South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

Well I had my kitchen and bathroom done and what a feckin nightmare. Went to CPM online in exeter. He was the most expensive by far so decided that probably a good idea as more cost better the job, how wrong was I! The plumber was good and the chippie contractor was good also but that's it. Everything was done out of sync from kitchen fitted before sorting out the floor and levelling it. Ended up £1200 out of pocket to put it right with my base units hanging in mid air until finished. They came late and left early. Plasterers couldn't spread butter on bread and plastered over light switches and around stuff that should have been removed. The foreman/project manger couldn't wipe his arse without help, he cocked up the floor and cut the bathroom top to wide costing even more to put right. Ended up banning him from my home. They damaged a glass sink unit so has to be replaced and the owner knows nothing about building work and he prices the jobs! He wouldn't carry on until I text him a definite list of jobs to do which I knew he would only done harness on it despite pricing for the job at 10k in labour etc. So over 20k of hard earned savings over a few years and rouge traders here I come. Trading standards already informed and they very interested in this. had to go home every day to check cost well I've 1k in lost earnings. All contractors told me horror stories about how they have messed up other builds yet they still trade! 6 weeks on and still not finished and I had to fork out 3k to put things right and buy new stuff they cocked up. He did reduce the cost by 2.5k but that don't equate to all the tears the wife has shed and the fact we had no toilet for days a shat in buckets and no cooker for over 2 weeks so a 500 pound takeaway bill! I could list loads so Beware anybody in my local area!!! CPM complete project management is their name, or cowboy project management

Bloody hell Bullet that sounds like a nightmare. Do you need the number of a Rottweiler of a solicitor to kick the shite out of them?

Already planning a coffee evening with a certain young lady we know hopefully soon!

To late now but could of asked Sarah ( my other half) it's what she does designs and project manages kitchen and bathroom installs
I feel your pain

Bloody hell Sean, sounds like you've been royally done. Hope trading standards et all see you straight.

This is terrible. I'm a professional bricklayer not a kitchen fitter but I've been around long enough to know that refitting a kitchen and a bathroom is bread and butter small trade work and not by any stretch of the imagination rocket science. You shouldn't need a "project manager" - In 25 years of building work I'd never heard of the term until Channel 4 property shows invented it. I've worked under foremen, clarkes of the works and site agents but project managers were a new one on me until someone thought it would make good television to film Annabel form London stumble round derelict Welsh hill farm in a bobble hat in the middle of winter pretending to coordinate a small building project she didn't begin to understand while Dominic slaved away to the city to pay for it all.

I've built single-handed, entire four bedroom house shells and completed logistically complex large extensions which required the entire end of the building to be held up on a forest of props and still coordinated the build so the place remained clean, secure and habitable throughout with a working bathroom and kitchen for a busy family with young children and was completed on time and in such a way that you couldn't see the join.
It isn't difficult, it just requires a certain amount of thought and forward planning (professionalism I think they call it) but that's part of the job and why you hire and pay the rate for someone who is supposed to know what they're doing.

Stories like this really make my blood boil and convince me more than ever that the building trade is long overdue for regulation. If you are not professionally qualified you cannot practice as a dentist or a lawyer but any arsehole is allowed to buy a van and some tools and pretend to be "a builder" and take money form the unknowing general public despite the fact they have absolutely no trade qualifications, have never set foot on a commercial construction site and if they ever did wouldn't last till 10 'o clock tea break being found out and thrown off.

Its an oldish thread but I hope the OP gets this sorted and some sort of compensation.

Gimlet wrote: ...........Stories like this really make my blood boil and convince me more than ever that the building trade is long overdue for regulation. If you are not professionally qualified you cannot practice as a dentist or a lawyer but any arsehole is allowed to buy a van and some tools and pretend to be "a builder" and take money form the unknowing general public despite the fact they have absolutely no trade qualifications, have never set foot on a commercial construction site and if they ever did wouldn't last till 10 'o clock tea break being found out and thrown off............

Whilst I might disagree with other aspects of your post, I wholeheartedly agree with this. It's not like the infrastructure isn't there between Btec and the CIOB.

I hope I didn't come across as dismissive of the skills of kitchen fitters (or indeed professional contracts managers). That wasn't my intention. I meant to say that domestic internal refurbs - such as kitchen and bathroom refits - are small projects and run of the mill work for those tradesmen who specialise in that line and a professional outfit should not require supervision by a third party or have the slightest difficulty in coordinating the work satisfactorily themselves because that is what they do every day of the week.

If they do require constant supervision and they cannot coordinate the job they clearly don't do it every day of the week, they are not competent and they should not be allowed by law to wing it and experiment on other people's property.

My blood is boiling reading your post and putting down any one who is a professional at at any job they have worked hard at to achieve certain standards of work or their goals

I didn't put down anyone who is a professional and has worked hard to achieve professional standards. I did the precise opposite: I criticised those who do not have the skills, the experience or the commitment to achieve those standards and probably couldn't care less but trade anyway because the law doesn't consider the construction industry worthy of regulation and poor Joe public doesn't know who they're dealing with until its too late. And I speculate that the construction industry is unregulated because the people who decide these things are profoundly ignorant of artisan trades and think that because they're not subjects studied at degree level any idiot can do them. It is unsurprising therefore that many idiots do and get away with it.

That's better and a bit clearer thank you xx it did sound a bit like you where putting down project managing

Registered, qualified etc etc ...don't mean diddly....I do warranty work for two manufacturers, I got called out a couple of weeks ago to a takeaway in Plymouth, they were told to get the power supply checked, the Sparky confirmed 240v at the appliance. I got there removed the cover, cock all power 30 seconds later I found the neutral disconnected in the spur. Called out yesterday the management company reported a PCB fault, its a holiday let, 2 Plumbers have looked at it can't fix it, they haven't had hot water or heating since Friday, about 7 minites logged from arrival to paper work including replacement of the actuator... both day one stuff.

Regulation and qualification is no guarantee its true, but its a starting point and it should be the bare minimum. You can't trade as an electrician unless you are qualified and are proven to at least have the knowledge required. You can't buy a van, call yourself an electrician and rely on Goggle to get you through when a house rewire comes in. You can as a general builder and many, many do.
They can't do it on commercial sites because they will be monitored and found out but they are free to hoodwink the general public and that is wrong.

"You can't trade as an electrician unless you are qualified and are proven to at least have the knowledge required"

When we bought our house we got a sparky in as the house (repo) needed a rewire, got the sparky in, paid a small fortune, then noticed issues....long story short our sparky wasn't NICEIC registered, let it lapse 10 months before taking our job, so they "can" trade. NICEIC couldn't give a stuff about the fact he was using their logos etc as he "wasn't a member".......Trading standards did follow it through and he got his wrists slapped (no fine or anything) and to this day is still trading......oh and he charged us VAT even though he wasn't VAT registered.

Needless to say we are a bit more careful now on who we hire for jobs.

Just off to another, cock up job, Plumber hasn't followed the simple setup instructions, because they are lazy, too dim, or haven't got the right gear.