There is a moment in almost any episode of Grand Designs where it seems like it’s never going to be finished, will cost far more than anticipated and is all going wrong. At which point they inevitably say, “I wish we’d never started”. I’ve been asked a few times over the last few months if I’d thought that yet and, until now, the answer was always, “No”. Now, however, I can emphatically say, “Yes”. I got there, I did think it and say it. So what’s been going on to get me to breaking point? I think in the main it’s been the combination of plasterers, building regulations and shower trays.
Firstly, the plasterers. They were a week from finishing all the plastering in the middle of September. The majority of the really crucial bit (the screed) had been completed at the cost of the knees of the main plasterer. He then had a fortnight out of action with hospital scans and an ever-increasing strength of painkiller before he could get back to any kind of work. Not a problem, there are four plasterers, I thought to myself. But no, turns out there are two plasterers and two labourers, so without the main man, we’re down to one plasterer and one labourer. Still not ringing too many alarm bells except that the second plasterer chose this same week to head off on a spontaneous holiday. Apparently nobody knew about it in advance and once there he then called up to say that he was going to stay longer than planned. A two week break from plastering at the point at which this was the only thing that needed doing before all the second fix electrics, plumbing and carpentry could take place, was frustrating to say the least. Finally, finally, the plastering is all but finished – almost a month later than planned. The delays shouldn’t hold up our move back in date – the crucial thing at the moment as we feel increasingly squashed in our rental place – but will mean that there are a lot of trades needing to work around each other all at once.
Secondly, building regulations. As we are converting the loft space over the new extension, I dutifully spent quite some time researching what needed doing, finding out the size of the loft conversion and submitting the relevant information for a building regulation notice. As you only have to give two days notice before starting work on the loft conversion, we did just this and work began promptly with the loft space being insulated and plasterboarded and two rooflights added. As the rooms had been built with floor joists rather than ceiling joists and we already had an existing staircase, it meant that the work only took a few days to be completed and the end result is a very exciting room for a two-year old boy complete with built in car ramp (sloping wall to some).
Almost as soon as it was completed, I received a letter from building control asking for more detailed plans and structural calculations. Shouldn’t have been a problem as it was always designed to be converted so I contacted the architect to ask him to send through what building regs needed. This was on the Friday and, after a weekend of some anxiety, I had a phone call from the architect on the Monday morning saying that the structural engineer denied all knowledge of the intention to use the space as a loft conversion. Not good news. He said that the first half of the loft space was fine, but the second half would need all the joists doubling up. Trying not to panic, I phoned Steve. Steve was not reassuring! He was pretty clear that if the work did need doing it would be a proper nightmare and involve undoing lots of work already completed as well as the additional cost of the joists etc. If the structural engineer was correct, Steve was recommending that we just board up that room and use it as storage which would be hugely disappointing, not to mention a massive waste of cash spent on doing up a storage area. A catch up with some friends helped to keep me sane at this point – thanks to Georgie and Zuzanna for their voices of reason!
But the building inspector had already seen the planned space, measured it and said that it was fine, so there was still hope. We left it that Steve would double check with building control and the architect would double check with the structural engineer. By this point I was barely keeping it together, convinced that I should have been able to predict this and generally blowing it out of all proportion. The next day the architect confirmed that the structural engineer hadn’t changed his mind. And then the building inspector came back and said that it was fine. Crucially, it seems, the build is a few centimetres less than on the plans which makes all the difference. However, the building inspector had told Steve that he had some other concerns and needed to speak to me but wouldn’t be available til the next day. Cue me, shutting myself in the lounge to have a good old sob and get it all out of my system. I managed to, just about, hold it together until Neil returned home early enough to get the kids ready for bed, having correctly understood the subtext of my many messages that day! The following morning it turned out that the building inspector wasn’t aware that I had put in the building regulation notice and thought we were trying to get building control sign off without paying. When he looked into it, he complemented me on my attention to detail – not always my strong point. He also confirmed that he had everything that he needed in terms of structural calcs etc and that the letter we received was a standard one. So it appears that all that stress was unnecessary although I will still be very relieved to get the ultimate sign off.
And the third source of stress sounds ridiculous but has been the most ongoing issue: the shower tray. The shower tray was delivered bowed, bent, not flat, not fit for purpose. I could go on, and I could also post many many photos of said shower tray. With any other products delivered faulty, I am used to conversations with the shop/supplier going along the lines of, “I’m very sorry, when would you like a replacement to be delivered?”. In this instance, I was asked for photos and then told it was fine but needed to be put on the floor flat. It was on the floor flat, it wasn’t touching in the middle because it was bowed. So I was asked for more photos with a spirit level, then with the spirit level in a different place, then I was asked to weight it down. Then I was asked to weight it down with a piece of wood on top with tool boxes on top of that evenly distributing the weight in order to flatten it. This process took about three weeks before getting to the stage where I sounded like a sitcom character saying repeatedly, “I want a refund, I want a refund, I want my money back, I want a refund.” (Chandler and Ross, “I wanna leave the gym…”). We have now been told that if we return the shower tray to them, they will give us a refund if they find it to be faulty and include the cost of the transportation. And if it’s not deemed faulty but is in good condition, they will refund but not return the transportation costs. If anyone knows of a way to transport a 55kg shower tray to Darlington for less than £70 please let me know!
The lack of the shower tray has meant that the tiler couldn’t start. The bathrooms couldn’t be plumbed without the tiling being done and it has had a much more significant impact than I would have thought one small component would have had.
