What damages did your builder cause you?

[ToExtendOrNotToExtend]

If you had an extension built, what damages did you get? I wonder if everyone gets it or it's just me. What should be the builder's responsibility to make good? I am not sure what's reasonable to request.

Damages to new:

1. Brand new fridge bought a few days before the building work started has three dents on it now, one in the corner is terribly deep - I pointed out to the builder, just hoped they would be more careful in the future, builder denied it's caused by them, said I could have damaged it myself...
2. Brand new gas hob just been fitted has a deep dent at the back, which makes the hob doesn't sit flat on the worktop and the pot stands don't sit flat on the hob - builder hasn't admitted this is caused by his team yet. I checked the hob after I received the delivery and it was perfect then, so cannot send it back for refund or exchange. He argued £200 extra for kitchen fitting after the work is done, I won't be impressed if he just offers to fix it with a hammer. I am not sure if the warranty is still valid in this case.

Damages to old/existing:

1. Old hob was smashed by accident, builder said it's hard to put up a steel beam without causing damages. That's two hobs damaged by builders in total.
2. After the plumber came on-site for the first time, the old boiler started to drip. I was told to leave the house that day and had no idea what happened. Then the leak stopped itself and the boiler was working fine. When the plumber came back to do radiators, old boiler started to leak badly. I have no idea whether it was coincidence or something happened. I have plans to replace the boiler anyway, so it didn't matter much to me. But the builder still said it had nothing to do with them to clear his responsibility.
3. Plasterer got a LOT of PVA on a long wooden window seal, which make it really sticky and has to be sanded and re-vanished. The window is brand new, fitted a month before plastering. After plastering, the silicone along the window seal is all broken. Builder said that's nothing to do with his plasterer and told me to sand and re-vanish myself. I don't even know what vanish to buy and how to vanish, that's going to take me a day to learn how to do the job, buy the material, and repair.
4. Garage doors (front and back) are trashed by loading material and rubbish, having a mini-digger going through, etc. They are not new and I may replace them in a few years time, I didn't say anything.
5. Front door got damaged when getting a steel in, I have plans to replace it soon, so we just hammered it straight to allow it to be able to shut again.
6. Next door neighbour claims her car is damaged by my builder. My builder denies it and neighbour is very very very angry... I don't know whether my builder did it, I saw him parked right next to neighbour's car. In order to soften the relationship with neighbour, I have bought a very expense bottle of champagne for Christmas.
7. Long cracks in walls upstairs, cracks in tiles, between tiles. This is expected and common. Did your builder make it good for you? My builder is telling me to fill the cracks by myself. I can fill the wall, but not the tiles.

I am glad I decided to stretch to extend before renovation. Otherwise it will be very costly to repair or replace the damages.

Other than this, I have also had problems with suppliers.

1. Builder's window supplier supplied the bi-folds, a couple of panels have long scratches/marks on the glass, one panel is especially bad. Luckily I haven't paid the balance and they are going to replace one panel.
2. Builder's worktop supplier did worktop etc, it was a nice job apart from one small piece has a dip in it. I have already paid in full, the supplier says they can fill it. Can quartz be filled and look good?

Am I just unlucky? Is this the usual with builders? Are my expectations too high? The builder was recommended by a friend and they were really happy with him. I was happy with him in the beginning, but getting unhappy.

Two small chips on a painted kitchen end panel, while laying the floor. That's it.

We have just had a loft conversion and a very small hole in ceiling plaster of one of the existing bedrooms appeared during the build. They replastered the whole ceiling without quibble. In fact we just finished the snagging this week. It was a pretty long list, some of which I know I could have easily rectified myself but they did everything. We had final contractor in to do last thing on our list today. As a result was more than happy to settle final invoice straightaway.

You are so lucky.
The worktop people damaged the corner of a new plastered wall when they were carrying the worktop in. I did suggest them to come through the back, they decided to come through the front...

That sounds all kinds of wrong.
Do not leave your house again while they are working.
If you haven't paid the whole bill yet, do not do so until everything has been sorted out to your satisfaction. And if it isn't, deduct a reasonable sum to put things right. (But whatever you do, don't tell them you are planning on this.) However, I've got a feeling that you've already paid them the full amount?
And finally, NEVER use them again.
If they're on any kind of social media, give them an honest review (but again, don't do this until they've finished).

Gosh that’s absolutely awful. We renovated a whole house, pretty much, the only damage was the builder accidentally cutting the tv cable to the house. He can’t fix that but we told him not to worry.

Any other small issues were things like paint needing to be touched up as they’d chipped it carrying materials past, but this was done as a matter of course. They asked us to walk around and make a snag list and we then went over it together before they corrected everything. I am so sorry you’ve had such a poor experience.

Our current builders are fine but we had some in London who...

1. Didn't nail the skirting boards on, just glued them, so they ripped off the wall when the carpet was being laid
2. Didn't use the supplied anti moisture paper/supplied proper fixings when fitting the wooden work top so it warped (the day before the flat went on the market)
3. Cut holes in the bath panel rather than remove it to do some pipe work so I then had to get a carpenter to come in and try and match it to the rest of the panelling in the bathroom
4. Threw grout down the toilet and it just set in the bottom of the bowl, could not get it off and it stained awfully
5. Sanded back the floor and revarnished but must just waved a paintbrush at it as it was covered in streaks and drips and was patchy, also got it all up the woodwork

I was 9 months pregnant at the time so just mainly cried in my bedroom rather than fight it out. Luckily I went two weeks overdue.

I haven't paid the full amount yet. He asked for the money for new boiler and radiators twice before they are up and running and I didn't give it to him.

There is also still a lot to do. We are supposed to be finished by end of Nov. The builder has got too many projects going on, it will go on for at least another month.

He is recommended by a friend and they were really happy with their work, no damages like this... I wonder if it's me being too soft on the builder and didn't manage it well?

I am seriously not impressed, he is arguing for more money on any extra work he does, but not taking the responsibility for the damages. He even hinted twice for tips/gifts for Christmas.

We had a terrible experience with our last builder. Brand new patio doors were damaged and the locks picked out which they then replaced by ones that were half the size.
New flooring had paint and varnish stains all over it.
Things went missing - not of massive value - but log burner basket and tools, buckets, mops, etc. Big scratch appeared across one of my brand new kitchen cupboards.

They also damaged our resin drive so that had lots of marks in it from scaffolding and delivery pallets.
Was completely painful.

The only damage I can recall (I have done three extensions to my own homes and renovated eight properties to sell) was a plumber put his foot through the ceiling into the living room which was not being touched. They were hugely embarrassed and made the repair look seamless. That's it. Any other damage was either done and fixed before I knew about it or just didn't happen. Your builders sound particularly clumsy and maybe some jobs were not done in the right order. And I've never had work cause cracks in other rooms, certainly not the tiles! Sound like real chancers - and Christmas bonus!! I just gave my project manager a nice bottle of wine and he was very surprised and grateful.

Oh my word, the damage to the fridge and hob alone is really, really bad, let alone all the other stuff. We did a major renovation and I’m racking my brains to think of any issues. I vaguely remember they nicked a piece of furniture in the front room but fixed it with wood filler. I don’t think you should pay anything else until these issues are all rectified, OP.

The builder has a team of about 10 people, but took on 6-7 projects at the same time.
A lot of the work here is not done in the right order and they are not doing it in the right way, for example standing on freshly screeded floor to close the door and made the new floor uneven. They put a patch down after I requested it.
Reading other people's posts, I feel I have chosen a bad builder, but it's too late to replace them.

That's really not good. The hob and fridge damage is completely unacceptable. Where are the appliances being stored? They obviously need to be further away from where the building work is going on. You don't deny a metal appliance without noticing.

The cracks in existing rooms is worrying. We got settlement cracks on the new plaster over time, which is very annoying but I understand fairly common. The existing rooms never had any cracks.

The boiler, if old, may start leaking simply from the fact that it's had more pressure through it or parts moved during the work being done. The plumber won't necessarily have caused it but it might have accelerated a fault that was about to happen.

With our extension the only damage we had was to our lawn from a skip scraping along the surface a bit when it was picked up. We all saw it happen and winced as the grass got mashed up but it was just one of those things really.

There was also a bit of a miscommunication about the driveway. The builder asked if we would be replacing it and we said yes at some point when the extension was finished. They went and mixed concrete directly on it. Unfortunately due to cash flow we had to hold off doing the driveway and ended up not getting around to doing it for about 5 years.

Sounds like a lot and they weren’t careful.

Ours took a ding out of new front doors and repaired and filled. Generally though they were careful tidy and clean and quite respectful of what was new/being kept and only trashed stuff that’s going to go in renovation.

We were home a lot though….

I don't know whether they were like this because they think I am replacing everything? If things can be saved, I don't have to pay extra money for new.

Through out the job, they are not tidy, new patio area was like a rubbish pit. A few floor boards were pulled up for cables, pipes, so under the floor become another rubbish pit...

This sounds awful. That’s a lot of mistakes. We fell lucky with our builder he was amazing. He made one error which caused a leak but he rushed back to fix it & he often helps out with jobs for us & we keep in touch. He’s a genuinely lovely guy. He has a small team and seems to really look after the families he does work for.

The builder's plumber rushed off the job without testing and now is off for Christmas. I have just noticed leakage in the kitchen and it has started to damage the kitchen units.
I sent photos to the builder and he tried to blame the kitchen supplier for the units first, told me to wrap the leaking pipes in a towel and wait for his plumber to come in 5 days time.

The builder thinks all the issues are small, nothing to worry about. I am getting really unhappy with their work. There is still a number of jobs to do, changing builder will certainly cause delay.

What can I do now? Does anyone have experience in dealing with this?

Unfortunately it seems the jobs were done in the wrong order. Usually a kitchen is one of the last things to go in a house.
You need to keep a close eye on them. I’d you see them doing something you don’t like tell them.
Tell him you want the damages sorted and you are keeping a percentage back for snagging (usually 10%). Beware some builders will just walk off site at this point and take the 10% hit and not bother sorting any of the problems

None that I can remember. Apart from my garden which got wrecked, which we expected. Any damage they caused would have been repaired. They even repaired my Neighbour’s stairs as a goodwill gesture for letting them access the site from his side (they didn’t break the stairs)

Mine have scratched my stainless steel freezer, so need to replace the door. And a carpenter lost our front door keys quite early on, so they had to do a temp lock replacement for the duration of the build and now they're paying to replace my big chunky locks.

I'm lucky that my builder is fussier than I am about the standard of finish!! He's a perfectionist thank goodness

Same extension boat here. We’re currently on snagging issues. Scratches on big window , plaster stuck to hob , scratched . Painter didn’t use masking tape and didn’t sand before painting woodwork. New flooring splattered with paint and badly sized in places .Roughcaster hasn’t completed job and made such a mess. There’s a massive lump of concrete stuck to the new build at the base of the brickwork. It’s 2ft by 1 and 1ft high. We kept our old kitchen units to be refitted and a few doors have been damaged and they re stained . The builder was recommended by a friend and his reviews were good. We emptied the house, lived in a flat but left the kitchen for them. My OH was down almost daily checking the work. I haven’t listed all snagging issues but our issues have been met with such BS. I really do want to offload about this. I feel your pain. We have an extra huge payment to make that include the snagging money. I think snagging gives them an excuse to do a bad job and just come back and moan at us. I feel like getting an independent builder in or even a survey done.
i want the jobs done but I’m so sick of them all.

One cracked floor tile.

None whatsoever. We had a brilliant builder who actually discovered and rectified several problems left over from when the house was built.

Sounds like you had a bum deal.

Didn't really cause any damage when we did a kitchen extension. ..we moved out and house sat for a friend over Xmas into January, the idea being they could get on but they didn't go in much over the Xmas break. I think one or two glasses got broken while we were away. One thing I always remember because it seemed such an odd thing to go missing/get nicked: The "pusher" which goes into the Magimix lid tube!

We are just starting plastering but we have had a drainpipe knocked off by a mini digger (to be fair, the side access is so narrow I couldn’t bring myself to watch), which they were mortified about and replaced as soon as the diggers left. And one cracked paving stone on the drive but that was caused by a delivery rather than any of the builders so I’d take that as fair wear and tear.

You have a terrible builder to be frank! We had a couple of minor things all sorted quickly at no cost to us. Any teething problems i have called about after have been dealt with quickly. e.g boiler not working.