Hi, just wondered if i could get a 'builder's point of view' on this.
We're currently having the position of an external door and window into our kitchen 'swapped' to provide a final exit from the stair to satisfy building regs for a loft conversion. The builders started work on Wednesday morning. When my wife returned home in the evening she just happened to meet the builder at the end of our road where he said he was waiting for her to return (seemed a bit odd? waiting at the end of the road?). She said she'd see them in the morning and then went to the back of the house to see they'd left the house as shown in this pitcure- . Bearing in mind we're still using the kitchen and bathroom in the house and the house still has 90% of our belongings inside we were astonished that they had left the house open like this. It was also raining at the time.
Thursday was much the same when we returned to find the house looking like this -
We spoke to them and they said there was nothing else they could do. We understand it is difficult to board up in this situation but the fact that they just left the house like this without even phoning us to tell us they were going, to check what time we were returning or to tell us that again they had been unable to secure the house. (they had not asked us to be back by a certain time and we undestood they worked until 5pm but our neighbours tell us they left soon after 4pm).
We feel that this is totally unacceptable but are a little cautious at approaching them for fear they'll say they don't want to finish the work and leave us with a big hole in the side of our house and therefore a big problem!!! I'm sure it wouldn't have been too tricky to even lean a piece of wood up against the props or fasten up a tarp so it wasn't so obvious the house was open - there was even a piece of 8' x 4' sheathing ply just off the picture that they could have used!!! They did however manage to take all their tools upstairs and cover them with some sheets - presumably in the hope they didn't get stolen!!!
I work as an architectural consultant and thought i'd be safe using someone on our approved builders list who does a lot of work for us but i'm not at all impressed with them.
Could anyone give me a builder's point of view in an attempt to defend them? Or is this indefensible???[/img]
We're currently having the position of an external door and window into our kitchen 'swapped' to provide a final exit from the stair to satisfy building regs for a loft conversion. The builders started work on Wednesday morning. When my wife returned home in the evening she just happened to meet the builder at the end of our road where he said he was waiting for her to return (seemed a bit odd? waiting at the end of the road?). She said she'd see them in the morning and then went to the back of the house to see they'd left the house as shown in this pitcure- . Bearing in mind we're still using the kitchen and bathroom in the house and the house still has 90% of our belongings inside we were astonished that they had left the house open like this. It was also raining at the time.
Thursday was much the same when we returned to find the house looking like this -
We spoke to them and they said there was nothing else they could do. We understand it is difficult to board up in this situation but the fact that they just left the house like this without even phoning us to tell us they were going, to check what time we were returning or to tell us that again they had been unable to secure the house. (they had not asked us to be back by a certain time and we undestood they worked until 5pm but our neighbours tell us they left soon after 4pm).
We feel that this is totally unacceptable but are a little cautious at approaching them for fear they'll say they don't want to finish the work and leave us with a big hole in the side of our house and therefore a big problem!!! I'm sure it wouldn't have been too tricky to even lean a piece of wood up against the props or fasten up a tarp so it wasn't so obvious the house was open - there was even a piece of 8' x 4' sheathing ply just off the picture that they could have used!!! They did however manage to take all their tools upstairs and cover them with some sheets - presumably in the hope they didn't get stolen!!!
I work as an architectural consultant and thought i'd be safe using someone on our approved builders list who does a lot of work for us but i'm not at all impressed with them.
Could anyone give me a builder's point of view in an attempt to defend them? Or is this indefensible???[/img]