Questions about a current building JOb

1800_Ladladlad

A woman on my road is in the process of getting a driveway put in and the path done for the car to go up the kurb, an access ramp from the front along the right wall and steps to the left of the driveway to the front door. The front area was to be tiled in its entirety including the side entrance leading to the back garden. The builder started this job May 8th and has not finished the job.

There is a delay of 2 weeks with the pillar and wall cappings from the providers due to cv19. The builder is telling her that there is nothing for him do until the cappings come in two weeks time. I can understand to an extent why the walls cannot be plastered until the cappings are installed(or maybe they can without) along with the other the jobs you wait to finish and leave do until the end. But there is a list of things that he still could do, rather than delaying or prolonging the job longer than necessary. I don't understand why he has to wait 2 weeks to finish what needs doing. The cappings on the wall need removing, things like that. This notion of there is nothing to be done is lost on me.

On many occasions, the lad would come on-site for roughly 3 hours and head off again. He's never been on site for a full week but puts in the odd full shift (8-6). The week before last he finished up on Wednesday and told her he'll be back on the following Monday. He shows up on Monday saying he forget he was going on holiday for the week with the family and gave excuses. Neither of us has been friendly with him since then. His first day back, he flew through the work: he finished laying the cobble block he only did halfway down the access ramp 3 weeks prior, He replaced several cobblestones he put down wrong and tiled the front doorstep he forgot to do. The woman is now left with over excess tile/cobble block/stone, I'm talking one wrapped pallet(after sideway completion) and 230 cobble stone granite blocks. The supplier wont take them, back. The builder told her to go and buy from here and that they do returns etc. He also wasted 3 bags of grout. They are 26 euro each. and broke two specific tiles made for the steps. ......

It's very hard to explain without going into detail and drawing things out, I am well aware of the jobs on-site that can only be done last but it feels like this jobs is not his primary concern.

Last thing : He has turned up at the womans house with waste and throws it in the skip, which is from other jobs he leaves to do at random. His brother also comes and dumps waste in the skip too. 90% of the waste in the skip is not from the woman's site. I chopped up the pallets for firewood and recycled any paper and plastic when I did my recycling in my local recycling centre. It's one of the larger skips but the waste from her job would have fitted 2 sizes down. Are skips usually included in the final quote price as expenses and charged to the customer? or do builders pay for it and put their waste from their other jobs in that one skip?

Is this lad taking the piss or am I missing something? I haven't encountered this kind of tradesman before. Im trying to look for the woman as this job is to essentially fix what was done my travelers who done one over on her.