Problems With My Contractor

[fayewes 0]

hi everyone. havent been here for a long time cos busy with my house's construction works.

now there are some serious problems, my contractor let his china man do all the work alone and ended up giving alot of screwed up products. my tilings for example, have wide gaps between them and dirty stains that cannot be washed. some of them are even badly scratched already. we were very unhappy with the contractor and demanded he re do the tiling but in the end we settled for a storerack worth $120 as compensation.

there are even more problems. we have our basin constructed at the service balcony under the suggestion of the contractor but now, as we use the water at that basin, it has a very weird and powdery taste, we are thinking could it be the pipe the contractor installed? is erosion possible? anyone can advise?

more on my tiles, recently under advice of a friend who was once a contractor, we went about knocking on some of the tiles and to our shock, the sound was a resonating one, indicating hollowness underneath, we ended up knocking on all the floor tiles and found about 5 such pieces.

i am still withholding the last payment of thousand plus but other than that, i dunno how these problems can be resolved. is there any advice?

and i hope no one else is using my contractor..;(

[Cloyn 0]

Withhold your last payment, that's your betting chip to get any rectification done, once you pay that amount, you can forget about getting them ever.

Also, do put up some pictures and the name of the company as a warning for others. There is no badmouthing issue if it's indeed a genuine case with evidence.

[wuga98 0]

As a matter of discussion/sharing only, I am not sure if the storerack agreement is as compensation for the scratched tiles or for all defects? If you accept the compensation for scratched tiles, unless you back out of your agreement, then i would think you have made your selection and trade for this defect.

As for hollowness, no way to resolve, have to hack to redo. Some will tell you, they can inject some liquid into the grout lines between tiles and make it solid, up to you to believe. As for the basin, have you try to flush it, like let the tap run for some time or if you can get one of those filter, do you see powder?.

The other thing is that, get your current contractor to rectify all defects before even agreeing to release the last payment. Have an agreed timeline, eg. 2weeks etc. If they are not able to correct the defect, get an alternate quote from a more reliable contractor and if your current contractor agrees to have this done by a new contactor, this may help you to move along. Payment to your current contractor will be whatever balance left after paying the new contractor. If the $ to rectify defect is > than retention amount, then you will have to find an alternative way to get compensated eg. CASE/Legal etc.

It is quite normal for contractor to sub or even sub-sub work when the demand is there but this does not also mean they are not responsible for the workmanship of their sub. Under the contract/agreement that you sign with your contractor, they have to insure equal or better workmanship if they decides to sub this out.

hi everyone. havent been here for a long time cos busy with my house's construction works.

now there are some serious problems, my contractor let his china man do all the work alone and ended up giving alot of screwed up products. my tilings for example, have wide gaps between them and dirty stains that cannot be washed. some of them are even badly scratched already. we were very unhappy with the contractor and demanded he re do the tiling but in the end we settled for a storerack worth $120 as compensation.

there are even more problems. we have our basin constructed at the service balcony under the suggestion of the contractor but now, as we use the water at that basin, it has a very weird and powdery taste, we are thinking could it be the pipe the contractor installed? is erosion possible? anyone can advise?

more on my tiles, recently under advice of a friend who was once a contractor, we went about knocking on some of the tiles and to our shock, the sound was a resonating one, indicating hollowness underneath, we ended up knocking on all the floor tiles and found about 5 such pieces.

i am still withholding the last payment of thousand plus but other than that, i dunno how these problems can be resolved. is there any advice?

and i hope no one else is using my contractor..;(

[hihihi 0]

water problems...

collect some water in a clear glass let it stand overnight, then see the powdery residue collected next morning. Can give u clue on what stuff is that. Trace the water line to see if u can find anything unusal. Get the contractor to help u check this out. They might have play punk in during the routing of waterline to the sink.

tiles

very easy. get them changed.

[fayewes 0]

Thanks all for the advice. Sigh I dont wish to be mentioning names here but if you guys really want to know who, u can PM me ur contractor's name and I can tell u if its him. Thats all. I wont be spelling out the name here. Anyway he's a church friend and so that makes things even trickier.

Biggest problem now is that we have moved in. How to re do tiles??? =(

ANd i forgot to add. the 1000+ isnt even enough to redo the flooring!! if we take him to court, we will end up spending more wont we??

And this contractor's "company" functions in a very weird way. He does not have any other worker other than the china man alone and recently, in light of what has happened to my renovations, he sacked the china worker. Now his firm is like himself only??

It's really a very big headache for my family now. Any advice is so appreciated.

Edited December 28, 2008 by fayewes

[hihihi 0]

hmm.. sound more and more like my contractor (in my signature), or is it a coincidence.

I believe your contractor friend would have told u, or didn't he? Changing the hollow tiles will be only changing that particular tiles, not the neighbouring tiles. Basically the guy will come and use a electric cutter to cut out the affected tiles and then re-lay them. Only concern is dust, and noise of coz. Unless he come prepared with plastic sheets to isolate the area he's working on, can then minmise the dust.

[wuga98 0]

I have seen a lot of these fly by night contractor that sub work out, no issue if you have moved in, get them to come at your convenience and since you are not hacking the whole place, then they can do very localize replace of these hollow tiles.

Friend or not, work is work, this is a business transaction, it is not FREE, so you have your rights to insure he deliver.

If agrees to give up his claim to the retention, then get someone else to do it as his cost, be strong.

Thanks all for the advice. Sigh I dont wish to be mentioning names here but if you guys really want to know who, u can PM me ur contractor's name and I can tell u if its him. Thats all. I wont be spelling out the name here. Anyway he's a church friend and so that makes things even trickier.

Biggest problem now is that we have moved in. How to re do tiles??? =(

ANd i forgot to add. the 1000+ isnt even enough to redo the flooring!! if we take him to court, we will end up spending more wont we??

And this contractor's "company" functions in a very weird way. He does not have any other worker other than the china man alone and recently, in light of what has happened to my renovations, he sacked the china worker. Now his firm is like himself only??

It's really a very big headache for my family now. Any advice is so appreciated.