Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Bathroom nightmares... Continued!

So a few weeks back I blogged about the bathroom, and the so far, almost 2 year battle to get the job done properly. After lodging a formal complaint with L&Q, and it being upheld, I really started to think I was getting to the end of the matter, and that soon I would have a whole, usable bathroom once again.
Today I had an appointment, for what I believed was someone to look the job over, get it all costed and job codes sorted, arrange the materials, and finally get started on the making good of the mess Bryhill made of it all.
I was a little confused when the first letter from the contractor mentioned that it was tiling they were coming to do. While there is tiling to be done, there is also skimming, painting, bath panel refitting, shrouding and other bits to do too. To be sure, I checked with L&Q and it was confirmed this was just an appraisal visit.
So.... Imagine my surprise to get a call, then a visit from a contractor to do tiling today! It was a very short visit, during which he told me he didn't know what part of the wall he was tiling, didn't have any authorisation to do anything other than white tiles, was ONLY tiling, no painting or other making good works, and would now not be doing anything today.
Needless to say, my heart sank, and I called L&Q back again.
The whole matter is now being looked into AGAIN, and I must await a call back to decide what course of action will be taken next. So, after all the messing around with days off last year, here we are, the start of 2013 and I have already wasted another day of annual leave! Not impressed at all.
So just to be clear, I have attached some pictures of the bathroom for the world to view. Remembering the whole thing stems from a damp problem from a leaking soil pipe back in 2010. Work started at the end of 2011, replacing the soil pipe but left the walls soaked. That was finally rectified (or maybe wrecktified is a more fitting term!) at the end of 2012 with the wall being hacked off and re-plastered.
During this work the toilet was broken, the waste pipe was not fitted back on the bath, the window frames were coated in plaster, the wall was hit with the bath damaging it, the silicone bath sealant was royally messed up, and the bath panel was siliconed on instead of screwed on. When the panel was removed for the waste pipe to be sorted it damaged the pipe boxing it was siliconed to.
When the toilet was replaced following its damage, the plumber could NOT get screws or bolts to take in the floor as it crumbled when drilled, so he used silicone to attach it to the floor.
As I see it, the following jobs need sorting.
Plastering skimmed to prep for paint
Wall repaired/ skimmed
Splashbacks tiled
Toilet fitted properly so it doesn't rock
Bath panel re-fitting
Pipe boxing refitting
Skirting board painting
Plaster removed from window frame
Walls re-painted
Woodword around cistern (1ft from wall) finishing and painting
Silicone seal around bath re-sealing
Window sill re-tiled
In reality it would almost be easier and quicker to pull the whole lot out, give it the once over and be done with it. The only decent remaining things in the bathroom now, is the wall of tiles to the side of the bath, and the hand basin. Oh, the door is ok, and the light is working too. Not all doom and gloom eh.
Anyway, enjoy the pictures.
PS, I don't consider myself to have high expectations, nor to be unreasonable. 2 years ago I had a lovely bathroom fitted by Apollo, which would have been fine except for a leaking external soil pipe causing the damp wall..... Which has led to this!
If you are reading this L&Q... You have been great about most things, and I am a happy customer, but this is getting too much now. I have taken endless days off work for this. Surveyors, contractors, plumbers, builders, painters, plasters.... And I am STILL left with this!
Please sort it soon. It was beautiful before.
Regards

Michael
Sent via Blackberry®











7 comments:

  1. plasterer croydon>
    Thanks for the great post on your blog, it really gives me an insight on this topic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. plasterer croydon,,
    Hey Great post. Really a very nice piece of information. Newbies like me get a good idea about this... I'm going to comment now... I think i did it. Thank you..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had the same experience with Axis L&Q contracted Company. They are no good at all. When you book appointment for work either bathroom or toilet repairs they just come around waste your time and give excuses not to go ahead with the job, and then you have to re-book for another appointment again, same thing happens again and again, is so frustrating. If you don't want to do the job just allow the tenant to get get someone to fix it and pass the bill on....Instead of making life difficult for the tenant. Also I think the Axis Company have being assign too much to do, as they can't cope with the level of work assign to them probably L&Q need more than one contractor to carried repairs and maintenance of their properties.

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    2. Very much inclined to agree. Having a couple of on going issues now again. The L&Q side is fine, it's the Axis visits that let the team down.

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  3. It does look like a bathroom that needs more than a simple tiling job. It's really frustrating to put your trust so much on something and then it fails to deliver. What's worse is, it's the bathroom that needs to be fixed; a room you can't afford to be unavailable for renovation for a long period of time! So was this issue with your plumbing company resolved? How's the bathroom now?

    H Itzkowitz @ GrunerBrass.com

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    Replies
    1. Hi, they came back and did some tiling and some of the other jobs on the list, but other bits were left unfinished. Have just repainted in there to tidy up the awful mess they made, and cover up the putrid colour the carefree decorator turned up with.
      Main thing is everything works, but I still think I will end up having to spend money to finish the job off to the standard I expected.

      Delete