man just put self levelling latex over it all and it worked absolutely fine. (Screed man was different to flooring man - you need a specialist apparently)

Have you spoken to someone who is experienced in latex screeds?

Did you have many gaps down the sides though or between different areas? So many of the black boards have only one screw in so barely being held down and a lot a properly flappy. I'm presuming the plumber should one back and fix them down so they don't move.
I have not spoken to someone 're the latex screed as up until now, I had no idea we would have this dilemma and I thought the flooring people/companies would do it.
Not sure how to find one of those, specialist I mean.

I would expect the flooring people to screed. That's what ours have done. I wouldn't expect any "bashing". We got our floor man via the builder. Is,working out a lot easier as they just liaise. Is that a possibility?

gobbolino the original flooring guy the builder suggested proved highly elusive as well So we tried many others. No one said the same thing....I am at such a loss as to how to proceed

The guy who did my screed did plastering and screeding, have you spoken to any plasterers who do this?

I'm pretty sure there were gaps with mine, also there were two sections where the floor with UFH was higher than other parts of the house and the screen man put up a barrier there so the screed only went where he wanted it to go and not down the steps.

Hi,

We're not exactly the same position, but we are doing something similar. We have a concrete floor which makes it slight different too, but our process was:

Builder dug up floor, put down insulation and then laid ufh pipes (wet ufh). As builder is also gas and electric certified, he is putting in heating with gas certified friend. He then employed an external screed company. We paid for special quick drying cement- Ardex 29 and the external team of mixed and laid screed. This may take 3+ weeks to dry, but liquid screed may have taken 2-3 months...

The flooring man is completely separate and will come and fit the floor after testing the screed has fully dried. Flooring man is very particular and will only fit floor when a certain percentage dryness is reached as otherwise floor may fail. As we need kitchen by Christmas we may end up installing kitchen with the floor going down later in the new year, if they aren't satisfied.

I think there are a lot of screed companies about and you can probably employ one to do the job for you.

Good luck!

Thanks all. Plumber is coming back tomorrow to do some sorting out and the fg thinks he can sort the rest out.