Currently having a loft conversion and one of our neighbours has raised concerns that our builder may not be up to scratch. This builder came recommended by some other local friends. The first potential red flag was he wanted to deviate from the insulation specified by the structural engineer but wouldn't elaborate how and then said he would do the engineers way after all. A few other niggles but then he started work and stripped the roof off. This took 2 days and then work stopped. I asked why and what was happening and was told he thought stripping would take at least 4 days and steels had been ordered but no delivery date yet. When I told neighbour they said an experienced builder would know how long stripping took and have steels ordered when we signed contract so work wasn't delayed. Is this true? I don't know what to think and feel quite scared right now. Currently sitting in my house with no roof and unsure when work will start again! Sorry to ask this in here but you are all experts.
Loft conversion concerns
- Thread starter DumbBlonde5
- Start date
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Is he running 2 jobs at the same time?
Why worry about what your neighbour says?
Sometimes neighbours can be a bit jealous and will try to spread a little gloom and despondancy.
Sometimes neighbours can be a bit jealous and will try to spread a little gloom and despondancy.
Yes I'm pretty sure he is. I know another loft conversion was due to start just after our original date but our start got delayed (not sure why).
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That's true but I was done by a cowboy builder at my last house. Thankfully not a huge job but I had to pay to have it removed and redone. Also the cowboy became threatening and I have been affected since, worrying about using good traders etc. This neighbours concerns are playing on my fears.
Be clear from the start that you won't be messed about.
Don't give them an inch.
If they start disappearing for a few days here and a week there, sack them.
Don't give too much money upfront and ask them to show you what they're doing step by step.
Better if you know someone with a bit of knowledge in reading plans and building work.
I never had a problem explaining what i was doing to my customers, in fact I was always proud to show that I wasn't cutting corners.
Don't give them an inch.
If they start disappearing for a few days here and a week there, sack them.
Don't give too much money upfront and ask them to show you what they're doing step by step.
Better if you know someone with a bit of knowledge in reading plans and building work.
I never had a problem explaining what i was doing to my customers, in fact I was always proud to show that I wasn't cutting corners.
Thank you but if I sack him I will be left with an unfinished loft as all other local builders booked up for at least a year. This alone puts me in a tricky position. I have only paid the agree 20% up front when work started. I have no building knowledge and nobody to ask. The local council will be doing site visits so would they not pick up any serious problems?
Council will not comment on quality of the job unfortunately.
Get familiar with the plans submitted to bc and ask questions.
You have submitted plans to bc, didn't you?
Get familiar with the plans submitted to bc and ask questions.
You have submitted plans to bc, didn't you?
Wouldn't be surprised if the builder has said "that's all sorted, we look after that side of things"
Yes I did both planning and building control. There is a detailed structural engineer report for bc but I don't understand lots of it.
He did say we could have gone through him and it would have made things easier.
Forget about the se report.
The only thing you need from there is the size of rsj.
What you need to study is the drawing submitted to bc which gives (should) details about the construction.
To be fair to the builder, supply chains for most stuff are pretty stretched at the moment, so it maybe the steel suppliers let him down
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