The Home Improvements Thread (2)

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My 3rd day in hell yesterday.

We're redoing the bathroom, all the floors and painting. The contractor arrives at about 8, chats to the guys and leaves. He comes back at 4:30 and I've been staying at home to keep an eye on laborers. (Today I've decided it's not necessary and will be going out from now on).

Yesterday, 2 grinders and 1 jackhammer, water's off because they're working on the pipes, switch on the water just in time for LS. One of the men hangs out permanently outside the only working toilet. They've put a cabinet in front of my snack drawer and unplugged the washing machine.

Our glass paned front door slams shut at least 8 times a day, the painter's working downstairs and his best friend is plumbing upstairs so they have a shouted conversation throughout the day.

Before paying a deposit I emphasized we're OCD and tiling has to be perfect. Received a promise from the contractor and Tuesday morning he and I spent 40 minutes discussing placement.

He headed out for the day and once or twice I told Mr Tileman the tiles weren't centered as we discussed but he ignored me. Anyway when the boss queried it he got a long, animated explanation in Portuguese which neither he nor I understand so we had to rely on a translator - can you imagine - a tiler waving his hands and a level around, talking loudly and then the translator waving his hands around also shouting.

I didn't sleep well that night and asked the contractor to confirm "hand on heart" that he was happy with the tiling. His solution was to bring in an expert who agreed with ME :D. They had to lift the tiles and relay.

Thank goodness we have an amazing contractor.
 
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the flat above me is renovating its a 1 bedroom flat and they have been knocking down walls since Monday. they are renovating from October till middle of December. how long does it take to renovate a 1 bedroom flat? and also how long does it take to remove walls? the notice said removing walls and tiles for 10 days. Does this sound right?
 
purple face said:
the flat above me is renovating its a 1 bedroom flat and they have been knocking down walls since Monday. they are renovating from October till middle of December. how long does it take to renovate a 1 bedroom flat? and also how long does it take to remove walls? the notice said removing walls and tiles for 10 days. Does this sound right?
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Don't be that neighbour. Unless they're doing stuff after hours, just leave it be. One day you'll need them to be neighbourly and they won't be...
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Don't be that neighbour. Unless they're doing stuff after hours, just leave it be. One day you'll need them to be neighbourly and they won't be...
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My neighbours have been awesome.

Told them it's going to be noisy and dirty for 2/3 weeks and they've been nothing but accommodating.
 
storms1 said:
morning

I'm re opening this question, pretty set now on borehole.

I've the same question but I'm keen on which pump required for 2 bath 2 toilets, we use alot of water for washing machine etc...
average water found in my area is 35 meters . house and small irrigation setup front yard for now.
I will talk to borehole companies ..

cause Eish Govt....

1. 5000 litre jojo enough ?
2. which pump I'd guess fully electronic when water is low in tanker other options
3.most importantly which filtration of water I saw a blue filtration on neighbours yard for house usage.

depends how far is tank from pump I'd guess less then 5metres.

thanks everyone
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Not an expert by any stretch of your imagination, but my 2c.

Borehole pumps come with a variety of pumping curves and based on calculations of the yield and depth of the hole and the total head, a decent pump supplier will be able to work out what you need.
You might want to have the hole tested to find out the volume it can deliver.

How big a tank should you have is a "how long is this string" kind of question but to give you an idea, 4.5Kl lasts us just over a week depending how hot it is. i.e. did we water the garden, top up the pool etc.

I don't use a filter so can't help you there.
 
storms1 said:
morning

I'm re opening this question, pretty set now on borehole.

I've the same question but I'm keen on which pump required for 2 bath 2 toilets, we use alot of water for washing machine etc...
average water found in my area is 35 meters . house and small irrigation setup front yard for now.
I will talk to borehole companies ..

cause Eish Govt....

1. 5000 litre jojo enough ?
2. which pump I'd guess fully electronic when water is low in tanker other options
3.most importantly which filtration of water I saw a blue filtration on neighbours yard for house usage.

depends how far is tank from pump I'd guess less then 5metres.

thanks everyone
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I have a 5k L tank and does the job. Very rarely drops much as its always being topped up.

I have a 1kw pump in the well that feeds the tank (100m) which is a bit slow but suffice. then got one of the DAP Variable pumps. They are pricey but you set the pressure and it does the rest.

Don’t use filters as it’s for outdoors but I have a valve that I turn on to bring water into the house should we need it.

I don’t think I would bring water into the house permanently. To use water in the house you use over a 1kw and with solar it’s not worth it considering the cost of water.

Keep in mind if you don’t have back up power you can’t have water unless switching back to municipal
 
W@P said:
Seems like you are doing some major reno. Good luck !
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Thank you - it's not fun with the contractor MIA between 8:00 and 4:30/5:00 :sneaky: because no matter how good the guys are somebody still needs to be around at least some of the time.

LS not doing us any favours and has probably cost the tiler at least a day this week :mad:
 
Stokstert said:
Brings back memories when we did the renovating of bathrooms and kitchen. What a mess for weeks. We were promised they would finish the job within 3 weeks, ended up near 2.5 months.

I feel with you, your nerves have to be strong.
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OMW - 2.5 months :eek: and the place is covered in dust for weeks afterwards.

5 days in and I'm shattered o_O:laugh:
 
maumau said:
OMW - 2.5 months :eek: and the place is covered in dust for weeks afterwards.

5 days in and I'm shattered o_O
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Similar experience with 2x bathrooms and the main bedroom we had done about 7 years ago. We moved into the lounge and dining room whilst they worked and contractors promised 2-3 weeks all in - but ended up being 4.5 months of misery and frustration and way over budget due to their incompetence!

And these contactors came highly recommended from a few independent sources... they honestly had no clue... just shows.

Long and short of it, much re-work and 3 contactors later, the job was finished... never again! I move out if we ever do a similar size project again
 
howardb said:
Similar experience with 2x bathrooms and the main bedroom we had done about 7 years ago. We moved into the lounge and dining room whilst they worked and contractors promised 2-3 weeks all in - but ended up being 4.5 months of misery and frustration and way over budget due to their incompetence!

And these contactors came highly recommended from a few independent sources... they honestly had no clue... just shows.

Long and short of it, much re-work and 3 contactors later, the job was finished... never again! I move out if we ever do a similar size project again
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That's bad but it seems to be the nature of the beast. It's blerry frustrating knowing what's being spent on these renos and seeing the lack of diligence from workers.

At the moment I'm still confident the job will get done well but at what cost and how long will it take :crying:?

................. and easy for the contractor to say leave them without supervision, they know what they're doing but

1. As mentioned above I noticed on the first day they'd laid 20 tiles off centre - and this line runs through the lounge, along the passage, up the stairs and into the upstairs area - it's the main artery so to speak. This after me hammering on about getting the tiling centered. Yes, they lifted the tiles and redid them but idiot me, when the contractor said he's paying for the wasted adhesive etc I offered to pay half.

2. This morning again contractor hasn't arrived and four guys moved my washing machine but one of them was wearing highly polished black shoes which made a lot of thick black scuff marks on the unsealed Terracotta tiles. When I showed him, he grabbed the dreaded ammonia infused Handy Andy to clean the marks. I stopped him in time and he then cleaned them off with what he said was tile cleaner but the %$@#(*)_@# used Turpentine - oil based. He smiled and said no problem, this won't mark but it flippin has marked :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Emailed the contractor so there's a paper trail.
 
maumau said:
OMW - 2.5 months :eek: and the place is covered in dust for weeks afterwards.

5 days in and I'm shattered o_O:laugh:
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Luckily, I was present doing the quality control and get them to do some jobs over and over. They often did not have the right tools and had to use mine. My wife nearly left the house after 6 weeks.
The end result was not bad at all, but I can not imagine what it would have been if I had not interfered. My technical knowledge and my array of tools also helped.
 
Stokstert said:
Luckily, I was present doing the quality control and get them to do some jobs over and over. They often did not have the right tools and had to use mine. My wife nearly left the house after 6 weeks.
The end result was not bad at all, but I can not imagine what it would have been if I had not interfered. My technical knowledge and my array of tools also helped.
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Thank you - so you ended up being project manager.

Contractors claim the guys can be left alone to do the work but I'm with you all the way - they need supervision. Something goes wrong and then they disguise it and you only see it 6 months later.

It's very nice to hear you also made them redo certain jobs :D because it makes me feel less guilty. Eventually they learn who to take advantage of, so best start off letting them know it must be done right.
 
The contractors are lucky they will never have me as customer. For the smallest thing they would get told to either redo it at their cost, or get told to leave.

It really isn't hard to just do something right the first time. Especially if you claim to be a professional at your job.
 
purple face said:
the flat above me is renovating its a 1 bedroom flat and they have been knocking down walls since Monday. they are renovating from October till middle of December. how long does it take to renovate a 1 bedroom flat? and also how long does it take to remove walls? the notice said removing walls and tiles for 10 days. Does this sound right?
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10 days should be ample to remove walls & tiles for a typical 1 BR flat. Renovation estimate is tricky. At times, project gets prolonged due to other unforeseen expenses but usually lack of proper budgeting.
 
Bikerbob said:
The contractors are lucky they will never have me as customer. For the smallest thing they would get told to either redo it at their cost, or get told to leave.

It really isn't hard to just do something right the first time. Especially if you claim to be a professional at your job.
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Contractors are wily. Usually, they get most of their costs upfront. Whatever is leftover is not worth for them to redo any type of job.
 
surface said:
Contractors are wily. Usually, they get most of their costs upfront. Whatever is leftover is not worth for them to redo any type of job.
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They're only wily because people don't establish the terms upfront. It's not like the industry is booming. As customers we have no shortage of choice, they can't say the same.

The first thing to do is get a quote where each line item is clearly priced. Any contractor who can't provide a detailed breakdown is automatically eliminated.

The next thing to do is to draw up a renovation agreement which they are required to sign. This needs to stipulate the start and end date, deposit, what they are responsible for providing, what you are responsible for providing etc

On a 400k reno, I stipulated a 25% deposit to cover labor costs, materials they need to provide etc. Each line item would be paid upon completion to my satisfaction. And the balance of the miscellaneous line items that don't relate to the job (contractor fee, fuel etc.) would be paid upon completion of the contract to my satisfaction.

The complete home reno took just over 2 months because he wanted his money. We did later notice a few short cuts and some minor workmanship issues, but nothing major.

Cover yourself. If they don't agree to the terms then find someone who will. You are the customer...
 
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