FOOL'S EYE VIEW
Dealing With Home Improvements

By Jane Mack (TMFJane)
October 2, 2003

It started about eight weeks ago. My home improvement nightmare, I mean. And, this week, I finally succumbed and burst into tears. It was all I could do. What I really wanted to do was to kick someone – anyone, frankly - in the nuts but I'm a girlie and don't do things like that so it seemed better to have a bit of a weep instead.

In theory, we're on the home straight with all the building work that we've been having done. But in practice, there are so many time-consuming little jobs that still need finishing that it'll still be at least a fortnight until everything's done. Not least because The Builders are now only turning up intermittently to deal with the finishing touches as they've already moved on to the bigger fish they have to fry.

When the one-and-only person on the premises announced this afternoon, after putting in an appearance for less than an hour, that he was off to work on another job rather than the one he was supposed to be doing for me, I got a tad grumpy. "I want my house back," I said. "By the end of the week, please." (After he left, I felt bad about being cross with the poor man and had a bit of a self-indulgent weep).

Nevertheless, it worked because, less than 90 minutes later he was back to measure up for the amount of shingle they need to order for the driveway. As a result, we should have our driveway done by the weekend. I think if I hadn't been grumpy it would have been one of those things that would have been left for yet another week.

It's at this stage I have to hold my hands up and admit that some of the problems we've had during our home improvement works over the last couple of months have been entirely our own fault. We didn't think things through properly for the work that was quoted for and nor did we pin The Builders down regarding the costs for all the extras we've had done.

It's all very well getting a quote for a 'new bathroom' but if you haven't specified that you'd like bits of it tiled (or, even, chosen your tiles), that you want new flooring (or chosen your flooring) and could they please install a better radiator while they're at it (which one?), you can hardly blame The Builders for the escalating costs. We should have thought about and specified the sundries when we originally asked them to quote for the job.

But I'm also of the view that, just on the subject of our new bathroom, while this is the first one we've had installed for nearly 20 years, they've done hundreds, if not thousands, of them in that time so I feel they could have pointed this out and asked us for the full specifications in the first place. We're the amateurs, after all.

Halfway through the job I started to panic about how and why the costs were running away from us and tried to pin down the Head Honcho, particularly regarding the charges for all the 'extras' we were having done that weren't included in the original quote. He reluctantly gathered together all the receipts for the building materials he'd used, deducted the total from all the money we'd given him and then told us that the labour costs amounted to what was left.

When I pointed out that we'd given him nearly £1,000 more than he'd thought (Thank Goodness we made him sign for everything we gave him!) and asked him to be more specific about the labour costs, he got offended and I've barely seen him since. We still owe him about £1,200 though so I presume he'll be back for it – when the job's finally finished!

To be honest, I think it's because he's embarrassed that he got his sums wrong and I can sympathise with that because I'm hopeless with sums. It's not that I don't trust him – believe it or not, I do. He's a decent, kind man. But he's 60, he's got arthritis in his knees, which I can imagine must be immensely painful, and he's a bit set in his ways. And, I suspect, he doesn't like dealing with women when it comes to money, especially when he's faced with awkward questions from someone like me.

So what are my conclusions when it comes to dealing with builders?

1. Make up your mind as far as possible about every aspect of your building work before you ask anyone to quote a price.
2. Get it in writing – properly typed up and in detail - rather than accepting scraps of paper such as the one we got which is littered with generalisations about what we wanted done.
3. If you ask for something extra to be done, get a price at the time and, again, insist on getting it in writing, regardless of how much you trust your builder.
4. Hold back on handing over all the money for the job until it's completely finished.
5. Move to a brand new house that doesn't need anything doing to it!

Alternatively - and as long as you've got nice builders who mean well but are overwhelmed with work and can't think straight sometimes because they're trying to do their best by everyone - you can get stuff done by being grumpy or bursting into tears at an opportune moment.

For the tears, you will need a woman. Otherwise, try being grumpy and hanging on to the money you owe them.

Read about Financing Home Improvements