New cracks discovered and a 50% increase in the electrical wiring

last year

Hi Everyone,

Just when I was plodding along and hoping for some peace of mind, just got hit with two events

One, is that they 'discovered' new cracks in the sun room wall. After removing the decorative stones. Not sure why those were removed in the first place!!

The builder advises ' Please note, that when we removed the decorative stone work this was found behind. Recommend steel ties, membrane as it's a single brick wall, insulation and plastered'

-Not sure how much the above will cost but I guess will just add on.

Please see the pics enclosed within

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Comments (4)

HU-768402840
Original Author
last year
The electrician gave me an even bigger shock. I selected him, as his initial quote in October was pretty reasonable, at 4500, for full rewiring of the 3 bed house. He had the electrical survey report, so knew what things were needed to be done.

In April 2022, just before he started the work, he jacked up the quote to 5200 quid

Today, after some 'first fix' or whatever, he now has quoted a final figure of 6500( including VAT)

So a 50% increase, since the first quote in October 21.

I think there were some additional 'points' and few more connections plus inflation to be accounted for. But a 2000 quid or 50% increase is not what I find reasonable .

Even worse, on his recommendation, I selected the current builder. I still await his final quote, not sure how many volts or joules he has for me.

Bad day for me today...worse case scenario, I may just stop everything and look for new set of tradesmen? I know it's going to be painful , don't know
Daisy England
last year
What is on your contract?

When the electrician quoted you how long was the quote valid for and did you pay the deposit to seal the deal at that price before the validity expired? If so that price should have been held.

There have been collosal price increases over the past 2 years but the contractor should have stated how long the quote was valid for and held the price.

He can’t just keep thinking you’re going to pay so will increase the price.

We are contractors too and only hold prices 28 days. Once the deposit has been paid that price is held.

Why did he remove those decorative stones? Granted you don’t know what is behind them. Ask him.

Did he give you a detailed quote?
HU-768402840 thanked Daisy England
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Dear @judibutler I assume you are referring to a wall which is wholly above ground and that you have completely ruled out damp tracking into the wall from above. A lot depends on the size and thickness of the wall and other factors, such as if the building is listed. Damp penetration (driving rain) through granite walls has been an ongoing problem in church towers in the southwest of England for some time. Ironically the problem often seems to get worse after re-pointing in lime. Granite is fairly impervious and was often in laid in large blocks meaning trapped water has little chance of getting out through thin mortar joints. Historic England held an excellent conference on the subject in 2013; the transcript of proceedings can be found at: http://content.historicengland.org.uk/content/docs/research/damp-towers-conf2013-programme-transcripts.pdf A roughcast lime render coat may help, but there could equally be voids in the wall which are holding damp and may need grouting. However, grouting is a very tricky and expensive technique which should not be undertaken lightly, and only works if one knows exactly where the voids are. Over-cladding the whole wall with semi-sacrificial weather boarding may be a last resort. This and rendering are likely to require planning consent. Depending on where you are located, a company like ArchiMetric (www.archimetrics.co.uk) could insert some interstitial moisture monitors into the wall to try and find out exactly where and when the damp is getting in and how it is moving through the wall, but this may be expensive. Some localised investigation by dismantling pockets of stone may be useful. The Society of Ancient Buildings helpline (mornings only on 020 7456 0916) may be able to help with specialists in your area. Most importantly try to get an understanding of how water is getting into and moving through your wall before you embark on anything. If your problems relate to below-ground damp then a different response will be needed.
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TBH that doesn't really sound very terrible. But as Jonathan pointed out, it can be quite scary if you have no previous experience of house buying. But as he says, it's worth reading up and researching what all these things are. To have a small amount of rising damp in a small room such as a WC, isn't a big deal. A damp company can get that done relatively easily. They would take off the plaster to a height of approx. 3ft (ish) on the affected walls, they then inject the bricks and then re-plaster. There may be an issue with the DPC, which they would also deal with. When we moved in to our house, we had walls in our two sitting rooms, the downstairs loo, hall and in the cupboard under the stairs all with rising damp. It was a bit of a mess, but it got sorted quite quickly and when the plaster was fully dried, we could redecorate. As I said before the other mentions of damp are from external water ingress - which means you just need to identify why and how the water is getting in and get it fixed (incidentally, flat roofs are prone to leaking), that will fix the damp problem and thus any mould. Again a damp specialist will be able to advise you on this, but this type of problem is quite straight forward to deal with. Of the remaining points: Electrics - get clarification from the surveyor about what circuits he's referring to and then get an electrician in to find out roughly much it would be to do. Upgrade fire detection - this means install some smoke detectors - you can do this yourself, buy then from a DIY store. Insulation - get clarification of what the surveyor means by external walls, does he mean get cavity wall insulation or similar? If so that's not an immediate essential and could be done later. Insulating the attic - put in better loft insulation - again another thing you can do yourself get loft insulation from a DIY shop or look at other more eco friendly solutions. Minor repairs to doors and windows - not a great expense and likely a lot you could do yourself - perhaps panes need replacing or blown double glazing need replacing - fairy simple and straight forward. Clarify what the survey means by protect low level glazing. I suspect this means there is some window/s which is/are vulnerable to breakage (rather than a safety hazard) which would mean either getting a protective grille for it or you can get film to go over glass that makes it less like to shatter. Dormer & garage roofs - just check to see if they are water tight and sound - a builder or roofing specialist could advise you. Uneven paving etc - really absolutely nothing to worry about and likely something you could leave for a while - unless it is dangerous. Wasps nest - simple we've had 5 removed from our property THIS YEAR (it been a bad year for us for wasps!) It cost us £66 per nest. Carbon monoxide detectors - same as smoke detectors - do it yourself Fully functioning mechanical ventilation - get an extractor hood for the kitchen when you re-do it and you could just open the bathroom window when required. These are not vital but are good to have in the long run. Installing earth bonding - its a piece of wire! check on Google to see what you need to do, you can do it yourself. (I have a feeling it is no longer considered a necessity, but I could be wrong on that.) Clean down mould - you can get special cleaner to use to clean mould off, so get a some and sponge and do it yourself! Background vents - don't appear to have any in my house. I would say if you regularly open windows, doors don't over fill rooms with furniture, these are not immediately required (if t all) especially if there are trickle vents on the windows. It really isn't that scary when you break it down and understand exactly what it's talking about. Don't get too concerned, damp specialists deals with those types of issues every day, so it's not an enormous insurmountable problem, its quite straight forward. A lot of things on the list are very, very minor and simple, quick & easy to do - for instance it takes 10 minutes to put up a smoke detector. I think if you can get a damp specialist or a competent builder to look at the property, I think you'd feel a lot better about it all.
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HU-768402840
Original Author
last year
Hi Daisy

Been a long day, just back from work

Brain fog

Once I wake up will write

many thanks

Mel
Jonathan
last year
These hiccups are natural during renovations. Here how you deal with it:-

Firstly don’t lose your nerve- you won’t make a cost saving by binning the builder as the next builder won’t like taking on a half done job and so they will be more expensive.

Secondly you need to ask the electrician questions in a non confrontational way - a quote a year ago is irrelevant but you should ask how the quote has increased by 30% in 6 weeks since nothing else has increased that much in that time. It may be that you have added significant extra jobs to the list and are unaware of their impact. If there is a credible reason for the increase then you can be informed and might even consider accepting the revised cost. But personally I think you will be parting ways with the electrician due to extortion.

Builder- it’s thorough to strip away cosmetic covering to examine the structure of the building. So although stripping the stone was unexpected it’s not a bad thing- indeed if you intend to upgrade this conservatory it’s important to understand what you have to work with. And although the cost of upgrading that structure is unexpected you have an opportunity to do it right now and if you don’t do it now you will never do so. My advice is spend on this conservatory, make it a quality room that is connected to the garden- then make it a more useable room by taking down the wall to the kitchen / dining room- unless you do this you are in danger of spending a lot on a room that is only 8’ wide and given it has a door at each end it’s little more than a corridor to the garden. Personally I think this square footage is more valuable than other spending so if it means that you have to have second hand wardrobes and cheaper bathroom tiles then so be-it.
HU-768402840 thanked Jonathan

New cracks discovered and a 50% increase in the electrical wiring

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Daisy England

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Jonathan

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New cracks discovered and a 50% increase in the electrical wiring

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HU-768402840Original Author

Daisy England

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Jonathan

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