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Just a thought, most window cills have a fall to shed water away from the building, there's a reason for that.
Just a thought, most window cills have a fall to shed water away from the building, there's a reason for that.
Yes I can see your point there - we just took advice from the 'craftsman' on that. From what I can tell, the water is coming in between the frame and the trim (and yes I have told him - and was going to show him on the day he just didn't show with no call to apologise). The identically made windows facing the other direction (which actually take much more hammering from rain and wind coming up the valley) are watertight as well!
BTW - the cill is sloped, the inside and outside of the frame is 90deg and the outside has about 1/2 inch wood bead.
I think you have given the builder plenty of opportunity to come around and sort the windows out, and the wishy washy approach of [i]I don't think you should enter into confrontation with him[/i] is total bo££ocks, You need to get tough with this builder and tell him to stop taking the pi$$. Send the letter stating the problems and grievance and give him a time period to finish the work, did you make the payment to him persinally or his company, if it was him personally the he will be liable not his company.
So you think there is no obligation for someone to make something fit for purpose? I could go back to the out of true wheel scenario again....
Morally yes. Legally yes. In practice - you have no hold over him and I think your chances of getting satisfaction going down a legal route are low.
Without rehashing a load of recent threads (and defo not trolling - it's a genuine question - I really dont know the answer as the build will consist of a proportion of services, as well as items purchased by the builder/sold to M_F as part fo the build)....
M_F has been sold a window.... after a year water is leaking in.... this seems an unreasonable period in which this should happen.... Sale of Good act? Does this not apply? The builder has had a chance to repair/replace - surely M_F is within his rights to demand compensation to the value of the windows at least? He 'bought the item', had it for a year, but it's now developed a fault which must have been there at the time of 'manufacture' as the builder has come back to try and rectify it.
Confused and waiting to be shown the light :-S
It would be a lot less stress to sort this out wihtout resorting to law. Most people unless complete (insert phrase of choice) are reasonable and will do what they need to do to put you right. If you start waving legal things, he'll just walk away and you'll almost certainly get no satisfaction.
Bristol biker - Yes its liable under sale of goods and services or similar legislation.
However it is both hard to prove a fault and hard to get restitution from a builder.
Hence my advise is go for co operation not confrontation as I believe co operation is more likely to get you satisfaction.
So far he has had no co-operation though, perhaps M-F should ask his builder why he has not called to sort the problem!
TJ - I agree, but the pictures of his 'co operation' means the builder's making things worse (certainly aesthetically, if not structurally). Even if it is water-tight, which is sounds like it's not, you'd have to look at that gopping bead of sealant everyday and think that, however many thousands of pounds spent, it's all been let down by his 'fix'.
Surely if the builder has stated he's only coming round once more (regardless of whether the problem is fixed or not on this final visit by the sounds of it) surely there is very little option left for M_F?
I honestly don't believe what I am hearing from TandemJerry and ernie_lynch!.......apparently, according to some on here, I should pay him to do it correctly
The title of this tread is : "Advice please - how to deal with a tradesman". You should have stipulated if you were only interested in advise which you would agree with - like that I wouldn't have bothered. Because as I said,
quote : [i]"it's impossible for me to make a valid judgement on work I can't see".[/i]
I had [i]assumed[/i] that you had some purpose made oak windows installed which you had been perfectly happy with for at least a year. You recently discovered that they have started to allow rain to penetrate. So, as it has definitely been raining on numerous occasions in the last year, I had [i]assumed[/i] that the problem was [i]probably[/i] a minor one. I suggested as a way out of your situation, that you offered to make a small contribution towards any extra costs which the builder might incur, eg. materials, half a day's labour etc. I thought it might motivate the builder to show some interest and help you to resolve your problem.
However, despite having said that the extension was built and "completed to our satisfaction" [i]last year,[/i] you now claim that it was completed much more recently. You have now also posted a photo, which whilst far from revealing an enormous amount of information, it does nevertheless helps to try and understand what exactly the work involved was.
It would now appear that you haven't had 'purpose made oak windows' installed. It looks in fact, more like possibly a case of a 'glazed window opening' ie, a bit of double-glazing sandwiched between two oak battens. And yes, from that photo, it looks pisspoor to me. How you deal with it, I'm not entirely sure - you could try an assortment of threats - I would be tempted to go round and kick his car headlights in.
Good luck.
BTW, I generally keep out of threads like this, as I am fully aware that it is impossible to make a valid comment without seeing the problem in question. Hopefully your [i]"I honestly don't believe what I am hearing"[/i] comment will strengthen my resolve to keep out of them.
I find that I never really want to sort out any problems that my confrontational clients have. Not saying I don't, just that it's never done with any kind of goodwill.
EDIT: Ernie, don't stay out of it...someone has to be here to stick up for us cowboys who go riding all over the country doing shite jobs, with jigsaws that only work on low speed settings, vacuuming with Henrys with the hole exposed on the tube and fleecing widows out of their husbands' insurance money.
Taylor, sorry was out of it sick today. I meant get a court order winding the company up due to monies owed. It's the nuclear option for bill payment but it should get results.
Obviously I haven't made myself very clear. Yes I said we had an extension done last year. What I meant was that it was STARTED last year (the end of November in fact, although he promised he was going to start at the beginning of September). The work went on throughout the winter and was completed in May of this year. We were happy with the work and paid in full.
However, on getting the FIRST heavy rain with wind in the autumn (September 2009) we found the window frames were leaking. Obviously we called him straight away and he came out to fix them. After we had a minor problem with another frame in the summer (when he removed the window and reseated it) he said he would come out and do the same with these windows. However, instead of taking them out and resealing, he just shoved silicon sealant in saying that he would wait for the frames to dry out before resealing them properly.
I arranged for him to come back to do it properly as he promised he would and took a day off work too, so I could make sure he knew exactly where the problem was and knew exactly what we wanted. This took an age to sort out as he said he was really busy and eventually I had to be very firm with him because, despite having the silicon rammed everywhere, the frames were still leaking.
On the arranged day, he simply didn't turn up and didn't return any calls. When I got hold of him he didn't apologise for my wasted day off work either.
When he finally came some two weeks later (after saying he couldn't possibly come if it was wet as he needed to remove the windows hence the delay) he didn't remove the windows, instead he removed the beading from the inside and rammed the space with aquarium sealant.
So, after three months he still hasn't done the work to the standard that HE said he would do it and it looks a mess.
And as for them not being custom made oak frames - they were made by hand to custom sizes. I assumed that was custom-made. If someone more pedantic than I (yes, that person clearly exists) thinks they aren't custom made, then fair enough - tell me the description I should have given them structure and I will change all subsequent posts.