DIY Project Diary – Week 2

The builders delayed the starting day of works by a week. Apparently they were running late on their previous project. Why do builders always do this? Why can’t they estimate their workload properly, have a proper schedule and work accordingly? I can understand a short project getting behind – but maximum by a couple days. This already made me suspicious..

So they arrived a week and an hour later. Bad traffic… of course. Then they remembered that they needed tools, materials so off they went to Wickes, the building supplier. Why they didn’t get the stuff they needed en route, is another subject…

Their first project, a garage conversion, was meant to take one week. Their tasks were:

• to get rid of a wall between the current study and a garage
• to install a new wall 1.5 m inwards from the garage door (to leave some space for storage and the utility meters)
• to install a new radiator, two new light switches, a new radiator
• to lay a new laminated floor, to paint the exposed bricks in the ex-garage area and decorate the ceiling.

 Enough work for two blokes for a week.

The bullshit started on day one. The existing wall between the garage and office was made of concrete blocks (surprise-surprise!!!) and had electrical wires in them( how unusual)! The new concrete air blocks (they did arrive in the morning on time!) were not “perfect” so it took longer to build the new wall. Installing a new radiator needed much more work than they estimated –they had to make a channel for the pipes under the subfloor. Then they painted the freshly plastered ceiling. By the next morning the painting was peeling off…

Then they put the laminated floor down in a hurry forgetting to leave a gap between the wall and the floor so that the floorboard could expand. The project took 3 weeks – not 1. Why? Not because of the hassles and the “extra” work, but because of their working method. They would arrive at 9.30, have a fag and a coffee, then work for a couple of hours. Then it’s lunchtime – off they go for an hour. When they get back, they work for another hour or so, then comes a tea break. Then half an hour (max one hour) work. Then it’s time to pack up the day… “to avoid the traffic”. So they work maximum 5 hours a day. If that. No wonder projects take double the time they estimate. Of course they always rationalise or post-rationalise the whole thing and blame the delays on other issues.

In the meantime, we bought all the necessary furniture for our new office from Ikea and other shops. These we wanted to assemble and install ourselves – but given that the builders were behind with their work schedule, we couldn’t start putting them together. So all the flat packs were lying around the house adding to the many existing boxes. The house looked like a warehouse – we could hardly move.

We’re worried that our builders were not up to scratch, so we became unsure about commissioning them for stage 2 of our home improvement project. We started ringing around again…