Paving advice needed (NLC)

[mac]

he finally turned up tonight well armed with excuses:

1. rain - quantity of that has fallen recently
2. size/thickness of slabs being uneven
3. size of area to be slabbed to big to get it level

he sending guys round tomorrow to fix it "to my satisfaction", however he disagreed with bradstone saying the slabs should be laid on a mortar bed.

I'm not convinced he has the skills/inclination to sort this "to my satisfaction"

This isn't my field but it's not a million miles away. Here's my response to the above

1. Rain - he hasn't prepared the subgrade correctly to provide adequate drainage (he's talking about heave due to expansion)
2. slabs being uneven - working with a natural product (which has a max of 6mm) he should be selecting similar thickness slabs when laying so that there's little progression between each unit.
3. Size, irrelevant - at worse you only need to make sure that it's laid flat and level using it's neighbour as a datum. The area should be prepared properly and the base screeded prior to laying - folk lay monoblock on a much large area and get it right.

Ask him if he's proud of his work and would use it as a showcase of his workmanship? If he says yes then you could reply with "so I can put photo of this up on the internet with your company name beside it? Or in the Cumbernauld News?"

Mac

[craigieb]

Update:

To cut a long story short Lorna and I have been spent the last two days fielding abusive, threatening calls from him. This included voicemails threatening to come to our house and "rip your f*cking head off" amongst other pleasantries, including calling me a liar, worst sh*tbag he's ever come across in 35 years etc. etc. etc.

I will be reporting him to the police although I'm not sure if I have sufficient evidence, or even if I would want to have the police approach him on my behalf.

I ended up making a CHAPS payment into his account yesterday to cover material + the labour I was prepared to pay for, just to get rid of him.

This is right up there as one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life so far.

I've certainly learnt a lesson from the whole sorry saga and please if you ever come across Mitchell’s Landscaping based at Cherry bank Nursery in Cumbernauld, my personal recommendation would be to avoid at all costs .

Cheers
Craig

P.S. Graham - I have dropped you a PM - thanks for the offer of advice.

[Dominic]

Update:

To cut a long story short Lorna and I have been spent the last two days fielding abusive, threatening calls from him. This included voicemails threatening to come to our house and "rip your f*cking head off" amongst other pleasantries, including calling me a liar, worst sh*tbag he's ever come across in 35 years etc. etc. etc.

I will be reporting him to the police although I'm not sure if I have sufficient evidence, or even if I would want to have the police approach him on my behalf.

I ended up making a CHAPS payment into his account yesterday to cover material + the labour I was prepared to pay for, just to get rid of him.

This is right up there as one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life so far.

I've certainly learnt a lesson from the whole sorry saga and please if you ever come across Mitchell’s Landscaping based at Cherry bank Nursery in Cumbernauld, my personal recommendation would be to avoid at all costs .

Cheers
Craig

P.S. Graham - I have dropped you a PM - thanks for the offer of advice.

Really sorry to hear how things have gone.

Similar thing happend to my boss in my previous job, ended up with the police involved, at one point they actually had an under cover cop posted in the park across the road from the office, who kept popping in, whenever someone came into the office. In that case, the police took the threats seriously, and were very helpfull. Can't do any harm to pop into your local cop shop. IMHO.

[RDH]

Update:

To cut a long story short Lorna and I have been spent the last two days fielding abusive, threatening calls from him. This included voicemails threatening to come to our house and "rip your f*cking head off" amongst other pleasantries, including calling me a liar, worst sh*tbag he's ever come across in 35 years etc. etc. etc.

I will be reporting him to the police although I'm not sure if I have sufficient evidence, or even if I would want to have the police approach him on my behalf.

I ended up making a CHAPS payment into his account yesterday to cover material + the labour I was prepared to pay for, just to get rid of him.

This is right up there as one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life so far.

I've certainly learnt a lesson from the whole sorry saga and please if you ever come across Mitchell’s Landscaping based at Cherry bank Nursery in Cumbernauld, my personal recommendation would be to avoid at all costs .

Cheers
Craig

P.S. Graham - I have dropped you a PM - thanks for the offer of advice.

A freind had a similar situation re the abusive calls etc, and his lawyer advised to type up the transcript from the call and get someone independant to verify that it was a true transcript of the call - in case it was ever required for poice action.


sorry to hear about your woes - hopefully he's now off your back and you can get it sorted.

[Brunty]

Try and record the abusive phone calls if you can. That kind of thing can be very distressing

Brunty

[craigieb]

Try and record the abusive phone calls if you can. That kind of thing can be very distressing

Brunty

he was tupid enough to leave them on my voicemail

consulted a copper friend of mine and there are two possible ways to use it:

1. let the police hear it and if they constitute it as threatening they will give him a warning in person but nothing gets recorded
2. Hand my phone over to the cop shop and make a formal complaint and they decide whether or not to charge him. I get my phone back when it's all done.

Unfortunately both involve seeing/speaking to this *** again and that's something neither of us want to go through.

At least now we never see him again

Thanks for the support guys - Lorna found it all particularly comforting to read all your posts

Cheers
Craig

[ed]

Glad you got it relatively sorted matey!

[mckeann]

of course we could always go round and rip his head off

[Victor Meldrew]

of course we could always go round and rip his head off

PM. for more info..... when you work offshore you meet all sorts.

I'm not averse to teaching lesons to people who are in the wrong. Been there done that, police were happy with the way I delt with it..... nuff said.

[kenny]

of course we could always go round and rip his head off

I dont see why anyone should take that kind of crap. I would hope the police would take it seriously but nothing wrong with having a few bods about just to let them know you wont be intimidated.

[pete]

My tenpenneth having had friends who have had similar problems and having had a lot of work done...

Tell trading standards - they are really good and they won't do anything unless you ask them to but they will file the info which could be useful to you later, or to someone else who wants to take it further who has similar problems.
Tell the cops. Abusive phone calls are covered by some law or another which they will be interested in - again useful for you if he comes back and useful to them to let them know what sort of c*nt he is.

Whin dust works well as it is, I think, lime based. What ever it is nothing grows in it where as sand will get weeds. What everyone else said about laying flags is dead on and much more than I knew.
There is normally a much higher charge for laying, for example, York stone as it is much harder than straight slabs because it is hugely time consuming to get the levels right. Is it possible he was just out of his depth? I would use the handymen who sometimes do stuff for me to lay normal slabs but for non-uniform slabs I'd look for someone with experience... (Which obviously you thought you had done).

I completely understand why you paid him, I would have done the same but Suzy is from Paisley and as such is much harder than me. This sort of approach always strengthens her resolve! I never pay for work (with tradesmen I haven't used before) until the work is completed to a satisfactory standard. If it is unsatisfactory I pay a percentage, holding back a serious amount until it is completed to a satisfactory standard. There is no point in holding back 5% as they just might just write it off. We once withheld 33% from a well known double glazing firm against snags and they ended up calling it quits!

Your experience sounds sh*t though, utter nightmare...

[bertieduff]

We once withheld 33% from a well known double glazing firm against snags and they ended up calling it quits!

Your experience sounds sh*t though, utter nightmare...

..Not unusual, as windows normally have a bigger mark-up than 33%, so they would have at least covered their costs...worth bearing in mind if anyone is haggling for replacement windows

Sorry to hear all this Craig- easy enough to say don't pay on a forum..harder to do when some nut is screaming at your other half. Sounds like you have been perfectly reasonable so far with him.

I was a site-based construction manager for a few years, and having such 'debates', particularly with small contractors, was an almost weekly occurrence...99% of the time they are all bluster, but you do get the occasional nutter who requires other approaches, and it's not a pleasant situation to be in.... PM me if this isn't the end of the saga

[Shug]

Sh*t dude, Just caught up on this thread...

Easy to say, I know, but I'd make a point of pushing it further with the Police. I can't stand feckers like that getting away with this...

Or PM John. I'll let you guess which one I'd do....