Builders' Rates - Take 2 ...

Following on from my post of a couple of weeks ago, I finally got the go-ahead from the missus to engage Big Steve (who I've known for many years) and his pal Ed to come and do the back door brick-up and inside make good job, and it looks like the estimates from the good folk on here were all just about on the money - figuratively and literally.

They turned up at 8 am yesterday, and while Steve got going on taking the frame out, Ed got busy Kangoling bricks out for the toothing in. That actually took quite a long time up until almost lunchtime in fact, but not a trace of damage to any other bricks. In the meantime, Steve took a couple of boards out of the floor inside so he could start the blockwork from the concrete under the floor. By the close of play, the blockwork inside was complete, and a piece of plasterboard was dotted and dabbed on. The outside brickwork was 5 courses from the top. Back at

8 am today, Ed carried on with the brickwork while Steve got on with an extra little job that involved Drilling a 1" hole from the airing cupboard into a piece of pitched roof where there is no access to the void, and then lifting a couple of tiles to get in and feeding a piece of 1" flexible trunking into the drilled hole at the top, and through the ceiling below. By the time that was all finished, Ed had just about finished the brickwork outside, so he came in to do the plaster skim. Steve stayed outside and Kangoled the old step off the path and cleared all up.

By 1 pm all finished, and I have to say a really superb job outside and in. The bricks are a really good match and it's hard to see at a quick glance even now where the job was done. When they've weathered down a bit, I think they will be barely visible.

So total time - about three man days exactly as everyone predicted, and total cost £785 so well done all with your predictions !

Arfa

Reply to
Arfa Daily
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It is indeed nice to hear of outcomes on here. All too often advice is given and we never hear the outcome. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Kangol = seatbelts, clothes (and tents?) Kango = GBFO breakers

Sounds good.

Reply to
Andy Burns

And berets, as I remember!

Reply to
Bob Eager

You should know the drill on here by now, only make a bit of a mistake and it gets chucked right back at you.

GH

Reply to
Marland

At least Arfa got *some* feedback (even if Andy's follow up lacked a smiley to take the sting out of his comment re Kangol versus Kango :-) compounded by Marland's response likewise suffering the lack of a smiley).

It's not just uk.diy that's so afflicted by the lack of 'feedback on the final outcome' postings. It's even worse in the case of sci.electronics.design and uk.comp.homebuilt where such 'feedback' posts tend to be greeted by a deafening silence as I've just experienced in recent weeks - the latest being a thread in uch on advice sought for a decent HDD supplier where I'd reported back on my positive experience of purchasing a 10TB WD RED NAS drive from Ebuyer rather than use an Amazon trader for the sake of a 0.1% saving (an extra 32 pence premium to avoid dealing with Amazon).

I'd had at best, only a passing interest in Arfur's original post but did appreciate the effort he'd made in providing feedback and 'closure' for those who *had* 'given a f*ck' and replied to his original post in the first place.

Don't mind me. I'm only taking the opportunity to snipe at the uch and (in particular) the sed groups of which quite a few of their members also post here. :-)

Reply to
Johnny B Good

I'm not sure what you'd expect... you asked if Ebuyer was a sensible place to buy something. We said it was. You bought the thing. It arrived. It wasn't broken. I'm not sure what else there is to say at this point.

Had they ripped you off I'm sure the conversation would have been much more interesting.

Theo (who keeps getting pestered by ebay sellers to leave feedback for transactions which boil down to 'did the thing they were contractually obliged to do' and wondering why the only option for that is 5 stars)

Reply to
Theo

There was no sting in it, I did have a smiley initially, but took it out as I don't like the juxtaposition of them with brackets.

Reply to
Andy Burns

Fair enough but a brief "Thanks for letting us know that Ebuyer are still worthy of our endorsement." or some such would have been a nice touch. :-)

Sorry, that wasn't a good example and worse still (in hindsight), it just makes me seem "needy". I guess you lot were just too jaded about Ebuyer's reliability as an e-tailer to offer any further comment.

Indeed it would have been! There's nothing like a bit of schadenfreude to brighten up one's day! :-)

Reply to
Johnny B Good

I know exactly what you mean. :-(

Reply to
Johnny B Good

Quite. It suggests 5 out of 5 is the norm. So why 4 stars worth of varying poor service - but not a way of praising service beyond what you'd expect?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I find some people (not you obviously ;-) get upset when I use a smiley and have it do dual service as a closing parenthesis as well!

Reply to
John Rumm

I quite like the occasional feedback post (or better still, a here is how it turned out wiki article)... at least you get the feeling that way that at least some practical doing/making/diying/building is going on somewhere!

Reply to
John Rumm

Lots of us have been doing plenty, but cba to put it on the wiki

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

That's why different kinds of bracket are available.

Reply to
Roger Hayter

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