Going on the record re L&Q

First up I want to say that this is NOT a dig at L&Q, not for one second.
Over the years since taking over from Lewisham Homes, for me at least, they have done a sterling job of taking care of business.
OK there was the issue with the bathroom taking a little longer than expected to deal with, but other than that. A few hiccups, some no show contractors from time to time, but really nothing to cry about (apart from the bathroom, did I already say that?)

So, a few years back (2010) the driveway was resurfaced. I use this term loosely as the driveway was actually covered over with a good few inches of concrete. During the laying of the driveway, in Dec 2010 we had heavy snow and freezing temperatures, which sadly had an effect on the way the work ended up. Now i'm not saying it is not an improvement on the old drive, it is. But what I have said to L&Q all along is, the finished result was not what I would personally sign off on and agree to pay a contractor for.

Sweep it on a dry day and you can sweep away layers and layers of powdered concrete, walk on it on a wet day and you will slip on the exposed stones. As one of my neighbours did a few years back, breaking her ankle in the process. This was what drove me to contact L&Q again about the condition. The fact it has deteriorated this much in this short space of time, and someone has already slipped on it. Thats not to mention the dust and stones kicking about the place.

Well today the results are in, and after provisionally agreeing it needed repairing, the new surveyor has made the decision that NO work is needed on the driveway and it should remain as it is.

I am fine with this decision, and accept it with no challenges whatsoever. However....
Should anyone have any form of accident in the coming years relating to the condition of the surface of the driveway..... I WILL say I told you so.

So for now, its back to sweeping the drive carefully of leaves and snow when they cover it, in case I sweep the drive away, and looking out for fallen neighbours over the winter as the colder weather makes it even more slippery.

As for the rest of the work being done on the house. Thank you L&Q for looking after us so well. I am more than happy with it all, just bad call on the driveway. In my untrained opinion of course.

Work in progress in Dec 2010 (before the snow stopped play)
The whole area was laid with hand mixed concrete.. The house up the road had it delivered on a mixer for the same contractors working for L&Q. Clearly learned from this mistake. Theirs is fine by the way.

Well, well, well...

Officially as good as confirmed that I wasted another day of annual leave today.
So lets look at this in a breakdown.

10/3/14 Axis confirm appointment for 1/4/14
10/3/14 I call them to confirm the actual job. Front, rear or all fencing.
10/3/14 Axis confirm 31 panels, but job showing as 2 hours allocation

1/4/14 9am Call to Axis to confirm job still scheduled, assured all is well.
1/4/14 1.30pm Call to Axis, contractor no show. Assured he will be here in 30 mins to start job. Advised he has only today been made aware of the authorisation of the job, but will start today for sure.

1/4/14 3.30pm Call to Axis, contractor still no show. After being put on hold I am told the exact repeat of the above. When I asked why the contractor is visiting today if he cant do the job, I am told that they don't know why, but if I can just hang on. I ask for confirmation that he will be the stated 30 mins, as I have already wasted nearly the whole day on this. I am told, if I can just give him til 5.30pm that would be good.

I really don't know what I am meant to be waiting in for today, but know that if I go out, and he DOES come I will end up being told I didn't wait in for the appointment and will have to wait for the whole thing to be rescheduled.

So, sincerest thanks to Axis for wasting away yet another of my days of annual leave on a no show, pointless exercise of a failed appointment. But don't worry, I will get up early tomorrow to contact my work and ask them for ANOTHER day of annual leave to wait in again for the contractor to show up.

One or two failed appointments is one thing, but over the past few years I have genuinely wasted WEEKS of my annual leave waiting in for contractors, from Axis and other L&Q appointed contractors, and quite frankly I am fed up of the whole matter now.

Sincerely yours
Fed Up

April Fooooooooooool!

What an idiot, when L&Q and Axis sent me confirmation that they were coming to replace the fence that was damaged in the storms in December, and gave the date as April 1st, I really should have known better than to believe them.
Instead like a sucker, I have taken ANOTHER day off work, so that's ANOTHER day of precious annual leave wasted on sitting around in the house waiting on a contractor who has once again not shown up.
If I had known this would become such a common practise I would have started keeping a record of the dates.
But as an example we have two occasions contractors didn't show up to re-decorate the bathroom. We have the appointment to repair the fence earlier in the year which needed a chase up call, and ultimately resulted in a quick visit from a contractor to take pictures and then leave, and now we have today.

Each time I take a day off to wait in, as required to do so by the contractors request, I use up a days leave. That's fine though right, a day off is good, you can get things done.... NO!! You bloody well can't when you are stuck indoors waiting for someone to show up. Not even a sodding call!
The cruel irony is, its been a lovely morning, and it would have been OK if I could have sat in the garden with the dogs to wait.... But hold on, why didn't I then.
Oh that's right, THE FENCE IS DOWN and has been since December, so the dogs would get out.

Right now I am thoroughly fed up with the lackadaisical attitude of the companies and contractors who think I have nothing better to do with my life. Given how much leave I have already used on family matter this year, and we are only at the start of the 4th month, I am really running low on the stuff. And quite frankly I am reaching the point where I think someone should be compensating me for this time, yes seriously!

Its now 3 mins past the close of the appointment window, and no show, no call.

But it gets better. Weeks ago when I got the appointment I called up to confirm what was being done. At the time the person  spoke to at Axis noted the job was only booked for 2 hours, but was for 31 fence panels. Assured she would look into it and make sure the time was allocated correctly, I left it there.
Today I called up again, just to confirm that the appointment was still scheduled and that someone would be coming. Yup all is fine I was told. So I asked about the time allocation. I was informed that it was still 2 hours and 31 panels and that the contractor coming was also booked for another job this afternoon. Doomed to fail some might say, but I had faith.

Well the egg is on my face now, and my annual leave is slowly slipping away. The dogs haven't been out yet, I have achieved little, other than this rant, with my day, and now I wonder what I will be told when I call them back in a moment to ask what's happening.

Just take another day off and we will see if we can make it this time.
Contractor's fault, should have called you, take another day off anyway.
We will get someone to you ASAP, just wait in til 6pm now.
I have no record of a job for a fence today on my screen.

Or something more original?

Lets see...

*DIALING*

To be continued.................


Hilarious..

The lovely lady I spoke to said that the contractor advises he has only just received the go ahead on the job today, and is on his way over asap now to start the job. And will come back tomorrow morning with extra crew to get it finished,.

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®

Oh damp!

Well just over a year after the bathroom was fitted by Apollo, some issues seem to have come to a head.
Now some of the issues are because of a pipe problem on the outside of the house. It overflowed and leaked soaking the brickwork, which has seeped through and eventually caused the internal wall to get damp, and for the paint to blister and now flake.
Based on the location of the damp on the walls, I am guessing that the toilet and hand basin at the very least will need to be removed to re-plaster and paint.
Not to mention that the external part of the wall will have to be removed and replaced with dry non crumbling brickwork. This was meant to be done at the same time as the pipe was replaced, but that didn't end up happening. Given that it was -5 outside and raining I kind of understood why.
However, it still needs sorting, so this afternoon I have a surveyor coming to see what he thinks needs doing, and what his plans will be to address it. Naturally as the timescale drags on, the damp just gets worse as does the damage. So fingers crossed there will be a plan coming from todays visit.
To add to all of this, there is also a problem with some pipes or at least condensation behind a paneled off part. The pipes come from one wall, are concealed by what I assume are MDF panels, then run under the bath to the taps. At the bottom of these panels, as it skirts along the floor, damp has started to appear also. I'm guessing this is either from a small leak in the pipe, causing the wood to get wet. Or a build up of condensation behind there because of there being no ventilation, and hot+cold water pipes in close proximity to each other. Either way as you can see from the picture, it looks hideous, and is clearly not right.
And finally, each morning I awake to a small puddle running from the tap end of the bath, under the hand basin, along to the toilet. This I believe is coming from behind the bath also, so heaven only knows what's going on under there, but whatever it is, its almost completely ruined the bathroom now, which is heartbreaking. Almost a complete re-do is required now.
With regards to the little puddle, and maybe the damp behind the panel... Have you even not quite turned a tap off properly, and heard that hissing sound, almost a small pressure release, and it allows the tap to just about drip... Well if you are really quiet in my bathroom that's what you can hear... Constantly! No taps are on, so I can only assume there is a failed joint in a pipe or a split which is causing all the damage.
Fingers crossed the plumber who visits will take a proper look and get what the hell I am talking about!