Months Of DIY Work Destroyed In 2 Days...

[Belfin]

I work full time and most of my days off over the past couple of years have been spent ripping out old fibreboard ceilings, replacing them with plasterboard and a full remodelling of the wall layout to the ground floor of our house (I am a former qualified carpenter and joiner). The work has also included battening and boarding existing walls to straighten everything up. Up until Sunday 18th February 2024 we had plaster boarded walls and ceilings which were plumb, level and straight. Many photos of this were taken throughout the build to document the work before the plastering started.

The following day, Monday 19th February 2024 a locally recommended crew of plasterers came in, and in two days they have destroyed the lot.

1. They have plastered right down to the floor, leaving bell casts at the base of every wall making it impossible for me to fit skirting boards.
2. Every internal corner curves into itself, is 'wavy', and is no longer vertical.
3. There is not a single flat wall. All are concave, convex, and full of lumps, holes and scrapes.
4. They plastered inside the double-sided chimney (over my cement board) with what they claimed to be a fire-resistant plaster but turned out to be rated to withstand only 49 degrees (!) It also bubbled and cracked on the same day it was applied.
5. The external corners going into door linings are not square. Window reveals are not vertical and differ massively in thickness.
6. They plastered up to and around sockets, rather than removing them. All sockets are now bowed out from the walls.

I had to take the morning off work to confront them about the appalling quality of work when they turned up on day three. I went around with a square, level and straight edge and I explained that they have not reasonably given me anything to work with. A bit of filling and sanding is understandable, but it is all so far out of tolerance that to attempt a better skim over the top would throw the walls out even more. For example, the NHBC tolerance for internal corners is stated as +/- 10mm over 500mm. When I eventually found a bit of a corner not full of snots and curves I measured 15mm at best.

I politely asked them to leave and not return. After minimal protestation, and offering no solution to rectify the work, they collected their tools and left (leaving all their rubbish).

I am absolutely devastated and angry at all the time and effort lost and the money I’d thrown into it all.

A couple of days ago a second plasterer came to our house to look at look at the awful state of the work with which we’ve been left. He too was horrified and confirmed that the tolerances were far from an acceptable standard and that the original plasterers had cut corners by applying one thick skim, rather than two. He has offered some ideas of how the work may be rectified, but it is going to mean I must now rip out several window reveals and reboard them, move door frames and chip out and scrape many of the internal corners to accommodate a second skim.

In the last couple of days, the beading on several external corners has blown away from the walls too, leaving large vertical cracks everywhere.

We have photographically documented everything, before and after.

Unbelievably, today we had a bill sent from the original 'plasterer' for this nightmare.

£880.00 for labour
£285.44 for materials

Any ideas where to go from here?
 

[BankFodder]

What is the name of the firm that you have been dealing with?

You should obtain quotations from independent firms for undoing the shoddy work which has been carried on your property in order to return it to the state that it was in before that work was undertaken.
The work involved might be substantial – but that is not important. The important thing is that it is done to a proper standard so that you are in a position where you can start again and instruct a firm in which you have confidence.

Once you have comparative quotations, you will send them to the firm that has carried out the poor quality work and warn them that if they do not reimburse you for the cost of the work on the basis of the cheaper of the two quotations that you will sue them.

The remedial work will have to be carried out and you will eventually have to present them with a bill for payment. If they won't pay then you have to produce the bill in court.

What is the name of the firm you are dealing with?

 

[Belfin]

Hi BankFodder, thanks for the reply.

The firm was T B Plastering & Decorating in Callington, Cornwall.  They have a facebook page which I can't link.

We have already sought the advice of a second plasterer.

He has seen the work, confirmed its way out of any NHBC tolerance and well below the standard of any professional plasterer.

We are currently awaiting his quote to remedy the awful quality work, but he has said it will definitely involve ripping out and re-boarding two entire window reveals, moving two door frames outwards, possibly new fire-rated cement boards in the fireplace if I cant chip off the non-compliant rubbish which was put on there, and knocking off several blown corners and bodged internal corners.

He also confirmed that the whole lot was plastered in one thick coat, rather than two thin skims as normal.

This means that as it continues to dry, more cracks will appear as the outer face dries faster than the inner face. Indeed, cracks are still appearing one week on.

When I confronted the original plasterer, I gave him several opportunities to get the work sorted, but he just stood there looking shocked saying "What do you want me to do?"  When I replied "I'm not a plasterer, what do you think you can you do?", he just repeated over and over "It's within tolerance, what do you want me to do?"

It was clearly going nowhere, so at that point I invited him and his labourer to leave.

[BankFodder]

Thank you for the summary you have given.

I think you will need to commission a fully detailed point by point report which identifies the issues, the cause of the issues and then separately a quotation for resolving them.

I think you need two quotations – comparative.

Do you know the name of the person who owns TB plastering? Do you know their address? Do you know they have any assets?

It sounds to me as if it's going to be quite an expensive job. On the basis of what you say, if you bring a legal action then you will have no difficulty getting a judgement in your favour the problem will be enforcing the judgement.

What address do they use on their bill? You need to have a look at the land registry web check service for about three quid check to see who the owner of a particular property is.

Of course you could simply wait until they decide to sue you and then bring a counterclaim but there is a big chance that they won't bother to sue and so it may be down to you to take your own action to undo the mess they have made.

Come back here when you have found this out

[stu007]

T B Plastering & Decorating in Callington, Cornwall - Facebook link:

 

T B Plastering and Decorating | Callington

TINYURL.COM

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T B Plastering and Decorating, Callington, Cornwall. 147 likes · 1 talking about this. We offer a full range of plastering and rendering services. We also have a depth of experience in al

 

When you do a Google Maps Search of the Address: 26 Inney Close, Callington, United Kingdom (note the Builder Van in the right corner):

 

Google Maps

WWW.GOOGLE.COM

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Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

Can't find any trace of them on Companies House so they may be Self Employed

[Belfin]

@BankFodder Thank you for the further advice, and I will certainly keep this thread updated as it progresses, especially to help others who may have the same problem in the future!

 

@stu007 Yes, that's them and thanks for your help.

Completely off topic, but good to see a fellow tankie on here. I see you were 4th; I was JLR, 3rd and then 2nd. Stay well and Fear Naught!

Thanks chaps.