The world is full of idiots trust me!

[Pebbs]

A couple of months ago I completed a nice contract, of which this Portland Stone Staircase was part of. Wednesday I got a phone call from the carpet fitters, apparently the client had decided to have a runner on the staircase. You guessed it, they messed the installation up, and the staircase can only be discribed as looking like it has undergone heavy shelling from a nearby tank. It is now riddled with holes, all diff sizes, because the fitters went a bit stir crazy with the drill.

If I had messed up someone elses work, Id feel terrible, but not this lot. This is how the conversation went.

Hello is that Lynn?

Yes

Its Tony from XXXXX XXXXXXX Ltd, were down XXXXXXXXXX and we messed your staircase up a bit with the drilling. I dont know what the fuss is about cos we said we would put some filler in the holes but the architect has insisted we call you in to do this. So how much will it cost us?

How much damage have you done?

Not a lot, its probably a 10 min job so if you can pop in and do it fine, but I need to know how much its going to cost.

I cant tell you how much it will cost till Ive seen it.

Well bring your stuff down tomorrow and get it sorted! if you cant do that let me speak to your boss.

(Ok now Ive got the raving hump, hes messed up my staircase, and is giving me attitude the meter is running so to speak):mad2::mad2:

I'll get someone down there tomorrow to have a look and I'll let you know.

Listen luv that aint good enough, let me have word with someone in charge.

(That does it, hes asking for it)

Get stuffed I said and put the phone down...

The architect rang me 30 mins later....I sent someone out to look at the damage, and because its the carpet fitters that will have to pay I charged them for the estimate :yikes:. Ive done the making good, and they are paying premium for it. They basically have knackered the staircase up, Ive patched it up as best I can, but I can see it being all ripped out and re-installed. Im fuming, they effectively have ruined something I was proud of.

RIP my staircase

 

[CJ CERAMICS]

one question....well 2 why did they want i carpet to cover part of what looks like a beautiful staircase? and why were the carpet fitters drilling?

chris

 

[doug boardley]

I would be angry Lynn, very very angry:mad2:

 

[mikethetile]

thats a nice job Lynn

what possessed them to put a runner up it

 

[david campbell]

one question....well 2 why did they want i carpet to cover part of what looks like a beautiful staircase? and why were the carpet fitters drilling?

chris

brass/chrome stair rod thingies!
i hate it when people have no respect for other peoples work,they seem to not give a damn about how much work and effort another tradesman has put into leaving a perfect job,usually from some half-assed clown who has no respect even for his own work

 

[DHTiling]

OK.. i am trying not to swear... bloody useless ***** carpet fitters..

 

[Pebbs]

Chris, I dont know why they were drilling something to do with brackets and bars, I dont understand carpet fitting. Mike they said they were worried about marking the stone so thought they would have a runner on it. And Doug, I cant even describe what I felt when I saw the state of it yesterday, yep there were a few tears when I got home.

Lynn

 

[Colour Republic]

Lovely staircase Lynn :drool5: I like the brass feet on the iron work too

 

[CJ CERAMICS]

brass/chrome stair rod thingies!
i hate it when people have no respect for other peoples work,they seem to not give a damn about how much work and effort another tradesman has put into leaving a perfect job,usually from some half-assed clown who has no respect even for his own work

ah i see now.......but when i was carpet fitting we used to attach the brackets for the stair rods with a glue designed to cemet them in with no glue showing and feed the rods in when set Sorry but i cant rember what the glue is called as its about 25 yrs ago but i do remember doing this. They could also remove them with a solution that ate the glue but not the stone.

now obviously times and methods change but sometimes not for the better.

chris

 

[user123]

Gawd, Pebbs, sacrilege... that is a beauty.... what the heck were those fitter thinking of? I'd be upset, too...

 

[Colour Republic]

This has reminded me of a job I did a few years back, I was fitting a bathroom and the waste run had to go through part of the hallway. It was an old Voctorian mansion building in Brighton, which would have been one house at one point, so I lift the floor boards in the hall to find not one but two treasures. All of the original beautiful brass stair rods where piled up under the floor, I removed these to find underneath the earliest form of electrical trunking i've ever come across. The trunking was wooden but the lid to the trunking wasn't just some bit of planed wood it had intricate carvings running the length of it, bearing in mind this is installed under the floor which nobody is every going to see! they don't make them like they use to.

 

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

great staircase lynn !! there are some nutter's about

 

[hillhead]

Beautiful job Lynn, plonkers is all i can say/

 

[Rob Z]

Lynn, that's fine work there that your company did. Normally, I would never try to take advantage of another contractor's problems and would/will do the work at a reasonable price because I know I might need a favor someday.

But with these knuckleheads and their attitude-I'd make them feel like Ned Beatty and I'd hammer them hard with the bill. Paid in full, well in advance. And I'd get to it on my own sweet schedule.

 

[SandyFloor]

Lynn, that's fine work there that your company did. Normally, I would never try to take advantage of another contractor's problems and would/will do the work at a reasonable price because I know I might need a favor someday.

But with these knuckleheads and their attitude-I'd make them feel like Ned Beatty and I'd hammer them hard with the bill. Paid in full, well in advance. And I'd get to it on my own sweet schedule.

I take it you're refering to Deliverance, Rob? :dizzy2: