Persimmon IV

It's been a few (stressful) days since my last blog entry. The best thing is to give a day by day account of what has happened recently...

Thursday 27th July

The tiler was due to show up and start laying the tiles on the floors (conservatory, kitchen, utility room, and cloakroom).

He eventually turns up in the afternoon (Persimmon claimed that the tilers had called saying that their van had broken down, but the tilers knew nothing about this when they did turn up!).

The tiler has a look at the floors and explains that they are nowhere near level enough for tiling - this is after Tom and Scott had declared the floors ready the previous day!

My wife was seriously upset!

To cap it off, when Scott thought he was out of site of my wife, he made silent gestures to the tilers, indicating that they should step outside so he could talk to them, presumably out of earshot of my wife.

Unfortunately for him, my wife saw this. The tilers commented afterwards on how ignorant and unprofessional the site agent is behaving.

I arrived home from my business trip that evening, and called Tom straight away. Complained about Scott's behaviour, and insisted that both of them turn up on Friday, along with the tilers and the ground workers (Harte) to get this sorted out.

Friday 28th July

Everyone turns up eventually (around 10am), and Harte start their piecemeal screeding.

Meanwhile, the tilers (who seem to know what they're doing and also seem sympathetic to the whole situation) decide to self-level the conservatory floor in preparation for tiling.

This all gets done.

Discussing the situation with Tom, it seems to me that he is only just starting to see what kind of a strain we are going through.

My wife just manages to hold back the tears (she is certainly not a drama queen, so that shows you how upset she is if it is hitting her this hard), and Tom suggests we go out for a meal at his expense.

Like that will make us all nice and cheery.

We have had bare, dusty, concrete floors for two weeks, and he suggests he treats us to dinner?

'Just to start building bridges...', he says!

Tom also agrees to get the laminate flooring company to send a guy to check the hall and dining room to see if that floor is good enough for the laminate. This will happen on Monday.

The tiler screeds/levels the conservatory, and Harte do their usual piecemeal dab a bit here, dab a bit there...

Monday 31st July

The laminate flooring guy turns up in the morning with Scott. They have a vague look around the floor (certainly not as thorough as the tiler), and decide that there are still areas needing leveled - oh what a surprise - shouldn't have that been sorted same time as the kitchen?

No sign of the tiler though.

After a few phone calls, the tiler turns up (around midday). The claim is that he had trouble finding the ivory grout we wanted for the conservatory floor...

Maybe this is true, but I am sceptical for two reasons:

1. They knew we wanted this grout last Thursday
2. The grout isn't needed until they start to grout - the tiles need to go down, and the adhesive harden for a few hours first.

Anyway, they get cracking on the conservatory tiles and, to their credit, do a good job.

At last, some progress!

The tiles aren't perfectly flat, but I reckon we are super-sensitive to anything uneven now, and the grouting that is still to be done will improve the looks I'm sure.

Next job, the tiler looks at the 'level and ready for tiles' kitchen floor and is disappointed (but not surprised) to see that it is still not level enough for tiles.

After three attempts at levelling the floor, Harte still haven't got it right. I really do wonder where they get these guys!

The tiler screeds the whole lot: kitchen, utility room, and cloakroom. All done in one go.

One huge difference I see in watching these guys work, is that the tiler seems to use the self-levelling screed correctly.

He mixes it in a bucket using a 'whisk' connected to a power drill (Harte have been mixing it in a bucket using a big stick!), and the resultant material is very runny.

Being runny is what I expect seeing as the material is designed to 'find its own level'. In other words, if it can't flow, how can it self-level?

By contrast, the Harte mixture (that is supposed to be for the same purpose) is pretty solid - pretty much like brick laying mortar.

A big difference which gives me much more confidence in the tiler than in the guys from Harte.

Anyway, I get his agreement that he will level the hall and dining room (instead of Harte), and he'll do that when comes back next time (that he doesn't specify).

Tuesday 1st August

Today.

This is officially the start of the fourth week since Persimmon began remedial work on our ground floor!

Just to recap, three weeks ago (Tuesday 11th July) was when the tiler (a different one) originally turned up and started lifting the tiles in the kitchen.

So, we have had concrete floors for the past three weeks. No wonder we are fed-up and stressed.

So, back to today:

Once more, nobody turned up in the morning.

I called Scott, the site agent, at 10:20am and left a voicemail asking what was going on.

He calls me back a little later and tells me that he has figured out the following schedule:

The tiles will be available on Wednesday (tomorrow),

The laminate people should be able to come on site on Friday to lay the laminate.

Chances? Scepticism comes so easily after all this debacle!

First off, there are still sections of the kitchen and cloakroom floor that are not ready. Some of the screed has not stuck to the floor properly, and, in my humble opinion, those sections will need to be chipped out and re-screeded.

To be fair, we're probably talking about less than one square meter section in total, but...

Secondly, if the tiler screeds the hall and dining room, it will need time to harden and cure before flooring can go down.

Mind you, what do I know, I'm not a builder.

And no, I'm not bitter and twisted... :-/

So Scott tells me of his master plan. Nobody doing anything today or tomorrow...

I point this out, and suggest that he arranges other workmen to come on site to fix some of the other snags - oh what a good idea!

The painter turns up!

Well, there is the loft hatch, bedroom ceiling, and conservator wall section all needing plaster and taping.

The good bit of news is that he came round today and started on that stuff.

Tomorrow, he's going to be here all day continuing with the plastering and painting.

He also intends to carry on painting next Monday onwards!

At last, something concrete (no pun intended) regarding schedules, and work getting carried out.

So, the upshot, Scott reckons that well have all our flooring back down and finished by EoB Friday.

Let's see - I can tell you're on tenterhooks! :-)