About a year ago I contracted a company to provide new self leveling flooring on my ground floor and roof.
Unfortunately they didn't do a very good job, including paint runs, uneven finish, one area they missed!
Since then, it has started to become unlevel, small holes and cracks appearing and discolouring in places (it should be white, but in places is now very yellow).
The roof is also not angled to drain off excess water (it is a flat roof) as they promised.
I wrote to them expressing disappointment. The owner of the firm came and undertook a site visit - telling me he was also unhappy and had fired the foreman of the job as a result.
Another worker came for a few hours and redid some of the areas with the paint runs, but left new runs and added a coat of paint to the roof.
Again, I contacted the owner but he refused to come and inspect and started to blame everyone but his firm for the issues.
He said the discolouring is just a psychological issue - the floor IS white (it isn't).
He said the cracking on the roof is due to the previous floor finish which was constructed by another contractor. However, his firm were originally only contracted to do the internal floors. During a site inspection he said the other contractor had not used the correct material for the roof (which was true) and therefore said I should get him to fix the roof or it will start cracking.
Also, it is obvious that they did not apply any of the self levelling product to the roof - they simply applied one coat of paint - and are billing me far in excess of what it would cost to spend a couple of hours painting a floor.
He then went on to say that the painting contractor (the house is a light shade of yellow) must have painted the floor of the roof in error. This is totally ridiculous as areas of the roof that are under shade the floor is still white - and of course the painter didn't paint SOME of the floor.
He won't comment on other defects I have pointed out to him.
I wrote a formal letter to his company back in November 2009 listing the defects and asking them to agree to put them right giving them 14 days to respond but they never did.
The architect for the project who introduced me to this contractor has said the flooring is 'a disaster' and I should now tile over it. He is a friend of the contractor so won't get involved in the dispute - however he did email me to say that the contractor had told him that he would not be charging for some of the work due to the defects. He has also dismissed it as nonsense that the painter painted any of the floor.
It is also clear the 5 year warranty on this flooring is non existent as they won't even complete the job.
I didn't have a formal signed contract with the contractor (live and learn, eh?) but I do have an email trail. I notice from his bill he is not billing me for using the product on the roof but for applying 2 coats of (very expensive) paint. I also recall he was always very illusive when I repeated asked how they were going to get the small slope required for the roof to drain using a self levelling product. His response was always 'we are experts etc etc'. At the time I was genuinely curious to understand the mechanics of this but now realise it was never his intention to use his product on the roof.
I have heard nothing back from them, however now I have received a couple of demands from their lawyer insisting I pay the balance.
How to I respond to the lawyer's letter? The job is simply not complete to a reasonable standard and I will have to get it redone at some point.
The amount in consideration would come under the jurisdiction of the small claims tribunal.
Unfortunately they didn't do a very good job, including paint runs, uneven finish, one area they missed!
Since then, it has started to become unlevel, small holes and cracks appearing and discolouring in places (it should be white, but in places is now very yellow).
The roof is also not angled to drain off excess water (it is a flat roof) as they promised.
I wrote to them expressing disappointment. The owner of the firm came and undertook a site visit - telling me he was also unhappy and had fired the foreman of the job as a result.
Another worker came for a few hours and redid some of the areas with the paint runs, but left new runs and added a coat of paint to the roof.
Again, I contacted the owner but he refused to come and inspect and started to blame everyone but his firm for the issues.
He said the discolouring is just a psychological issue - the floor IS white (it isn't).
He said the cracking on the roof is due to the previous floor finish which was constructed by another contractor. However, his firm were originally only contracted to do the internal floors. During a site inspection he said the other contractor had not used the correct material for the roof (which was true) and therefore said I should get him to fix the roof or it will start cracking.
Also, it is obvious that they did not apply any of the self levelling product to the roof - they simply applied one coat of paint - and are billing me far in excess of what it would cost to spend a couple of hours painting a floor.
He then went on to say that the painting contractor (the house is a light shade of yellow) must have painted the floor of the roof in error. This is totally ridiculous as areas of the roof that are under shade the floor is still white - and of course the painter didn't paint SOME of the floor.
He won't comment on other defects I have pointed out to him.
I wrote a formal letter to his company back in November 2009 listing the defects and asking them to agree to put them right giving them 14 days to respond but they never did.
The architect for the project who introduced me to this contractor has said the flooring is 'a disaster' and I should now tile over it. He is a friend of the contractor so won't get involved in the dispute - however he did email me to say that the contractor had told him that he would not be charging for some of the work due to the defects. He has also dismissed it as nonsense that the painter painted any of the floor.
It is also clear the 5 year warranty on this flooring is non existent as they won't even complete the job.
I didn't have a formal signed contract with the contractor (live and learn, eh?) but I do have an email trail. I notice from his bill he is not billing me for using the product on the roof but for applying 2 coats of (very expensive) paint. I also recall he was always very illusive when I repeated asked how they were going to get the small slope required for the roof to drain using a self levelling product. His response was always 'we are experts etc etc'. At the time I was genuinely curious to understand the mechanics of this but now realise it was never his intention to use his product on the roof.
I have heard nothing back from them, however now I have received a couple of demands from their lawyer insisting I pay the balance.
How to I respond to the lawyer's letter? The job is simply not complete to a reasonable standard and I will have to get it redone at some point.
The amount in consideration would come under the jurisdiction of the small claims tribunal.
