Slate patio problems

[failed0144]

Hi Everybody,
I am new to the forum and hope that I am posting in the correct area !! We had a 55m2 Brazilian Slate patio laid, about a year ago, which has a few problems. The contractor said he would use Easypoint, so my wife and I did some research about the product and noticed it should be a minimum depth of 25mm. The slabs are 20mm thick and the instructions for use said to rake out the mortar to allow that minimum depth. I noticed that mortar had squidged up through some of the joints, so I asked the contractor if they would be raking it out to get the correct depth, and he assured me that they would and we let them get on. We noticed that they painted the backs of the slabs with white PVA.
They eventually put the Easypoint in, when all the slabs were down. The NEXT DAY they put a sealer(Wickes Patio/Paving Sealer) on the whole patio and it started raining during that process. It all looked fabulously shiny when they left that evening. The next day, HORROR, the whole patio was covered in white spots and all the joint lines were milky white, which got progressively worse. Contractor said don't worry, we will massage another coat into the first one and that will sort it. After we Googled the problem and found that this was NOT a solution and several weeks should have passed before any sealer was applied so everything was dry, my wife said she would prefer that they stripped it off. They reluctantly did so, using a Xylene solvent. Shortly after, areas of the Easypoint were going sandy in texture and several areas were turning progressively white. My wife said she was not happy and asked them to sort it. They said they would top up the sandy areas. Again, we Googled it and Azpects said NO. It must all come out and be redone, which now very reluctantly they said they would. One man came for a few hours over two days and then, for various reasons, no one came. I had major surgery on my shoulder and could do nothing, so my wife spent every spare hour over the next three weeks, raking out the Easypoint, to find that all the areas of high mortar, that we had been assured would be removed, were still there(as were several wooden spacers) so some joints were only 3/5/10mm deep. Added to this, more and more slabs were coming loose, 33% of the patio, as of today. Some of the bedding mortar looks like it is aerated where the loose slabs are.
The contractor says he accepts no responsibility for damage to any slabs caused by grinding out the high areas. He also says that the reason all the slabs are coming loose is because my wife insisted on having the defective sealant removed and, because they had to use so much Xylene,the solvent has caused the slabs to separate from the bedding mortar.
He also says that they will try and stick down the loose slabs"as best they can", maybe by sticking the loose ones to the sound ones or by pouring a slurry into the joints, but will not accept responsibility for any others that come loose in the future.
Our research has led us to conclude that the project was not carried out properly, the Easipoint directions had not been followed, the wrong sealer was applied at the wrong time, and the contractor is trying to lay the blame for all of these problems on my wife, and not addressing the issues at all.
Sorry to ramble on but it would be good to get some feedback from some experts who will not try and fob us off. I hope you may be able to help. Thank you.

[Tony McC]

Truly awful sounding job. Every "Aspect" of the construction is wrong wrong wrong. What more can I say?