Kitchen horror story

Thought I would create a new thread instead of just whining in pet hates lol

This is the story of my nightmare that is my new kitchen are you sitting comfortably

I live in a council house on a typical council estate (insert eerie music)
They are refurbishing the estate using a lot of cash from the lottery.Part of the job is fitting new kitchens to council houses. They first came out about a year ago to assess if I needed one and said that I did so I thought great a new free kitchen.

A year passes and finally I get a letter saying the planners are coming round to plan the job. I make my own plans to tell them how I want it and they basically agree. 3 weeks later they come out so I can choose colour scheme . All goes well so far but then the work begins (reitterate eerie music)

A chippie comes to assess the door I want blocking off and he looks at my tech stuff and says oh dear he will make a mess. That evening I though no he wont and ripped the door and frame out myself making no mess.
The plumber comes and repipes (does a good job actually)

The very next day he comes and panels the door grateful I had done half his job for him. Other guys come and rip the old kitchen out leaving me with a sink in the middle of the room.
The so called liason officer comes out and says the room strippers had complained about the smell of dog pee and didnt want to take the floor up.I started doing it and it was not dog pee but old adhesive from under the marly tiles gone bad.

Then the sparkies come and rewired the kitchen one side of the room nicely wired with sunked boxes the other with surface mount .There excuse was thick plaster. I left them to get on with it only to find they had fitted an extractor fan right where my fridge freezer was going(bloody idiots I muttered obviously) That evening I fitted a dry wall box where my fridge freezer was going to stop it going out into the room to far and removed the extractor

The plasteres were coming the next morning and the so called strippers had left paper around the newly blocked door. So to stop the plasterer bodging over the paper I stripped round the door.

Next job was fit the kitchen. I go to the gym and come home to find them hard at work (well as hard as council subcontractors go) I look at my pc and the program i left running wasnt there. I checked the uptime and there had been a power cut at 12.30 (it was deffo a power cut other equipment prooved this) I asked the guys what had happened and they denied it so I pressed and they contiuned to deny. BTW the plumber was back he had not run to plan correctly and had to do half his work again.

The next working day the tilers come and do a bit saying the plaster needs to come back and straighten some work out.

Next day tilers finish.

Decorators turn off and are going to do no prep so they get sent away after a big row and I do that.

Floor is fitted ok . Finishers come to silcone and they are useless so I send them away and do it myself.

I prep fill paint the ceiling with white kitchen paint and satin wood the woodwork

My ex decorating gaffer lining papers the walls

I paint the walls in Dulux diamond matt scrubbable pain

Jobs left by bodgers for over a week are drainage downpipes and a bit of grouting

To bring the story upto date my fridge freezer was delivered today. The guys tried to force it through my hall door. They unpacked it in the hall and got it into the kitchen. It looked great till I see the left side and they have well dented it trying to force it past the door catching it on the door handle.
I sign for it as damaged and waiting for arrangements for a new one. But I then notice they have wrecked my new floor also so its compo hunt now to

[Paul]

Nice, good to see that British skilled labour is still available. Might as well have done it yourself and sent them the bill

Originally Posted by Paul

Nice, good to see that British skilled labour is still available. Might as well have done it yourself and sent them the bill

Tell me about it

[Halcyon]

Crikey sounds definetly like a job that should be on one of those builders from hell programs.

Good luck in getting it sorted out.

[Stephen]

Councils usually employee cowboys.

Before I bought my house it was a council house and it was totally renovated about 12 years ago. My Dad and I decided to repaper the hallways last year and once we stripped off the paper they put up. It was thick heavy stuff we noticed the walls were a mess from where they rewired.

They had left it all bumpy and uneven, so hanging the paper I had got looks terrible. It totally will need replastered to fix the mess. Same goes for when we tried to change the floor in the kitchen!

[brundles]

And work people wonder why I tend to watch closely rather than leaving them to it.

At least you can be relatively safe in the knowledge the electrics will (probably!) be safe. My mother-in-law wanted a metal kitchen light fitted a while back but after checking the electrics and seeing no earth wireI told her that without the right re-wiring it wouldn't be safe. 2 weeks later, queue the kitchen fitter: "Oh, it'll be fine so long as nothing goes wrong with it."

[Jelly Bean]

Zingle we had same experience in 1991.

6 weeks work turned out more like 10.

We had sink at one end of the living room and a cooker at the other end.

No bathroom as it was downstairs and no kitchen.All ripped out.To use the loo had was left in he demolished downstairs bathroom we had to ask the guys to actualy leave the house altogether as we had no doors either,we had to flush loo with a bucket.My neigbours and I lived in the street withour with our children.We had no choie lucky the weather was pritty good.

No carpets down waiting for new heating system to be fitted,no storage such as wardrobes.No washing machine etc justa few beds and a small tv.All our furniture was in storage.

The pluming for the washing machine was put in backwards breaking the washing machine.Tried to claim got refused.

Gas pipes for new central heating were not soldered hence gas leak,the pipes were boxed in.So the leak in living room was sending gas up into the bedrooms.

We lived in filth with all the dust and this was for about 10 weeks or more.

The jobs were terrible.

Thankyou local council for your fine cowboy job yet again.

And last year was the one were council broke a computer.The computer was running.They were testing electrics hence several power outs.They break computer wich I then rebuilt and fixed.I tried to claim compo and got no were.Refused.

The council are such great people.Yeah right.

[The Hitman]

[QUOTE=David F;34608315]I live in a council house on a typical council estate (insert eerie music)
All goes well so far but then the work begins (reitterate eerie music)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vxmlVL_jBhA You mean this eerie music

[Vlad_Dracul]

Yes its de riguer to complain about the state of the great British workman/tradesman. I dont think i spotted a reference to any of the Council managers,architects or other suits in this post though or are they above reproach? They planned it all after all and the tradesmen were only trying to make their plans reality. I too visit lots of homes and some of them are very smelly and down right dirty and strangely,the people who live in them are not aware of it. Not saying yours is like that,but it does happen.

I have been in houses,both owner occupied and rented,where there has been dog poo and urine on the floors,i have been in houses where there were used sanitary towels on display,i have been in houses where people are taking drugs or have left syringes lying around,i have been in a house where i removed a radiator only to find half a dozen pairs of old knickers (period pants) stuck to the back like barnacles...i could go on.....

[DaiNasty]

To a certain extent you get what they pay for as well. The Council tends to put a lot of stuff out to tender and will often choose the cheapest, regardless of the reality of getting the work done right.

I remember years ago working with some mates painting council houses. They basically were getting £25 per house after material costs. So, you tosh it on and if the householders are not at home then they get their windows and doors painted shut.

Not the way any of us would have preferred to work but there was no time to do it right AND make a living wage.

[mentalis]

My Mum is in a wheel chair, and the council (South Lakeland) offered her a ground floor flat. She had a look and said it was not disabled friendly, to which they (suprisingly) said something along the lines of "Oops, we shouldn't have offered you this. But, as we have, we'll have to do something about it."

They lowered the work tops, put in extra wide doors where possible, removed the bath and installed a shower.

They seem to be one of the good councils.

[BBKing]

I have been in houses,both owner occupied and rented,where there has been dog poo and urine on the floors,i have been in houses where there were used sanitary towels on display,i have been in houses where people are taking drugs or have left syringes lying around,i have been in a house where i removed a radiator only to find half a dozen pairs of old knickers (period pants) stuck to the back like barnacles...i could go on.....

I don't remember you coming round to work here. When was that?

Yes its de riguer to complain about the state of the great British workman/tradesman.

I'm not sure about that - we're starting the process of replacing our kitchen at the moment, and the horror stories are all of poor customer service, messages not passed on, poor project management, unrealistic designs, people not turning up when promised, outright lying over work agreed on. The actual quality of workmanship is often the least of the worries.

Read this and the related earlier posts relating her rather fraught kitchen rebuild.

http://rachelnorthlondon.blogspot.co...ns-direct.html

The work we had done here two years ago (new roof and central heating) has been mostly fine, albeit that the central heating guys needed constant kicking to do basic stuff like clearing up, taking away boxes of rubbish, filling in holes in walls etc. The roofer was an absolute star and a credit to the British workman (and the seven foot Pole he had to do the lifting, of course).

[dilligaf1701]

The housing association that have offered me the falt I'm waiting for told me they are going to adapt it to my needs (Which basically means better lighting and high contrast work surfaces in my case).

Which is nice if it all happens.

Anyway I am due a new kitchen from them at some point this year too. Is the standard of work that Zing got what I can expect or not? I am also unlikely to see if it's a bad job so could I complain after it's done if someone else has inspected it and told me it's a bad job?

p.s. They offered me a ground floor flat because apprently the doctor told them I'd have difficulty with stairs. Which is only true in certain curcumstances. Anyway what I found funny was that the nearest shop is something like a mile walk away.

Not that I have a problem with that once i've explored my environment.

Originally Posted by mentalis

My Mum is in a wheel chair, and the council (South Lakeland) offered her a ground floor flat. She had a look and said it was not disabled friendly, to which they (suprisingly) said something along the lines of "Oops, we shouldn't have offered you this. But, as we have, we'll have to do something about it."

They lowered the work tops, put in extra wide doors where possible, removed the bath and installed a shower.

They seem to be one of the good councils.

[Druchii]

Originally Posted by Jefferson T

The housing association that have offered me the falt I'm waiting for told me they are going to adapt it to my needs (Which basically means better lighting and high contrast work surfaces in my case).

Which is nice if it all happens.

Anyway I am due a new kitchen from them at some point this year too. Is the standard of work that Zing got what I can expect or not? I am also unlikely to see if it's a bad job so could I complain after it's done if someone else has inspected it and told me it's a bad job?

p.s. They offered me a ground floor flat because apprently the doctor told them I'd have difficulty with stairs. Which is only true in certain curcumstances. Anyway what I found funny was that the nearest shop is something like a mile walk away.

Not that I have a problem with that once i've explored my environment.

Of course you could, an independant inspection should be fine, especially as you are partially sighted.

[Vlad_Dracul]

Indeed,the past experiences of Councils hiring the cheapest and worst contractors are becoming a thing of the past. Many Councils are now offhanding their properties to third parties be they housing associations or thrid party management companies or trusts.

This allows these companies/HAs to borrow money to invest in refurbishments and the standard of workmanship and products i have seen being fitted in social housing has greatly improved.

Its a strange life isnt it? I mean you could get a tenant in social housing who may not have a days work in them, living in a bigger,newer,better equipped house that some other person who is flogging his tripe out to pay for what he has and has a poorer environment nontheless.

Usual disclaimers apply about not all social housing tenants being dole hoppers or feckless ingle parents etc etc etc