Builders barely showing up?

[Downtoncrabbey]

We are having an en-suite built from scratch. I was initially told it would take around 2 weeks. The issue is they barely turn up - they worked 1.5 days last week. I was expecting them in every day?

I raised my concerns and said this wasn’t on, but now it’s looking the same this week. They showed up Monday morning and I thought great - then left a couple of hours later. Citing being understaffed (not sure I believe this). They are going to do other jobs.

They now say it will take around 4 weeks worth of work. But at this rate of coming in 1.5 days a week, it will take several months.

We’ve had to move everything out of both bedrooms and are sleeping on the lounge floor. I don’t want to live on a building site for months with our stuff crammed everywhere, especially when it is not necessary.

The guy in charge is a major bullshitter. Before starting, we asked how long it would all take and he said 2 weeks. When I reiterated this after they started, he said ‘oh no I meant that was just for my bit’. But it will be 2 weeks on Friday and I doubt even his bit will be done, barely anything has been done. I said I’m not happy and I don’t want this dragging on. Before they started I told him multiple times that I wanted it done in as short a time as possible, and he said ‘yes of course’. I’ve said ‘so this will be done in 4 weeks time’ and he says yes but I can tell he’s just telling me what want to hear.

What can I do?

Do you have any agreed contract, or anything in writing to agree a timescale? Hopefully you haven't paid him much so far?

If he won't engage or get the job really underway then I think you might be edging towards needing to stop working with him. It doesn't sound as though he's someone to be trusted to finish the work.

This sounds miserable, OP, and I am sorry. Do you have any working bathrooms in your house in the mesntime?

I agree it would help us to know your contract and payment status, because these are your tools of leverage.

The builder probably is understaffed and all builders seem to be experiencing supply shortages. But that doesn’t mean you should be relegated to the back of the queue. Hope to hear more from you soon.

No contract, just a quote and invoice for a deposit. We’ve paid a deposit but it is small compared to the overall cost.

A frustrating lesson to learn that no decent tradesman works without a contract.

we had a builder like this it was an absolute nightmare!
we tried carrot first - we’ll pay you £3K over the quote if you get to this stage by this date - didn’t work! We sacked them in the end ~ when we were at a stage when we were even money wise.
the saddest thing - one of the guys told me about a time they turned up at a pregnant woman’s house to do some work, she was over the moon, went inside to make them all a cup of tea, the boss phoned & pulled them off to another job for someone who was shouting louder than she was!!
Bloody bastard I still hate that builder with a passion!

Good luck!

Sorry OP but I think I would give up on them now rather than be kept hanging on. It means losing the deposit but you can hopefully either find someone else who can get on with the job now, or put the house back to being as liveable as possible and wait to find someone better. Builders doing this is incredibly stressful.

4 weeks of work? We're having an entire family bathroom done, with a shower where there wasn't one, and it has to be stripped back to brick/studding from being fully tiled. Complex, as it is in the roofspace and has a sloping roof and a velux, roof also has to have all the plasterboard off, plus the water can't be isolated from the kitchen or other loo and the old pipework was like Spaghetti Junction. They said 3 weeks, and only that long because the plumber is on holiday the middle week. 3 days in, it's all stripped, 1st fix plumbing is all in, new battening on all the brick walls, niche in, and noggins in for the fittings. Some tricky problems that cropped up due to it being an old house with strange wastepipe routes wandering all over the place etc. solved along the line. Tomorrow, short day, 1st fix electrics and fit bath. Then a break, next week one day for boarding and one for plastering. Then tiling (about a day as they are large). When plumber back from hols, a day, maybe two to finish fitting. Electrician will pop back and do his 2nd fix at some point, 3 lights, a fan, and a shaver socket. So altogether, maybe about 10 days of work over 3 weeks for loo, sink, bath and shower. (we're doing decorating and floor). And this is what they told us it would be when we booked the job in, and we are fine with them coming and going as I work at home and am here anyway, and we have a separate shower and loo. How the heck can an ensuite take 4 weeks?