Mostly whining about conservatories (or -ism) (but not -ion)

[avevale_intelligencer]

Builder duly turned up at twelve having taken three hours to get here from Bristol, laid a perfunctory floor and disappeared at three with the air of someone who has earned his daily £££.

There is a two-inch gap between the floor and the walls. But that's okay, because the floor is level with the floor of the house. Apparently we are expected to fill the two-inch gap with skirting board at our own expense.

We still don't have the steps or the handrail that will enable a person with shorter legs than mine to get in and out of the conservatory from the garden. No-one at EverCRAPest knows who will be doing this or when. They'll get back to me.

They still haven't completely cleared the garden of their rubbish, or replaced the damaged roof panel.

I have sent a further letter restating what we want.

I'm reading Busman's Honeymoon and trying to tell myself that at least we haven't got the dead body of the former owner in the cellar. Mind you, we haven't got a cellar either. And the Countess is of the opinion that a few dead bodies around the place might give it a tone. She has a list of candidates. Guess who they all work for.

Remind me never ever ever to do this again.

And the beat goes on.

Comments

[patoadam]

Never ever ever do this again.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reminding me, lad. :)

[deborah_c]

Remind me never ever ever to do this again

I now have an image of you having a house with fractal conservatories hanging off the back...

[bardling.livejournal.com]

...yes, built on a slope, with each conservatory's step down to the garden getting higher and higher...

[stevieannie.livejournal.com]

Word from my pet-builder (well, my husband, anyway) - the gap between the floor and the wall? That's meant to be there, skirting board is there to hide that gap and is anywhere between 3 and 6 inches tall depending on the style in the rest of your house and is more to do with the plaster not coming down to the floor than the level of the floor itself. The reason that the plaster doesn't come all the way down to the floor is because when you are putting the plaster on, you don't want to pick up any dust from the floor when you are laying on the plaster, as that will result in an uneven finish with scratches and streaks in the polished plaster. This is what skirting board was invented for.

Same thing should go for the gap between the architrave around a door frame and the plaster on the wall - there should be a gap there that the architrave covers.

The skirting board is a second-fix joinery job - the key is to find out whether your contract includes second-fix joinery or not. I don't know off hand if Everest do joinery and decoration, or just conservatories, but it is worth checking the contract to see.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

They say now that they don't, and since I only just learned the phrase, it's not something I would have looked for in the contract. :)

However, there was no hint or intimation at the time we placed the order that we would have to do anything to the conservatory once they had built it, other than enjoy it. (Fat chance of that now.)

If that comes down to "caveat emptor," then it does. But I'm not giving in yet. There's too much else wrong.