Hurdles to jump when restoring your home
Renovating a house, especially for firsttime homeowners can be a nightmare. Problems with builders and contractors, hefty prices and prolonged waiting time are hurdles one has to face.
The prospect of restoring a house may sound appealing, as you dream of all the bits and bobs you’d go for to personalise your nest. But before jumping into the fray, a reality check won’t go amiss.
Lately, builders and contractors have taken a lot of flak following the collapse of several buildings. Little attention has, however, been paid to the perils and problems people face when restoring their home.
Although, throwing everyone in the same basket is not the right line to take, many builders and turn-key agents are not consumer-centered.
As the building industry continues to thrive, the people involved are becoming busier. It’s no secret that one has to wait months for work on site to start.
A man who prefered to remain anonymous and is having an old house restored was asked for his take on these sticky issues. Asked about ongoing works he pointed out that the person entrusted with the work, “started working on the property about nine months ago, taking continuous breaks and refusing to keep working unless it was according to his schedule.”
Seemingly, the mason would come up with a stream of ruses to avoid working on the same property without any breaks. “I know why he has left me hanging all this time”, he dejectedly said.
“It’s because they want to gobble up a lot of work and make pots of money. And they don’t give a hoot about what their clients are facing because of waiting time.”
Asked if he had signed a work contract, he laughed sarcastically. “I would have loved to, but most refuse to sign contracts for minor jobs and they would readily skip the job because they are spoilt for work.” A small job keeps dragging on for months.
A young family who have just finished their home project recounted the heart ache they went through. Looking at her young child, the mother recalled: “We told the builder earlier on that we would have loved someone that did the work without taking ages because we wanted to have our home done and live as a family pronto.” The builder said that the work would be finished in under a month. But to this young couple’s dismay the alterations lasted a year.
The couple said that sometimes it’s true that workmen faced situations which were out of their control, such as waiting to be granted local council permits, however, “most of the work could have been done sooner.”
They recounted how the mason told them it was fine for them to start working on plastering the ground floor because the roof would be ready before the end of summer. This is what they did, in an attempt to speed up the process. “The roof works weren’t finished by summer as promised and with the first heavy rains the plastering works were ruined as water dripped from the roof.”
Had they considered legal action? The look on their faces was enough of an answer. “We were already in a big mess and going to court would have meant more time wasted and additional problems.
“The architect presented us with other problems, making matters worse.” They tried contacting the architect multiple times but mostly he was unreachable. “We spoke to other couples and they said that architects aren’t the handiest individuals”.
“We know that they would be extremely busy, but why do take on more work than they can cope with? We sometimes had to wait for weeks to get a reply.” Although site inspections were carried out by the architect, the couple expected advice on certain hiccups that would have popped up during the restoration.
“We settled the bills on time. We just wanted an appointment. Should one wait ages for that?”
““We told the builder earlier on that we would have loved someone that did the work without taking ages because we wanted to have our home done and live as a family pronto”