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Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 9:24 am
by lutonlagerlout
so in english money he got around £1600
thats around £10 a metre screed and lay,which is good money
it may be a different way of doing it in OZ,but all you can do now is wait and see
to have that done in the UK would cost around $A 18,000 but that would be a proper construction
cheers LLL
Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 12:17 pm
by Carberry
Ursa wrote:Carberry, thank you very much for the detailed comments 
I read all the articles and I'll send the links to our paving 'specialist'.
Now when you talk about 'the sub base, bedding layer, pipework...' I don't know what to say... We removed all the weeds and install the pipes for future reticulation system ourselves. But that's about it. The bricks were laid straight on compacted soil. Well... it's very sandy soil... So may be it's ok???
This photo shows: http://goo.gl/BX7I2T
lutonlagerlout, the work was $3100 (it was $3300 initially but he asked to pay in cash and offered a discount) for 155-165sq.m. area. We paid $3050 on the spot and were going to withdraw another $50 but he didn't want to wait and agreed to receive those remaining $50 when he comes back.
Neatcon, we will write another letter to him and try to get the money back. And I'm not even sure if it's going to be enough to fix everything. As there are lots of chipped bricks (I guess it's because they were laid tightly with no gaps between them) and there are green stains everywhere on the bricks (have no clue what it is, may be leaking compactor or saw? 
) And I agree with you ... he shouldn't just get away with that.
I want to say a big thank you to everyone who found some time to read my story and comment on it. It was a huge help and support!
It may be ok if it's only foot traffic but if I wouldn't bet on it. As a customer, if they weren't putting down a sub base I would want an iron clad guarantee that if the paving were to sink then it would be relaid, with a proper sub base, free of charge.
As a contractor, I just wouldn't do any work without laying a sub base. If money is an issue for them and they can't afford a sub base then It isn't the type of work I want anyway.
More on sub- bases
Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 1:29 pm
by Dave_L
This guy is a cockwomble!
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 11:34 am
by Ursa
Thank you very much to everyone who replied here.
I would like to close this topic as my intention was just to understand the quality of the job but not to offend anyone.
We talked to some local specialists today and the bottom line is:
- Australian building standards are much lower than UK or any other European countries.
- Products and labor are very expensive here so paying $3000-3500 for that job you can not expect too much. Btw, it wasn't the cheapest quote we've got. Average price is $18-24 per sq.m for laying bricks on a large flat area.
- Local specialists say that the job was generally ok and leveled. But it was rushed, with no attention to details and not completed properly. Well.. and cementing edges is a must as well.
I can accept that. Coming from another country we probably had too high expectations. But I still can not understand how you can just grab money and disappear. Promise to come back and finish the job and never do so. But that's another story...
Anyway, we are going to meet with this guy tomorrow and hopefully we can sort out everything peacefully
At the end of the day we just wanted to have our backyard paved so we can sit outside and enjoy the morning sun. It took us a while to save up money for this project and we were looking forward to it. We didn't want to spend a week reading articles about paving (but we had to) and we really-really-really didn't want to go through all of this...
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 11:56 am
by Dave_L
Thread Closed as requested