Around 10 days ago I was almost beating my head on my desk....
Today I was working in the back garden and looked up to find a man wandering round the front garden. He had a high-vis jacket, an ID badge of some sort, and a clipboard - all official looking. So instead of yelling "GERORFFMYLAAAND..." or something similar, I smiled and asked what he wanted.
"I've come to count the scaffolding."
What? I am confused.
He laughed, not in the least surprised.
It turns out he is friends with the other scaffolding firm, and they've agreed to leave the existing scaffolding up, his friend can add to it - or he can add to it, I lost track of whose scaffolding this actually is....
Then the roof can be done.
I hope it's soon. I want my drive back. I want to park on my drive. I want to be able to get in my house without dodging scaffolding poles.
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Showing posts with label incompetence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label incompetence. Show all posts
Tuesday, 23 June 2015
Friday, 12 June 2015
The right hand and the left hand... Or: Communication would be a wonderful thing!
Let's set the background a little. I live in a rented, housing association house. It's a semi, in a lovely little village, with a decent sized garden, and stunning views, when we can see them. The views are often obscured by rain, or some other weather.
Sometimes the rain is hard, and we call it Hail. This is Wales....
As a housing association tenant, I get to report things that might need to be repaired and they send someone to have a look and schedule whatever needs to be done. They also have a schedule of upgrade and regular maintenance works that we, the tenants, have to deal with. Mostly these are sometimes a bit inconvenient but on the whole a good thing to be happening. A year or so ago, I had the kitchen and bathroom completely ripped out and replaced - regular maintenance, and it all looks great now.
A couple of weeks ago there were storms. It was windy. A couple of tiles on the roof came loose, some bits fell on my drive and the front garden. I called the housing association (HA from now on because I can't be arsed to type it in full...) and told them. They sent someone round to have a look.
He said (and remember this) We'll put in the repair but they're doing the roofs round here soon.
On Monday I got home from shopping to find men putting scaffolding on half of the house. OK, that'd be for the repair work. Would have been nice to know they were coming to do that, or when they're likely to do the work, but never mind.
Wednesday, a pick-up with tools in, and a couple of workmen parked outside. Then their boss person turned up, knocked my door and asked if they could start work today. I said yes. They drove off and I haven't seen them since.
With me so far?
Thursday I missed a call from the HA, asking to talk to me about the roof work. I called back and left a message when they didn't pick up the phone.
Today is Friday. Half my house is encased in unused scaffolding, I can't park on my drive.
The HA called again. They want to know when it's convenient to discuss the roof replacement work that's going to start in a couple of weeks.... I mentioned the scaffolding. They know nothing about the repair work, just the roof replacement. No they can't just get the guys to extend the existing scaffolding as they use a different contractor to the repair team.
I suggested they might want to talk to both departments and sort themselves out.
As it stands, right now, as far as I am aware, someone is going to come and repair the loose, missing, and broken tiles next week. Then the scaffolding will be taken down. Then a different set of scaffolding will be put up the week after that, and the entire roof replaced.
If I wrote that in a book, I'd be accused of either writing comedy, or of being unrealistic.
I'm running out of walls to beat my head against.
Sometimes the rain is hard, and we call it Hail. This is Wales....
As a housing association tenant, I get to report things that might need to be repaired and they send someone to have a look and schedule whatever needs to be done. They also have a schedule of upgrade and regular maintenance works that we, the tenants, have to deal with. Mostly these are sometimes a bit inconvenient but on the whole a good thing to be happening. A year or so ago, I had the kitchen and bathroom completely ripped out and replaced - regular maintenance, and it all looks great now.
A couple of weeks ago there were storms. It was windy. A couple of tiles on the roof came loose, some bits fell on my drive and the front garden. I called the housing association (HA from now on because I can't be arsed to type it in full...) and told them. They sent someone round to have a look.
He said (and remember this) We'll put in the repair but they're doing the roofs round here soon.
On Monday I got home from shopping to find men putting scaffolding on half of the house. OK, that'd be for the repair work. Would have been nice to know they were coming to do that, or when they're likely to do the work, but never mind.
Wednesday, a pick-up with tools in, and a couple of workmen parked outside. Then their boss person turned up, knocked my door and asked if they could start work today. I said yes. They drove off and I haven't seen them since.
With me so far?
Thursday I missed a call from the HA, asking to talk to me about the roof work. I called back and left a message when they didn't pick up the phone.
Today is Friday. Half my house is encased in unused scaffolding, I can't park on my drive.
The HA called again. They want to know when it's convenient to discuss the roof replacement work that's going to start in a couple of weeks.... I mentioned the scaffolding. They know nothing about the repair work, just the roof replacement. No they can't just get the guys to extend the existing scaffolding as they use a different contractor to the repair team.
I suggested they might want to talk to both departments and sort themselves out.
As it stands, right now, as far as I am aware, someone is going to come and repair the loose, missing, and broken tiles next week. Then the scaffolding will be taken down. Then a different set of scaffolding will be put up the week after that, and the entire roof replaced.
If I wrote that in a book, I'd be accused of either writing comedy, or of being unrealistic.
I'm running out of walls to beat my head against.
Tuesday, 26 November 2013
Day 6: Week 2. Orthodontics, Catching Fire and most of a floor.
No pics from today as there's nothing to see.
Eldest child had an orthodontics appointment, and both children had a day off school today. So this morning involved getting up at the usual time to wait for workmen to appear.
9.30. Van pulls up. "We're here to level the kitchen floor. We'll be about half an hour and then you can't go in there or walk on it for at least 4 hours."
Would have been good to know that before the day...
Sorted them out, established that they'd be fine and any appliances disconnected would be put back. Spoke to Tenant Liaison to let her know that they'd arrived and that we were vacating to a friend's house just up the road. Also that a key would be left with same friend in case the promised shower was going to be fitted. Again, a time and definite day for that would have been useful.
Left younger child with friend, took older one for his appointment.
Can you guess where this might be going?
Moments before leaving with oldest child, an electrician turned up for the key, he's here to fix the dangling light fitting.... guess where? You've got it, in the kitchen, above the floor that no-one can walk on for the next four hours. Shower? "Haven't they done that yet? They usually go in on electrics day." That'd be last Wednesday then. No, no-one fitted or mentioned the shower last week.
Went out, got child's braces fitted (they hurt, a lot, apparently. Sympathy and painkillers have been administered through this evening.) Took child to see Catching Fire (Hunger Games Trilogy)
. Good film, even better book.
Finally arrived home around 6 to find no shower, no fixed light and most of a levelled floor. Also no message or any sort of information about tomorrow.
Most of a floor? Yes, most, not all of the floor got levelled. They didn't bother moving the cooker, sink or washing machine. They just sort of went up to and round them, and the bit they've bothered to do isn't level. I can feel lines and bumps under my feet - and I'm wearing fairly heavy, thick soled boots.
There was a verbal, "I might try and fit it in tomorrow" from the electrician.
Well, tomorrow is shopping day. They have until 9.30 to show up and then I'm off out. If no-one shows up by 9.00 then I'll be on the phone to Tenant Liaison again.
Just an aside though, I really, really want to spell that as Tennant....
So, a Borough Council does a kitchen and bathroom refurb and takes 9 days on the kitchen and 4 on the bathroom. They assembled a multi-skilled team who moved in and did the work efficiently, arriving at 8.30 every day and working through till 5 unless there was good reason not to - like the floor being wet and out of bounds. They issued tenants with a timetable so we knew what to expect on which day, which trades were coming in and whether any appliances, water or power would be disconnected at any stage. And Tenant Liaison was so much in my face on a daily basis that I was fed up of them. But they were always there.
This housing association does the exact same job (with the addition of a wall to take down, which took less than a day) and I have no clue what to expect on any given day, they workers seem to like half days and it's taking forever.
I will no doubt rant some more tomorrow. But now I'm off for some sleep, just in case they decide that tomorrow might be an early start or, miracles do happen, a full day's work.
Eldest child had an orthodontics appointment, and both children had a day off school today. So this morning involved getting up at the usual time to wait for workmen to appear.
9.30. Van pulls up. "We're here to level the kitchen floor. We'll be about half an hour and then you can't go in there or walk on it for at least 4 hours."
Would have been good to know that before the day...
Sorted them out, established that they'd be fine and any appliances disconnected would be put back. Spoke to Tenant Liaison to let her know that they'd arrived and that we were vacating to a friend's house just up the road. Also that a key would be left with same friend in case the promised shower was going to be fitted. Again, a time and definite day for that would have been useful.
Left younger child with friend, took older one for his appointment.
Can you guess where this might be going?
Moments before leaving with oldest child, an electrician turned up for the key, he's here to fix the dangling light fitting.... guess where? You've got it, in the kitchen, above the floor that no-one can walk on for the next four hours. Shower? "Haven't they done that yet? They usually go in on electrics day." That'd be last Wednesday then. No, no-one fitted or mentioned the shower last week.
Went out, got child's braces fitted (they hurt, a lot, apparently. Sympathy and painkillers have been administered through this evening.) Took child to see Catching Fire (Hunger Games Trilogy)
. Good film, even better book.Finally arrived home around 6 to find no shower, no fixed light and most of a levelled floor. Also no message or any sort of information about tomorrow.
Most of a floor? Yes, most, not all of the floor got levelled. They didn't bother moving the cooker, sink or washing machine. They just sort of went up to and round them, and the bit they've bothered to do isn't level. I can feel lines and bumps under my feet - and I'm wearing fairly heavy, thick soled boots.
There was a verbal, "I might try and fit it in tomorrow" from the electrician.
Well, tomorrow is shopping day. They have until 9.30 to show up and then I'm off out. If no-one shows up by 9.00 then I'll be on the phone to Tenant Liaison again.
Just an aside though, I really, really want to spell that as Tennant....
So, a Borough Council does a kitchen and bathroom refurb and takes 9 days on the kitchen and 4 on the bathroom. They assembled a multi-skilled team who moved in and did the work efficiently, arriving at 8.30 every day and working through till 5 unless there was good reason not to - like the floor being wet and out of bounds. They issued tenants with a timetable so we knew what to expect on which day, which trades were coming in and whether any appliances, water or power would be disconnected at any stage. And Tenant Liaison was so much in my face on a daily basis that I was fed up of them. But they were always there.
This housing association does the exact same job (with the addition of a wall to take down, which took less than a day) and I have no clue what to expect on any given day, they workers seem to like half days and it's taking forever.
I will no doubt rant some more tomorrow. But now I'm off for some sleep, just in case they decide that tomorrow might be an early start or, miracles do happen, a full day's work.
Tuesday, 19 November 2013
Day 2: A bit of pipe work.
The kitchen was bigger than this one. The job got done in minimum time, fairly efficiently.
So, this time round the kitchen and bathroom are being done at the same time, and it's going to take 3 weeks.
The work is slightly different. There's some structural stuff to do - a wall needed to come out. That was done yesterday. They arrived at 9.30 and were long gone when I got home at 3.00. Today was some plumbing work and no-one was here when I went out at 11.00. I passed the keys to a tenant liaison person and hoped the work might get done. When I got home at 3.00 there was soldering and stuff going on in my kitchen and he'd "got here about an hour ago." A simple communication would have sorted that. I should have known to not expect anyone this morning, and I should have known that yesterday at the latest.
He took another hour or so to put some pipes in, make a hole in the wall and take out the bathroom sink. The sink is in bits, sitting in the front garden.
Apparently the trades don't like working alongside each other, so a plumber can't be working while there are sparkies working, and the plasterers make a mess.
This is work being done towards the end of a program of ongoing improvements, and as such I would expect lessons to have been learned and timings to have been sharpened. It should be possible to have all this done in 2 weeks, maybe with an extra day for the structural stuff, or for last minute fixes at the end. Three weeks is excessive and a waste of resources.
Tomorrow I expect electricians to rewire the kitchen, which was rewired 2 weeks ago as part of the whole house rewire. Why they couldn't have incorporated that into the whole program I have no idea.
So, thinking abut it, it's not 3 weeks, it's more like 4.
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