how to tell if a job is bad

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the quote was £705 (central london)

I have so far paid 250 in advance, and am holding off paying the remainder until the work is made good
 
thats pretty bad like, sofas could be agued as your resposibility to cover them but dont get me wrong im not advocating shoddy workmanship, the bottoms of the walls could do with a tidy up but as long as the skirting fits fine it shouldnt be a drama, i cant believe they left the rad brackets on, thats just lazy
 
a plasterer did it, it was a skim of one room. He is coming back tomorrow morning to try to collect the 2nd part of the payment, if he fails to make good the room, I shall name and shame. Untill then I'll give him the benfit of the doubt.

It would be really useful if someone could let me know what to look for in a completed job.

should I be able to see the metal wok on the corners?
should the bottom be properly squared off?
should the surface be perfectly smoth to the touch?
anything else?

thanks!
 
Should only be able to see the very ouside corner of the bead(metal work)
bottom of walls should be flat to the wall
suface should be smooth to the touch
what sort of surface were they skimming over,looks to me like a one coat special
 
yes, you should be able to see the metal beads, these will be painted over.

no, not necessarily squared off, but certainly they should be tidier than yours have been left.

yes, although SLIGHT imperfections can be sanded or filled, this is down to the decorator, again, looking at yours, my personal opinion, is that its not acceptable.

corners should be clean and square,

at £700 you've paid top dollar, you deserve a perfect job, good luck
 
if he doesn't come back tomorow and leave it looking nice and healthy id withold payment and tell him you want another plasterer to come round and give a second opinion first as you aren't its not acceptable, and use the money that you would have paid said plasterer to pay soemone else to redo the work and ask for your initial £250 back for to pay the upholsterer to sort out your sofa, ofcourse you wont get that back tho! at the state its in at the moment tho he wont have a leg to stand on in the small claims court.

what size is the room? did he do the ceiling aswell? and what area are you in? im sure there will be someone local to you on here that will be able to come and do it properly for you if he doesnt deliver tomorow :)
 
how do you know the so called tradesman, friend, family, out the yell book, local paper, gypsy, tramp or thief????????
 
wasnt this guy in the orange by any chance was it?
how to tell if a job is bad
goes by the name terry
 
The only furniture was the sofa which will not fit out through the doors,

Dimensions : h65cm : w318cm : d180cm : seat h40cm : wrapped h68cm : w202cm : d105cm and h68cm : w200cm : d120cm : arm w26cm : leg h4cm : w18cm ( https://dwell.co.uk/104193 )

on the first day it was covered by a dust sheet, but then on the second day I went in a couple of hours after he had started and the sheet was gone. I asked  him to cover it, and went out, at the end of the day I discovered that he had just draped a small sheet over the top, it didn't even reach to the floor!

(and no, it wasn't that bloke!)


he did walls and ceiling, I'm based in central london, WC1
 
Terrible. Can see the point if he charged £70 and left that kind of sh!t. But paying top dollar for that crap he has an absoloute brass neck coming back for final payment.
 
if thats just plaster dust on the sofa it'll rub off, the footprints will mop up
the switches and fitting can be tidied up with a bit of filler and sandaper
slight imperfections can be filled and sanded easy enough...
hopefully the skirting will cover the bad bits at the bottom...
the rad will cover round the brackets, rough but no big deal
the 'walls not prepared properly' i take it top mean the rusty nails bleeding through.... thomsons stain block before you paint it...
the missed bit...? if they removed the skirting then why not the architrave too? cant understand that, anyway, either sand it level or plaster it and blend the top in..
if you can do those bits yourself (if you have the time of course) id do that and save yourself 450 quid
250 for a full room in central london is cheap...
call it a cheap job...
700 quid and it wants to be bang on perfect...
if i was offerered the difference (450) to sort out those bits i'd snap your hand off and be done in a day (even though it would take half that, id take my time)
if the bloke just had a really bad day, he might just take a cut in price, sort out the bits, clean up properly and everyones happy..
if he gives you any grief just call the police...
if theres an 'argument' to be used, it just isnt finished, payment on completion or not at all..
still... give the bloke the chance...
 
for all we know his missus could have died that morning...
everyone has a real bad day from time to time...
i agree its rough as f'ck but its nothing that cant be sorted, i dont think from lookin at the pics it needs a complete overskim, bag of easyfill an apology, a good clean up and a price cut would sort it...
 
A possible explanation of a ‘questionable’ job – being central London, guy finds nearest parking space ½ a mile away, feeds £50 (maybe more) into the meter for 4 hours parking, runs to customers house with all his gear without being mugged, rushes job so he can get back to vehicle before time runs out and his van is towed away!!!  :-/
Working in London is becoming almost impossible, a 2 mile journey can take 2 hours or more, parking is almost impossible with all the parking restrictions, traffic wardens appear, slap you with a ticket and then disappear in seconds, that’s why the cost is so high (unless of course he’s allowed a residency permit?) but even so, you would hope he does the right thing and sorts it out properly as the job is poor!  
As bigsegs said “if the bloke just had a really bad day, he might just take a cut in price, sort out the bits, clean up properly and everyones happy..
if he gives you any grief just call the police...
if theres an 'argument' to be used, it just isnt finished, payment on completion or not at all..â€

Let us know the outcome and good luck - may the plastering force be with you  ;) ……………….. by the way how big is the room?
 
Ive been in the trade quite a few years, and seen a lot of other plasterers work , this is standard sort of stuff im afraid guys claiming to be a plasterer going around doing this sort of work, looking at your detailed photos, all the faults in work are all stuff ive seen a hundred times maybe more, the trouble is you cant stop someone doing this sort of thing ,getting a van, getting some tools , little bit of advertising and off they go . I genuinly feel sorry for you and i hope you get it sorted out best of luck, although i fully respect my cyber colleagues on this forum i belive in calling a spade a spade and in my opinion there is no excuse for this standard of work .
 
UPDATE: how to tell if a job is bad

Well he came this morning (45 mins late, just before he knew I had to go to work)

He tried to claim that the job was fine, and reluctantly agreed to come back at the weekend to 'rub it down'

he then requested that I pay him in advance of that. I told him that I would pay the remaining money once the job was finished, and he asked me what I wanted him to do to it. Not being an expert in the details, I just told him to make the job good so that I had a suitable surface to decorate.

He left shaking his head and muttering.

I am considering writing to tell him that I am cancelling the agreement and getting someone else in to fix the job.
 
Re: UPDATE: how to tell if a job is bad

Well he came this morning (45 mins late, just before he knew I had to go to work)

He tried to claim that the job was fine, and reluctantly agreed to come back at the weekend to 'rub it down'

he then requested that I pay him in advance of that. I told him that I would pay the remaining money once the job was finished, and he asked me what I wanted him to do to it. Not being an expert in the details, I just told him to make the job good so that I had a suitable surface to decorate.

He left shaking his head and muttering.

I am considering writing to tell him that I am cancelling the agreement and getting someone else in to fix the job.
Click to expand...
Good for you mate....no excuse for this standard of work at that price. When I started out I skimmed a friends lounge and just charged him materials only as I was looking for as much practise as possible. The job I did was near perfect compared to this disgrace. My point is, I did't start charging people top whack until I was sure I could deliver the goods.

At the end of the day, the job of a plasterer is too get the surface ready for painting when doing a re-skim. Customers may, at a push, expect a bit of sanding or tidying up, but that's as far as it should go.

Even Terry the builder (I use the term loosely) wouldn't put his name to this ;) ;D
 
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