None of us are perfect and we all make mistakes as amateurs; however when you engage a professional electrician to do a job and specifically ask him not to place wires on the only beam that is listed in a listed building this was what happened: after a few days I visited the site; opened the front door and what did I see; 6no 2.5mm flat grey twin and earth cables with numerous clips attached to the front of the beam; full length of the beam; 10 foot long; bearing in mind that he was told not to place anything on the front; seen face of the beam; he could, however wire onto the hidden backside of the beam where I would enclose it and decorate it; hidden away.
Then there was the largest room; gave a different qualified electricain a photo copy of the socket layout and off he went; completed the job; sent his bill in, I told him I could not pay him; he had not finished the job; he objected; met him on site, showed him my original sheet; he had a copy; two twin sockets missing; not cut into the wall; told him to finish the job and only then; would he be paid......I find this the usual situation; tradesmen who are driven by money and offer poor service and quality in what they do.
Is it me or them.........you tell me.
Same listed building; ground worker/builder....gave him a sketch of what I proposed; level garden; build retaining wall, lay patio slabbing; stitch cracked gable end and off we go again.....first I set levels pegs to aid the ground levelling for the mini digger man, visited him at teatime and asked him if he was happy with the job he'd done; he'd ignored my level pegs and did it by eye. not very level. Next, the patio. I specified graduated stone down whacked to minimum six inches; off they went with the job; visited them two days later; heads were being scratched; I asked them what the problem was; the 22 foot patio was a little out of level; 9 inches in 22 feet to be exact; they asked me what I thought; I told them that my olives would roll off the table in summertime as we ate outside; take it all up and do it again with maximum 1 inches of slope per 10 feet; not happy bunnies; they had quoted the job. The boss told me they normally lay patio slabs then build retaining walls ontop of the slabs; I told him that is not the way to do it; you excavate foundations first for the wall, put in the concrete foundation next; build the wall; then lay the slabs; finally last job cut all the cuts upto the wall; they laid the slabs; cut the slabs and then laid the foundations; had to recut the cut slabs to make them fit in; he did not like this idea at all. Next the 40 foot retaining wall; the completed this and it was only 4 inches out of level in 40 foot; not bad at all they thought; I have heard of faulty bubbles in levels; must have had one. Then their bricky had to build a step; consisting of four slabs and one course of brickwork; his boss had a drawing showing four slabs; the bricky finished the job with two slabs and I told him it was wrong; not a happy dicky bird was he. The same bricky bigheaded bloke; thought he was worth £200 a day labour then had to build a six foot wide three foot cement block wall at the bottom of the garden; I visited him the day he finished as he laid his cement beds onto soil and told him that was no good at all; do it again; he exploded in anger and told me where to go; not a nice place it seemed. I then told him that in 35 years of business I had never spoken to any customer of mine like that and I paid his wages; he was working for his boss and he was not good at his job at all and not worth a fiver a day labour.....I hastily retreated. This is just one chapter in a book that I could write one day.
Then there was the largest room; gave a different qualified electricain a photo copy of the socket layout and off he went; completed the job; sent his bill in, I told him I could not pay him; he had not finished the job; he objected; met him on site, showed him my original sheet; he had a copy; two twin sockets missing; not cut into the wall; told him to finish the job and only then; would he be paid......I find this the usual situation; tradesmen who are driven by money and offer poor service and quality in what they do.
Is it me or them.........you tell me.
Same listed building; ground worker/builder....gave him a sketch of what I proposed; level garden; build retaining wall, lay patio slabbing; stitch cracked gable end and off we go again.....first I set levels pegs to aid the ground levelling for the mini digger man, visited him at teatime and asked him if he was happy with the job he'd done; he'd ignored my level pegs and did it by eye. not very level. Next, the patio. I specified graduated stone down whacked to minimum six inches; off they went with the job; visited them two days later; heads were being scratched; I asked them what the problem was; the 22 foot patio was a little out of level; 9 inches in 22 feet to be exact; they asked me what I thought; I told them that my olives would roll off the table in summertime as we ate outside; take it all up and do it again with maximum 1 inches of slope per 10 feet; not happy bunnies; they had quoted the job. The boss told me they normally lay patio slabs then build retaining walls ontop of the slabs; I told him that is not the way to do it; you excavate foundations first for the wall, put in the concrete foundation next; build the wall; then lay the slabs; finally last job cut all the cuts upto the wall; they laid the slabs; cut the slabs and then laid the foundations; had to recut the cut slabs to make them fit in; he did not like this idea at all. Next the 40 foot retaining wall; the completed this and it was only 4 inches out of level in 40 foot; not bad at all they thought; I have heard of faulty bubbles in levels; must have had one. Then their bricky had to build a step; consisting of four slabs and one course of brickwork; his boss had a drawing showing four slabs; the bricky finished the job with two slabs and I told him it was wrong; not a happy dicky bird was he. The same bricky bigheaded bloke; thought he was worth £200 a day labour then had to build a six foot wide three foot cement block wall at the bottom of the garden; I visited him the day he finished as he laid his cement beds onto soil and told him that was no good at all; do it again; he exploded in anger and told me where to go; not a nice place it seemed. I then told him that in 35 years of business I had never spoken to any customer of mine like that and I paid his wages; he was working for his boss and he was not good at his job at all and not worth a fiver a day labour.....I hastily retreated. This is just one chapter in a book that I could write one day.
