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New patio is falling towards house..

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  • Registered Users Posts: 791 ✭✭✭CreadanLady


    100%. Decks are a hazard and a complete pain in the hole. They get deadly slippy in the wet with grimey slimey film, and unless you power wash and treat them with coatings every year, they rot to shít in no time. And even with the best of care, they rot and fall apart eventually.

    Absolute waste of time and money and I would never advise anyone to put in a deck.

    The MFV Creadan Lady is a mussel dredger from Dunmore East.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,803 ✭✭✭Xcellor


    I have a deck, i loved building it. But ended up forgetting to deal with drainage coincidentally - the thing rotted. Lasted about 10 years. I had to pull it out last summer. I rebuilt it though with greater attention to moving water away, raised it well off the ground. Its true though it needs stained on a yearly basis.

    Dont get a deck if you want a maintenance free experience -- the composite ones look good but about 3 times the price.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,931 ✭✭✭Xander10


    I recently replaced a decking with a patio outside french doors. The decking served me well, but in recent years sagged a bit and started holding water and became dangerous. Plus the yearly upkeep was expensive. Likewise, I wouldn't go the decking option again.

    My patio man worked on his own and took forever. The slabs to my eye are not perfect but generally fine. I don't worry about water, because as part of the job, I added a pergola with a perspex roof. So when it's lashing rain, I can sit out on it and stay bone dry.



  • Registered Users Posts: 3,498 ✭✭✭Ginger83


    OP sorry to hear of the problems you are having.

    The reality is that building in this country is a free for all. There are regulations and meant to be rules but they mean sweet fa and rarely if ever enforced. We would personally know that the head of building control in our county has never prosecuted anyone in his career so that will give you an idea. My husband invited them to prosecute him to have proof to fight a cowboy but they politely declined.

    Your job looks rough, even the cutting around the AJ but your best bet is to hope the remedial work keeps water away from the house.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,803 ✭✭✭Xcellor


    Yeah the rough pieces I can deal with, if there are left overs I can angle grind better ones. It's the fundamental parts like drainage that worry me more at this stage... I could have done it myself but its very large. They have been at it 1 month at this point!!! With Sundays bankholidays off but otherwise mostly onsite.

    Anyway they are installing some drainage now which will run the perimeter of the patio and lifting and creating a more sensible fall AWAY from the house..



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  • Registered Users Posts: 3,498 ✭✭✭Ginger83


    I certainly would not recommend them to others



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,803 ✭✭✭Xcellor


    I think that goes without saying. Mistakes can happen it's how you deal with them that makes the difference. I think the scale of the project was more than he was used to.



  • Registered Users Posts: 6,671 ✭✭✭The Continental Op


    Wake me up when it's all over.



  • Registered Users Posts: 23,351 ✭✭✭✭mickdw


    He is there a full month!

    Oh Jesus. This is serious. I thought it was a 3 day job or so with him 2 days in and 1 to do.

    There is clearly alot of money involved there. With that in mind, I think you should get an Engineer to look over what is being done.

    I'd love to see some photos of the job overall and how they are going about the task.



  • Subscribers Posts: 41,537 ✭✭✭✭sydthebeat


    i assume there are low rise walls included in that month of construction?

    foundations / blockwork / cladding etc?



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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,803 ✭✭✭Xcellor


    They did all ground work manually. Dug out foundations for wall. Hard to understand why it's taken so long. They were almost "finished" until the problem in OP.

    I'm hoping this is the last weekend...



  • Registered Users Posts: 18 tonium22


    Stick with your patio plentyohtoole.

    This guy is the 1 percent . I never seen the likes of him



  • Registered Users Posts: 18 tonium22


    A month?

    That's heartbreaking

    What's he charging for the job



  • Registered Users Posts: 984 ✭✭✭Still stihl waters 3


    Is that a cash job op



  • Registered Users Posts: 46,052 ✭✭✭✭muffler


    A month? From what you have described so far I think these guys have managed to stretch a 5 - 7 days work into a month long leisure trip.



  • Registered Users Posts: 6,142 ✭✭✭screamer


    A month to lay a residential patio???? Smacks of incompetence. You need to play hard ball, tell them you’ll pay the final lot of money outstanding in a month, to see how the patio performs, hopefully some rain will fall in the meanwhile so you can see whether they have remediated it satisfactorily or not. In house building it’s called retention and snagging.



  • Posts: 25,611 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    To what end exactly? There's a lot of money involved so you should throw some more money at someone else in the construction sector which will... do absolutely nothing to benefit the OP.



  • Registered Users Posts: 23,351 ✭✭✭✭mickdw


    To get a professional opinion to confirm that the works being done are not going to damage the property.

    An Engineer might well tell the op that the works simply need to be removed completely. If even this saved the homeowner the final installment to the builder, it would be a saving.

    The op is talking about painting a sealer onto wall where patio is high against house. I don't agree with this. The raised external can in the worst case result in cavity being filled with water up to level of external which can result in significant damage internally. A painted on sealer may not be any benefit at all.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,931 ✭✭✭Xander10


    Did you get this finished and if so reasonably satisfied?

    I hope it isn't still dragging on.



  • Registered Users Posts: 18 tonium22


    I'm guessing the builder walkrd out

    Or else he put in a water pump at the back door to clear the puddle



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  • Registered Users Posts: 11,469 ✭✭✭✭Ush1


    As my da told me when some cowboys made a pigs ear of my bathroom, you're only wasting your time asking fellas to fix something that is so fundamentally wrong to begin with. I'd be honestly looking to cut your losses, not worth the stress. Very few building jobs I've had done have been without issue, it's the reason I'm looking to try do more and more myself.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,803 ✭✭✭Xcellor


    I dont have the money to fix it so whatever remedial fixes etc are done are better than the alternative a building site in the back garden coming into summer with a 2 year old !!

    I suppose I've learnt a lot from this experience. It's sad that peoples word means so little. I suspect cow boys in the trade do not even see themselves as cowboys which is half the problem.



  • Posts: 8,856 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    What sort of money are we talking here for the patio?

    And I hope you’re not paying them by the day given they’ve been at this one month.

    I know it’s not ideal but would you consider asking them to take up all the tiles on the original footpath, and put all that back to just a footpath ? While it won’t look great it will sort worries around rising damp in your house?



  • Posts: 8,856 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Ah yeah I am. In fairness the guy I’ve employed just feels “right” if that makes sense? Absolutely no request for money up front and none offered.

    he’s not cheap but not extortionate either but certainly higher than quotes I’ve seen on boards in recent times

    I got him recommended from local builders suppliers - they gave me two names- they said, these are the two we’d stand over- I’ve seen pictures of his work - that’s about all I can do in this current market- fingers crossed all goes well -I’ll be back here if it doesn’t 😂



  • Posts: 8,856 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Mine just about lasted 16 years but the railings rotted before that- pain in the arse oiling it every year. Really not sure about those composite ones though- are they essentially plastic or a plastic compound? I reckon weathering would take its toll on them over time too - maybe subject to cracking ?



  • Registered Users Posts: 658 ✭✭✭MIRMIR82


    Any update since Xcellor, were you happy enough with the final result in the end, well as happy as you could be?!



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,803 ✭✭✭Xcellor


    Hmm well there is drainage in all around house and the fall towards house improved. They are still here finishing concrete .

    Happy isn't a word I'd use. More like adjusting my expectations. The finish isn't great and I'll have to spend time sorting things out. His behaviour has been atrocious from the moment when a relatively basic problem was highlighted .



  • Registered Users Posts: 23,351 ✭✭✭✭mickdw


    They couldn't be still there. Jesus how much have you given them.



  • Registered Users Posts: 18 tonium22


    He's a fukking moron

    Cavemen would lay better slabs 10000 years ago. Running the **** water away from the cave .



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  • Administrators Posts: 53,764 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    I don't understand how any genuine tradesman could afford to take so long on one job.



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