Is this wall and floor tiling acceptable?

[Tess]

Yes, I get the principle and I very much prefer to stick to my word as a matter of principle.

However, to me, it is not immaterial that materials costs were inflated (I couldn't truly see this before due to lack of experience) and there still may be work which was not done which I am being charged for.

I appreciate he accepted to discount (down to fairly standard tiling labour costs from high ones) for poor work, I would have preferred him to have priced at the standard he was able to honestly fulfill, since I spent on tiles to match the standard I expected at that price and he didn't do justice to them.

Generally I don't feel he has priced with fair principles for his materials nor labour costs and he 'negged' me as his client, trying to get away with doing less to fix the threshold gap for instance and haggling over minutea himself, such as whether to reduce his materials cost to reflect that I bought the waste pipes myself, even though he agreed such deductions were 'of course' okay at the outset. He also refuses now to fit my shower rail which is the curtain rail for the whole room, so I will have to get someone else in to do it and to hang the mirror.

I was recently bereaved when I hired him, had to get the new bathroom fitted in a hurry and went with the recommeded guy since I thought would take less communication and energy, I also thought he would "get" my "vision" better than the cheaper quote, but I'm not sure that factored in eventuality. I went with the expensive quote and learnt a fair bit along the way.

I think I was a pretty good client, got his favourite brand of taps, was there to answer his questions quickly etc. When he complained I asked too many questions I said we should just have scheduled 'catch ups' which worked okay. The bathroom was taken out early November by the way and I didn't hassle him about timings, even though it's my only bathroom and it's just getting fully finished now.

Neither of us made a friend and there's something sad about that. Being on this situation reminds me that it's best to do the best you can for a fair price that honestly reflects your skill level, building someone's house is quite an intimate thing and there will be a record of you in their home, so "don't go through life with a catchers mitt on both hands". That's this clients view of it.

 

[Andy Allen]

if he would of done a perfect job to your satisfaction, would you have paid the full price quoted...??
just because you have found out afterwards his prices are inflated, is not his problem.
it's all about customers doing there homework on what certain materials costs, and choosing the right tradesman for the job before excepting a quotation and allowing the work to go ahead.
you should be more focused and getting the job done right, to your satisfaction, then paying in full.
and not excepting a half assed job and barging over the final payment.

 

[Dumbo]

I am very sorry for your loss ,
I am trying to look at this from the outside in , i think you are stuck with the labour costs as that is what you contractually agreed to , but if he is charging for items thay he didnt supply and you can prove it that is a different story ,
Im no lawyer but by negotiating a reduced fee on the tiling based on his workmanship probably means by law youve now accepted that .
I imagine if you went to a lawyer he would probably tell you its not worth it .
I know its your home and your money , but life us too short and it is probably better for your health to move on and put it down to experience .
I think if you want to take this further you should speak a solicitor or trading standards .
I wish you all the best in the future
Jcr

 

[eddcottee]

The markup is the same now as it was when you accepted the quote. I get the impression you've spoken to a few people about the price you've agreed and they've told you its very expensive, so now you feel you have been taken for a mug.

It's too late now if you've agreed to the quote and you should have done your homework in the first place. If you were unhappy at the time, you should have got some alternative quotes. You cant instruct someone to work then try to screw them down on price afterwards on certain items purely because you think they are charging too much.

Also it sounds like he has reduced the fee per sq mtr for tiling which you have agreed because you are not entirely happy with the finish, so he's clearly not entirely unreasonable.

 

[Tess]

Well, I paid him as agreed in the quote minus the agreed deduction for tiling, minus £100 because the electrician wouldn't sign off on the main ceiling light's IP rating after contractor approved it and with the cost of the waste-pipes I bought taken off his materials costs. Thanks for your advice and moving on now!

 

[JMC tiling]

I hope I'm not out of turn here but I agree that the setting out could have been worked out far better, especially on the floor. Normally you set out to extreme furthest points so in your case one edge would have been under the door so there shouldn't be a need for 'slithers'. Now that you have what you have, slithers are the only option but shouldn't look too bad.

As for the corner of the shower, it drives me nuts seeing tiles running out with deminishing cuts, thats usually because the walls aren't plum but can easily be sorted in the prep stages or by bedding up adhesive sometimes. Okay this takes longer to do but the finish is far better for you the customer. Did this guy board out the shower area first because if so he needs a new 6' level!!
Regarding the Silicon beads within the internal corners, this has to be done to comply with building regs anyway but yes, go with the best tile colour match however, whatever you do, please make sure your man can Silicon up neatly otherwise it will just destroy it all even more. The last thing you need is to have green Silicon smeared all over the place!!

Finally, pricing...... Did you only get the 2 quotes? We're these people recommended?
In future get references, talk to people and even be cheeky and ask if you can see people's previous work. If you get to see their work then you can make judgement yourself.
I've seen pictures of people's work that they themselves use to advertise their services but it's absolutely shocking. Unless you're in the trade then you probably wouldn't see or notice some of the rubbish that's produced and so even some customers themselves just see shiny new tiles on a wall and think it's the business when in fact, it's shocking!!

I hope you end up with the finish you want and everything goes well.

Stu
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Oh, one other thing......that bath fitting price, I have just quoted to refit a bath for someone, albeit back in its original place.....£90 including Silicon and tap connections and I will even fit the wall mounted tri-fold shower screen too.
No more than 3 hours work Saturday morning. So, £300 for this guy to move and fit a new one 200mm away OMG!! Even if it takes half a day, that's one nice income!

£90 to fit bath, fit screen and taps??? ha ha ha!

 

[Tess]

So two days after paying him as listed above I had the new boiler fitting guys around and they asked who did the plumbing to the towel radiator? because the way its plumbed in it will never come up to full heat, it's not the simple loop it should be... well guess who did it and let's see how long it takes to answer my email/ calls about it!

 

[Smiler5714]

£90 to fit bath, fit screen and taps??? ha ha ha!

All done in under 3 hours, so £30/hr isn't bad for a Saturday morning. It cost me 3 rail plugs and 3 screws for the shower screen which was already drilled for. The hardest part was getting the old tap off the bath, 15 minute job that lol.