Argh!!! Know-it-all builders!!!

[Muse2k8]

Recently Ive had to go work for a building company to ensure I was actually getting money... Beginning to lose my hair though!

Latest job for example... ripped out a bathroom and re-piped for one of his lads coming in to put up plasterboard and plaster. Plasterboard was only for boxwork and wont be tiled. Anyway the custard wants the shower area tiled so obviously thats my job. So before I go in I hear that the bathroom will be painted first. So I pipe up and tell them I dont want the tiled area to be painted, "Oh but the plasterer says that its better tiling onto the paint than the plaster". I argue and argue that I dont want it painted and to leave the plaster bare for me to prime with SBR... go in today and boom... they have painted it because the plasterer apparently knows better than the tiler! Brilliant...

So I will recieve the tiles and adhesive tomorrow. I asked for ctf4 and what do I end up with... bleeding homebase tubbed!!!!!!! For a shower!!! On painted walls!!!

And to top it off the walls were only plastered a week ago!!!

Apparently his 35+ years of experience means that my knowledge is worthless!

I'm in limbo here... I either refuse to do it and end up unemployed again or I do it against all my best judgement argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[peteablard]

Tell them to take the adhesive back for a refund then get them to buy the correct adhesive. Then I'd ask them to rub the walls down or you could do it yourself and bill them for it, or not........ Depends how bad you want the job. If they were trying to make me use tubbed addy on paint then personally I'd walk

 

[White Room]

It's your judgement but I know where I would be and thats walking and throwing a few verbals in the process.

 

[Rizzle from the Portizzle]

its better to be unemployed than have a rep as a lasher

 

[Muse2k8]

Ill definitely be getting the addy swapped... Worst thing for it! His comeback was, "Ive never had a problem with it!"

Even if I can only get mapei cement its going to be 1000 times better. Ill talk to the gaffer tomorrow though cos I aint tiling onto paint... not a chance! Ill be charging extra too if they dont do it for me.

 

[nybor62]

stick to your guns muse , your the pro ,builders waste of space

 

[Perry]

Just speak to the boss and say I don't want to be as bad as the rest of the guys on site but I have a greater knowledge of tiling than the plasterer if you prefer me to tile it as it is wrong i will i am just trying to use my skill to help you

 

[Peter]

Give them an inch and they'll take a mile. The only stance to take with builders is to stick to your guns and eventually it starts sinking in.

 

[charlie1]

Builder I have been working for recently have been very poor, 2 bathrooms, walls are plasterboard and timber stud, some of them running out an inch over a 2m leanth, I insisted they put right, they dot fanned plaster board over it and done a very poor job so then they decided to plaster over that! Total cowboys!...

Then in kitchen ares there was an access pannel that required tiling, so 1st the poured in self levelling then I tiled, guess what.... They could not lift the hatch anymore as it was too heavy so smashed the whole thing up!, now I need to retile!

I sofa king hate builders!

 

[AliGage]

Ahh, Charlie if that's the same guy that your other post is about i think i understand why the tiles weren't paid for. Working like that? It would be no surprise if they have cashflow issues.

 

[charlie1]

No different customer alister, these guys are just plain cowboys who don't take any pride in there work, you can grout an are and there in at back of you drilling creating dust all over the place even though you warned them not to!

 

[AliGage]

Muppets

 

[Muse2k8]

Should probably update this

Spoke to the boss. I didn't just go in and say I want to use this this and this but I told him why, explained it all and even showed a few pics. He agreed to let me control the tiling aspects and everything is going great. It seems he realised I'm no muppet and there's been a fast building of trust. Done a few jobs now and there's no interfering or questions

 

[Time's Ran Out]

It's good to talk!

 

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

Great outcome in the end.
it annoying how these muppets always say, i've never had any problems before ( yes because they are well gone when the probs start ), and shops/ businesses always say this is the first time or one that has ever gone wrong, (as they put it back in the stock-room with all the others to go back to the makers ) lol humans can be crankers .

 

[The D]

Nice one m8 I'm glad it all worked out for you

 

[Muse2k8]

Cheers guys

 

[bugs183]

It's all too easy to get wound up in situations like this, and expect nothing but trouble and arguments.
But if you take a while to step back, and just think of how to approach it, and how to state the facts it's quite usual that you can resolve these problems easier than you think.
I was chatting to Siramic the other day, (nice one for lending me the hydrometer by the way), and as he says with the knowledge that is being shared off this forum you can go into jobs with far more confidence and state the reasons why things have to be done properly.
Good to hear it's all turned out well, you'll have put yourself up the pecking order on the job too in the builders eyes as he can see you're trying to do him a good job.

 

[cam_low]

Good ending to the story, Im sick of hearing everyday how many builders are tiling and I can only imagine what mistakes they are making

 

[garybadger]

I had a job booked in for 2 months. 164m2 off porcelain 600x100, 600x300 and 600x600 and some travertine mosaic wet floors.. 1 week before I was due to start, got a phone call from the builder. The owner of the house had been speaking to a Polish builder, who had tilers on his books. Asked how much the builder was charging per m2, and then continued to blow us out the water price wise.
Labour wise doing porcelain and travertine mosaic tiles and self levelling, supplying all adhesive's grout, silicone, trim and self leveller. The guy told him he could do it for £20.00m2 cash. ALL IN. Absolutely incredible price.
Builder had to phone me and ask if I could match it. Told him I wouldn't even get out my bed to work for the equivalent of £7-8m2 (if your lucky with material) If he's building out, then it clearly goes lower as he will have extra costs.

Guy has went in and started the tiling. Used Granfix paste, and homeplan heavy duty paste for the porcelain walls. His tiles on the travertine wet floor are coming up already. 2 rows had to be re-fixed the day after they broke off when stood on.

Sole destroying that this bum has went in and took this job from me. I've tiled the guys hotels, and his previous house, and not had 1 complaint. Only lost this job because this guy was so cheap.

Hope he continues to mess this up, just to show the difference between a cowboy and a proper tiler. Rant over

 

[Dan]

Jobs like that always come right back around to good tilers though Gary. And hopefully, lesson learnt from the builder too!

 

[Gazzer]

Nice to meet you too Bugs, its a Hygrometer actually... :smilewinkgrin:. I hope you got the readings you were hoping for

It's all too easy to get wound up in situations like this, and expect nothing but trouble and arguments.
But if you take a while to step back, and just think of how to approach it, and how to state the facts it's quite usual that you can resolve these problems easier than you think.
I was chatting to Siramic the other day, (nice one for lending me the hydrometer by the way), and as he says with the knowledge that is being shared off this forum you can go into jobs with far more confidence and state the reasons why things have to be done properly.
Good to hear it's all turned out well, you'll have put yourself up the pecking order on the job too in the builders eyes as he can see you're trying to do him a good job.

 

[bugs183]

You got me there Siramic!
I got the reading i wanted ta, i turned up at the job and a very worried builder was on site. He asked what i was doing there, then informed me the slab had only been down two weeks! Despite the customer saying it been down for well over a month!
We both agreed the same drying times, agreed i had tested the floor, shook hands, i got in my van and then off i went to Berlin on a very boozy trip!