What a way to spend a Saturday

[Sir Ramic]

I had a call earlier in the week " can you help us out to do a bit of grouting around a swimming pool? it should only take about 3 parts of a day". Well i have done afew jobs for the company before so i said the only day i had free was Saturday. "Thats ok, see you there Saturday"
Up this morning and off to the school pool which was 40 miles away, arrived to be greeted by a caretaker " Thats the job" points to the floor " this has to be replaced" points to expansion joints " and these have to be replaced" shows me badly cut tiles and cracked tiles " oh and the grouting needs pointing up" shows me missing joints and pinholes in the grout.
After explaining to him that i was supposed to be doing grouting only he wasnt pleased. 20 minutes later than arranged the builder arrives and had a bag of grout and 2 tubes of sanitary sealant with him. " There you go"......" there i go what" i reply. I told him what i had been told by the caretaker and told him i wasnt going to do the expansion joints because that was not what had been agreed and that on its own would take all day to remove and replace. I also told him he had the wrong material anyway.
He wasnt listening and after explaining again he said to just do the grouting...there was miles of it!!! So down i got and filled any bad joint or holes i could find, 7 hours later i packed my tools up and informed the caretaker that i was done and explained what the builder had asked me to do. He wasnt best pleased and neither would i really. The pool is just over 1 year old and the pictures here show the quality or lack of it. Actually the tiling was ok but the grouting, cutting and expanion joints were appalling.
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It seems the original tiler had been paid in full and wouldnt return to the job. I think he may be having more calls because the floor is cracking in places and large areas are sounding hollow.