Garden Makeover
When we bought this house, the decking was so pretty and it sold me on the place aesthetically. It did help that the estate agent photos of the back garden were very lovely, and the decking furniture was in view so it made a pretty picture of what life would be like with this beautiful back garden.
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| Photo from the estate agents before buying the house. |
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| Photo from the estate agents |
In practicality, the decking wasnt a great choice. There was maintenance of staining the decking regularily to ensure it stayed prestine, which with everything going on was a task in and of itself, but then when we put all of OUR stuff on the decking (homemade pallet furniture that was too heavy to move regularily) it became more of a chore.
The second thing was that this was a house where a baby turned toddler grew up, so mess was made, decking was powerwashed down to clear the mess and over time the decking began to rot in places. In redoing the back patio, I discovered that the decking had a black membrane underneath it (the kind you put in garden beds to keep moisture in), which I think contributed to the decking's downfall and overall rot.
At first, I ignored the small bits of rot and just covered up the worst bits with plant pots, etc. But eventually it became a little bit too dangerous to have a toddler free roaming around. One of the worst bits I discovered was under where Henry's sandpit was. I was clearing out the space in the spring and getting it ready to play with more frequently when the weather got better, and I discovered the most rot on the decking. Underneath the sand pit we had put down those foam puzzle piece mats, and in cleaning them, I discovered the rot underneath. It was bad enough that if I didn't have the sand pit over it, the wood bent so much that it might have snapped underfoot.
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| Right side, before |
On the old decking there was a small square within the decking where an access hatch to a manhole was....the wood was so warped and rotted that the boards of the hatch swelled and I couldn't get to the manhole even if I wanted to.
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| Right Side, after |
I put the feelers out and luckily I found a small mom & pops company that was around the price I expected, didn't take a deposit (money only exchanged hands when I was happy with the finished product), had a 5 year garuntee, and surprisingly had a cancellation and could do the work real quick. They originally quoted to me the whole job... removal of decking, laying down the foundation, laying slabs/paving stones, clean up, everything would take 4 to 5 days. Considering that I didnt want the house to be a building site when I had Henry, and the work could be completed while he was out of the house at Nursery, or with his dad, I went ahead with the work.
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| Comparison photos of old (top) & new (bottom). |
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| Brfore (Top) and After (Bottom) |
On Monday, they rocked up at 8am and started dismantling the decking. It was a father and sons team (the father had done his time in the business and kind of just sat in the car and acted like the site forman). The 2 sons, Martin and Josh, were the ones who did all the heavy lifting and got about a third of the decking removed in half a day before they called it quits.
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| The Middle of Day 1 |
It seemed a bit strange to me that they stopped working at noon, but they did say they filled up the lorry with the wood decking and had to drive back to their land (which was probably over an hour away from mine) to dispose of the wood since they are a Trader and can't take it to a landfill.
Since they all took seperate vehicles (yes, there were 3 cars on the close every day they were here), I could have expected just the one son to take the lorry and the other to stay and continue taking the decking apart. Then again, I gave them the benefit of the doubt that it was a VERY hot day and that the sun was too high and they could have all laws against working so many hours in heat. So, they left at noon on the first day and I had a part of the decking destroyed.
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| 1 Lorry, 1 van, 1 car... really? |
Me, being who I am and wanting to speed along the process, I threw in my hand Monday afternoon after henry had gone to bed and it was still light out, to destroy more of the decking and pile up the wood for the contractors to take away the next day. I was quite proud of myself for what I accomplished on my own in just a few hours--about half of what they did, the two of them, in four hours.
There was one section by the patio doors that they hadn't ripped out all the diagonal decking, and then there was the attached black membrane and underneath that was a wooden frame on top of the concrete.
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| End of Day 1 (before I got a hold of it) |
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| After I finished off that corner. |
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| End of Day 2 |
Again, they could have kept going, but I didn't press the issue because it was another hot day and they may have been too tired to continue working in the hot sun, plus they had another full load of wood to take home to burn.
Wednesday was all about putting up a retainer wall. The plan was to put Railway/Garden Sleepers down as a wall, with a built in bench seat into the wall, then pave the top of the patio. They put in about half of the railway sleepers before they called it quits again.
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| End of Day 3 (Wednesday) |
They finished the retainer wall on Thursday, ripped out the remaining stairs and rebuild a new one out of railway sleepers, added a few 'barriers' of wood against the neighboring fences to keep things in place.
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| End of Day 4 (Thursday)... and it should have been complete if not nearly complete by now?!?! |
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| End of Day 4 Thursday), on the right side. |
Friday I had to go into the office, so I left the garage open so they could go into the back garden and finish up the work. The plan when I last talked to them (which was I think Wednesday, since some days they said goodbye and other days they just take off for the day) was to also pave the front driveway with tarmac since they were already there. They were going to remove the annoying stones that layered the front drive, and repurpose them to fill in the gaps in the back. Then scrape it down, and tarmac the drive.
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| The Front Drive before (left) and after (right). |
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| End of Day 5 (Friday)... you can see the equiptment , the mess on the lawn and the state of 'unfinish' they left the place in without telling me. |
The plan once the back had been leveled out, would be to get their team of Pavers in to lay down the paving stones as it is specialist work. The Paving stones were getting delivered Friday morning and they were going to get the Paving team in either Friday afternoon or Saturday morning, then they would come back on Monday to Tarmac the driveway. They also said that if their Pavers couldnt come Friday afternoon, then they would proabably tarmac the drive instead to keep the work going. At this I was a little disappointed that the whole of the work wasn't going to be done before I got Henry back, but I was glad to be getting the drive tarmaced as well.
On Friday, the only thing that was accomplished was the Paving stones were delivered and deposited on my front lawn, and the back patio was leveled out. They left for the day, but they left my house in a mess and didn't bother to tell me that they would not be coming back until Monday because they couldn't get the paving team in until then.
I wouldn't have minded so much if they had told me they wouldn't be coming back until Monday, but as it was I had to text them on Saturday to ask why they hadn't shown up to do the work. It was then that the state of my garden became an issue. I cleared up the gardens(both front and back) as best as I could, but I wasn't going
to let Henry go and play outside with the state they were in.
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| EOD5, a different angle....all that trash, wood, power tools left everywhere. |
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| EOD5 - Front garden mess, including the broken bits of wood with nails and splinters hanging out that would have hurt any of the kids if they got near it. |
I was livid. There was heavy machinery (chainsaw, circular saw) left out where my little boy (whom they knew is only three cause we talked about him) could play with it if I let him out. There was wood, tools, screws, drinks bottles and cigerette butts strewn all over both my front and back lawns. The paving stones were on 4 pallets deposited on my front lawn (but that couldn't be helped), as well as loads of tools, a pile of dirt that had been deposited at the end of my drive and into the street, but most importantly there was a pile of very dangerous wood bits with rusty nails and screws sticking out all over the place on the front lawn.
The thing that I couldn't control was the fact that the front garden, which is open to all the kids in the neighbourhood, was still litered with danger. I had to make a point of telling the kids in the neighbourhood to stay away from my house for a few more days because of the potential dangers. I covered up the wood pile with Tarpaulin the best I could and prayed that they listened to me and stayed away.
Monday the Paving Team were there bright and early and had managed to do more work paving the whole of the patio, and steps, and shoveling up the debris on the front drive, and cleaning up the tools and some of the bits and pieces that were left behind by the main crew, all before lunchtime. They did more good work in one morning than the 2 sons did in 5 days. I wasn't happy, but I was happy that progress was being made FINALLY.
They promised me that they would be finished with the job on Tuesday. It was just the Tarmac to put in, and then a little bit of wood needed to be added to the bench seat in the back to complete the project. Once all that was done I was going to go over some of the niggly bits that bothered me (nails and bits of wood still left in the grass, as well as cigerette butts that need cleaning up... there were some rough patches on the wood that I figured would get sanded down at the end... some gaps in the wood that they could finish off somehow... sweeping up the mess of dust, dirt, and wood in the garage that were still kicking about, etc).
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| Mess in the garage, after the work was 'finished' on Day 8. |
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| Splintered wood on the bench seat.
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| Gaps in the retainer wall. |
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| Gaps in the Fence Line |
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| Bits of Rubbish, nails, and cigs I collected in the back. |
I didn't really get the chance. Tuesday they laid the tarmac, and when they checked in with me in the morning I asked them about the bench seat (to start with). One of the sons, Martin, said that the peice was getting made and that he'd come by later in the week to quickly nail it on. He then asked if I had recieved an email with the invoice from his dad. I said I'd check but I hadn't seen it yet. When they finished on Tuesday and was just about to pack up and leave, they asked again if I had the invoice. I did recieve it at that point, and said that yes, I had the invoice.
That night, the dad texted me to see if I would pay the invoice. I said that I was going to pay it once the project was complete and I was happy with the work (as per their selling point about no payment upfront....even though earlier in the week I did give them a 1/4th of the money to help keep them going as they were waiting on payouts from other jobs--bigger commisions where they needed to give companies 30 days upon receipt to pay). I informed the dad (who should know as he was acting as forman the whole time), that Martin still needed to fit the last piece on the bench seat to comeplete the back garden.
He hastily arranged for Martin to come by, on Wednesday, but when that didn't work Martin arranged to come by on Thursday. I was in the office on Thursday, so I left the garage open for him to come through to the back garden and fit the piece. When they were done, at 9:30am, I was sent a text saying they were done and that could I transfer the money to them. I responded saying that I would have to contact my bank for a transfer that large and that I would when I got the chance. I wanted to get home, inspect the work in person, make sure they cleared up the rest of the stuff, then when I was happy I would contact my bank and transfer them the money(I assumed everything being fine, I would do it that night after I got home).
That plan was rudely interrupted by me recieving yet another text about the same time that I just got home pleading with me "We are a very small family business and really do with our bank transfer please".
Naturally, i had to text them back:
"Hiya, ive only just gotten home from work and seen the finished bench. You will get your money.
I dont appreciate being pressured so quickly after the job has finally been completed. That was a big selling point for me, that money wouldnt be exchanged until i was completely happy with the work. As it is, i gave you a £3000 advance last week.
I have to say that i wasnt completely happy with the work ethic on site. It took alot longer to do the project than anticipated. Which i understand things come up like this in a job but then again some of the days only half days were worked, so i was frustrated that your crew was out here 8 days in total to finish the job, and left my house as a building site (not only overnight but for a whole weekend without warning). Its especially frustrating when i was expecting the work to be done in 4 or 5 days and counting on the fact that my little boy would be able to play safely on the weekend.
Although the product was delivered, the finishing touches could have been better. There are screws still on my lawns as well as drinks bottles and fag butts i have to clean up still. The wood wasnt sanded down, which i would have expected as a finished product. There are gaps in places that i will have to fill/manage myself. And there is still dirt and debris that should have been cleaned up.
Im telling you all this because you seem like nice enough guys. You should know without having a bad review, but overall, im less than impressed with the conduct and the finishing touches for the amount of money i am paying to have this done. "
To which their reply was a very curt "Good because I've got bills to pay".
I was absolutely gobsmacked. To say such a thing to a customer and dismiss all of the critiques handed to them nicely instead of in a scathing online review, and still expect to get paid is a BOLD move. As it is, they completed the work and although I wasn't 100% happy I still paid them promptly after I sent that text.
There were a few other exchanges via text, but it was mostly me saying that perhaps I should write a public review after all, to which they back-pedaled with a less than genuine 'apology' and said they could come by the next day (Friday--making that 2 weeks that they'd be at my property for this job) to do any other little bits I needed to finish off the job. I polietely declined, saying that they now had their money, and I would sort anything else out myself so there is NO reason for them to darken my doorstep again. In case anyone has gotten this far and wishes to avoid (or by all means, go with) them --Bristol and Gloucester Paving.
It's a shame that the interaction turned so sour because they did do good work overall. It was just their communication, their procrastination, their lack of clean up, their hygine (they were also hacking and spitting all over the place) and their attitude I had problems with. Which, when you're shelling our so much money to redo a big part of your life, you would expect things like communication and conduct to be a selling point as well as price.
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| Bench seat with Repurposed Cushions. |
It's all done now. I have a brand new back garden, which Henry loves (and so do the nieghbourhood scooter gang(kids)). The interaction just left a sour taste in my mouth, unfortunately.
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