Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 9:05 am
Dear all,
I have just drafted the following letter to a block paving builder we recently threw off a job on our drive. The names have been removed for obvious reasons, but youi get the idea. I kept the letter totally objective.
Please feel free to reuse this if you are in the same unfortunate position...
Dear Mr << name removed >>,
Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 (as amended)
On 31st August, you undertook a job consisting of replacement of our asphalt drive with a clay brick paved drive. Approximately 27 feet of fencing was also to be replaced (some 3 foot high, some 5 foot).
The work completed to date is not done with a reasonable level of care and skill. Nor is it progressing in a reasonable time frame. The details are as follows, I also have photographic evidence of all the issues:
The bedding layer of sand on which the blocks are laid should be no more than 2.5 inches in depth before compaction, shrinking to 2 inches after compaction. I have photographs recording that the blocks you laid were on sand varying from approx 1 inch to approx 7 inches in depth pre-compaction. These blocks would not have stayed in place when a car is parked upon them.
In detail, I took depth samples in 16 places evenly over the drive using a trowel to dig down to the scalping surface. The depths of sand measured were as follows ( in inches to +/- 0.5): 6.5, 5.5, 4.0, 4.0, 3.0, 2.0, 2.5, 5.5, 5.5, 3.5, 3.0, 1.0,1.0, 1.5, 3.0,3.0 .
Some of the retainer edging blocks by the lawn (next to the planned wheelie bin hard-standing) of the drive were laid on bare earth. These should be laid on approx 100mm of concrete on top of the underlying scalping sub-base.
The other retainer blocks were laid on a very weak concrete mix. This mix came away by hand even after 4 days of setting time. The blocks could also be removed by hand. An attempt to patch them was made by your company, but the patches were laid on the weak mixture, so could be levered up with little force and removed. They would not have held the drive in place. Also the base mix was laid first, with the weak mix on top, with no attempt made to bond the two layers, which would have come apart under the load of the car front wheel which would have rested within 1.5 metres of it.
The fencing posts at the rear of the house are not secure. The whole base moves when a reasonable pressure is applied to them (e.g leaning on the post one handed). It can be seen that the whole base moves under this small amount of pressure. The base is not deep or wide enough. It has to be taken out and re-made. I have recorded this on video.
The gate posts were laid incorrectly such that they are 103 inches across the base, and 104 inches across the top of the posts. My gates are 104 inches wide in total (as measured by yourself), and could therefore not be mounted. The reason for this is because the uphill post (on the border between my house and number 50) is laid at an angle so that the top of the (approx 3.5 foot) post is leaning by an inch towards number 50. When I asked you to fix the problem, you pulled out the other fence post (as it would have to be moved down the hill by 1 inch), failed to rectify the leaning uphill post, and claimed that you would reset the lower post at the same angle as the other one. Your argument being that if they are both leaning over, then it will look OK. This is not a quality solution and will not look good.
You very rarely returned phone calls, which it is reasonable to ask you to do especially during the first week after your excavation of the drive when you were not contactable for a number of days, and did not appear on site either.
One of the reasons you got the job in the first place was that you assured us that you would not start our job before completion of another one. However, you then didn't finish a job in << address removed>> until Friday 8th September, having started ours on 31st August.
You verbally quoted a finish date of 8th September at the time of accepting the deposit on 25th August. The drive was still many days from completion on Friday 22nd September (and would have needed to be started again anyway due to the poor quality). I have kept a complete diary of your activities and associated excuses for the delays. You were rarely on site for longer than a few hours as witnessed by a neighbour across the road on holiday during 18th to 22nd September and my wife and <<removed>>'s wife when they were at home. The number of excuses you have come forward with and your short hours mean I have lost confidence in your ability to complete the work in a timely manner.
In the light of these facts, I am witholding payment for completion of the work as I have lost faith in your ability to complete it to the required standard and in the required time frame. I shall use the balance of the payment (plus extra funds) to appoint another contractor to complete the work to the required standard in the required time frame.
The three spans of 6ft long by 3 ft high fencing at the front of the house are completed to a satisfactory standard, so please deduct the cost of that from your refund. You quoted me £260 for the fence (after you left it off the original quote and later added on when you came to collect your deposit). For the sake of argument, that constitutes approx £160 of work.
I wish to claim a full refund of my 40% deposit of £840 from you in the light of your failure to deliver the required goods and services, and the extreme level of inconvenience caused.
Please respond to my complaint within 7 days.
Yours sincerely,
....
Jim
I have just drafted the following letter to a block paving builder we recently threw off a job on our drive. The names have been removed for obvious reasons, but youi get the idea. I kept the letter totally objective.
Please feel free to reuse this if you are in the same unfortunate position...
Dear Mr << name removed >>,
Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 (as amended)
On 31st August, you undertook a job consisting of replacement of our asphalt drive with a clay brick paved drive. Approximately 27 feet of fencing was also to be replaced (some 3 foot high, some 5 foot).
The work completed to date is not done with a reasonable level of care and skill. Nor is it progressing in a reasonable time frame. The details are as follows, I also have photographic evidence of all the issues:
The bedding layer of sand on which the blocks are laid should be no more than 2.5 inches in depth before compaction, shrinking to 2 inches after compaction. I have photographs recording that the blocks you laid were on sand varying from approx 1 inch to approx 7 inches in depth pre-compaction. These blocks would not have stayed in place when a car is parked upon them.
In detail, I took depth samples in 16 places evenly over the drive using a trowel to dig down to the scalping surface. The depths of sand measured were as follows ( in inches to +/- 0.5): 6.5, 5.5, 4.0, 4.0, 3.0, 2.0, 2.5, 5.5, 5.5, 3.5, 3.0, 1.0,1.0, 1.5, 3.0,3.0 .
Some of the retainer edging blocks by the lawn (next to the planned wheelie bin hard-standing) of the drive were laid on bare earth. These should be laid on approx 100mm of concrete on top of the underlying scalping sub-base.
The other retainer blocks were laid on a very weak concrete mix. This mix came away by hand even after 4 days of setting time. The blocks could also be removed by hand. An attempt to patch them was made by your company, but the patches were laid on the weak mixture, so could be levered up with little force and removed. They would not have held the drive in place. Also the base mix was laid first, with the weak mix on top, with no attempt made to bond the two layers, which would have come apart under the load of the car front wheel which would have rested within 1.5 metres of it.
The fencing posts at the rear of the house are not secure. The whole base moves when a reasonable pressure is applied to them (e.g leaning on the post one handed). It can be seen that the whole base moves under this small amount of pressure. The base is not deep or wide enough. It has to be taken out and re-made. I have recorded this on video.
The gate posts were laid incorrectly such that they are 103 inches across the base, and 104 inches across the top of the posts. My gates are 104 inches wide in total (as measured by yourself), and could therefore not be mounted. The reason for this is because the uphill post (on the border between my house and number 50) is laid at an angle so that the top of the (approx 3.5 foot) post is leaning by an inch towards number 50. When I asked you to fix the problem, you pulled out the other fence post (as it would have to be moved down the hill by 1 inch), failed to rectify the leaning uphill post, and claimed that you would reset the lower post at the same angle as the other one. Your argument being that if they are both leaning over, then it will look OK. This is not a quality solution and will not look good.
You very rarely returned phone calls, which it is reasonable to ask you to do especially during the first week after your excavation of the drive when you were not contactable for a number of days, and did not appear on site either.
One of the reasons you got the job in the first place was that you assured us that you would not start our job before completion of another one. However, you then didn't finish a job in << address removed>> until Friday 8th September, having started ours on 31st August.
You verbally quoted a finish date of 8th September at the time of accepting the deposit on 25th August. The drive was still many days from completion on Friday 22nd September (and would have needed to be started again anyway due to the poor quality). I have kept a complete diary of your activities and associated excuses for the delays. You were rarely on site for longer than a few hours as witnessed by a neighbour across the road on holiday during 18th to 22nd September and my wife and <<removed>>'s wife when they were at home. The number of excuses you have come forward with and your short hours mean I have lost confidence in your ability to complete the work in a timely manner.
In the light of these facts, I am witholding payment for completion of the work as I have lost faith in your ability to complete it to the required standard and in the required time frame. I shall use the balance of the payment (plus extra funds) to appoint another contractor to complete the work to the required standard in the required time frame.
The three spans of 6ft long by 3 ft high fencing at the front of the house are completed to a satisfactory standard, so please deduct the cost of that from your refund. You quoted me £260 for the fence (after you left it off the original quote and later added on when you came to collect your deposit). For the sake of argument, that constitutes approx £160 of work.
I wish to claim a full refund of my 40% deposit of £840 from you in the light of your failure to deliver the required goods and services, and the extreme level of inconvenience caused.
Please respond to my complaint within 7 days.
Yours sincerely,
....
Jim