What is wrong with the work done by Lovell at Brigstock Road.
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- My electricity was used for all the power tools used by the workmen over the four week period. I have no idea how much this is going to cost me.
- I was given a choice of colours for the bathroom and kitchen but no choice of the style of the kitchen cupboards. The design is old-fashioned and it looks wrong in a white kitchen.
- I was not informed that there would be a lot of dust coming into my living space. Neither was I informed that workmen would be coming into my living space and doing work there. I did not know that I would have to move my possessions around at short notice to make room for the workmen or that they would move my possessions around while I was out. I did not know that I would be losing the electric socket in my hallway and temporarily losing two sockets in my main room. We were not given a choice about whether we wanted the work done or not, we were not told about the noise and dust and disruption, and it is wrong to expect people to have to live there while work is going on around them.
- The work was done to a poorer standard than what was there already. Details of this are below:-
- Water is getting in behind the MDF under the bathroom sink causing a smell and discolouration of the paintwork. Also the tiles are lifting. There is a gap in the tiling where the U-bend is.
- The washbasin is badly designed. The soap recess doesn’t drain.
- The wall next to the bath bulges because it has been replastered badly. It is more obvious when I am in the bath. In the corner near the ceiling there is a gap between the tiles that gets narrower and narrower further down.
- The metal strip on the floor between the bathroom and the hallway is secured with nails instead of screws. One of them is sticking up which could easily cause an injury.
- The floor covering in the bathroom does not go under the skirting board. Sealant has been used to fill the gap between the edge of the floor covering and the skirting board. This looks ugly and is bad practice, which will cause problems in the future.
- My fridge will not go back as far as it should. The workmen boxed in some pipes behind the fridge and then put the socket onto the boxing-in. The fridge doesn't look right, with a big gap behind and the front of the fridge is not flush with the work surface.
- The lid on the toilet cistern has been sealed to the wall with sealant. This will make access difficult in the future and will make a mess.
- The floor covering in the bathroom is unsuitable as it has a rough surface that is difficult to mop clean.
- I asked for tiles to be put on the flat surface in front of the bathroom window. There were tiles there before, but I was told they didn't have to do it so they weren't going to do it. There should be something to protect the edge at least; it is just plaster and could easily be broken.
- I had to ask for wood strips to be put up above the windows in both the bathroom and kitchen, so that I could put up my blind and my curtains again. This was done in the bathroom but not in the kitchen. When I saw what a bad job had been done in the bathroom - the wood had just been glued to the wall - I did not ask for it to be done in the kitchen. Also a workman had stood on the draining board of my new kitchen sink pushing it in while replacing the extractor fan and I did not want this to happen again. I had to push the metal back into shape myself.
- The air vent in the kitchen window was removed and left in a bad condition, with one screw still in the window.
- The bathroom extractor fan is barely powerful enough to lift the flap to the outside of the flat. I lifted the flap myself and dust came out. The workmen should have checked this.
- There is a cupboard in the kitchen behind the door. The painters had painted over the door to it. If I hadn't noticed and opened it before the paint dried, then it would have been unopenable.
- Ugly striplighting was put in the kitchen and bathroom that I would never have chosen myself. Also it will be difficult for me to fix myself when something goes wrong. The two energy-saving lightbulbs in the kitchen and bathroom that I had were not given to me and I have no idea what happened to them. They are not cheap.
- There isn't a protective metal strip on the edge of the worksurface next to the fridge.
- The boxing-in between the bathroom sink and the toilet should be a right-angle but isn't.
- I had to empty half of my big cupboard in my main room at short notice so that the plumber could get to the pipes. It turned out to be unnecessary because they changed their plans for the shower and I have a big hole in the wall in the cupboard with pipes coming through that don't do anything but take up room.
- The horizontal tiles in the kitchen beneath the window are uneven.
- Sockets and switches in the kitchen are often not horizontal.
- There is a metal strip across my worksurface in the kitchen that was not there before. It is ugly and gets in the way. The stripes on either side go in different directions and it looks all wrong. I was told that they had to do it this way, because the dimensions of my kitchen are different from my neighbours, but this is not true. It's only because of the unusual position of the tap that they had to do it that way. I would have preferred a tap in the normal position for a kitchen sink.
- I was told that workmen would replace the socket in the hallway, but when I came back this had not been done. Instead they had replaced two sockets in my main room (for the second time), moving my possessions around and leaving a mess. Workmen should not have come into my private space without my permission. I thought that perhaps they would come back the next day to do what they said they would do but I heard nothing since. Now I am left with a mess in my hallway where the socket was and I will have to redecorate the hallway. Also they made a mess of the plastic casing in the main room that contained wires to the sockets. I will have to repaint part of my main room but I have no idea of what casing is now redundant and can be removed.
In my opinion this company does not know what they are doing and don't seem willing to learn from their mistakes. I'm sure that they are competitive in price, but this is because they are using the tenant's electricity. I think it would be a waste of taxpayer's money to use this company again. There was nothing wrong with my kitchen and bathroom that a coat of paint and a few tiles would not have solved, but it has been replaced by something hideous that I have to live with for the rest of my life. I have been trying to get a flat swap for a long time, but now people will take one look at my flat and decide they wouldn't want to live here. If I knew then what I know now then I would never have let the workmen in. I have told other tenants in my block of flats who have not had their flats done yet how I feel and I am also putting this information on the internet with photographs.