Sassinak
|
Polish Electrics :(A few forum menbers have expressed an interest in my Polish builders.
A word of advice .............. DON'T !!
I got the electrics tested today in readiness for the commisioning of the geothermal heating on Monday (Yay !!) and also for the completion certificate.
They have been absolutely condemned 
So many problems, a lot of them potentially very dangerous. So much so that the electricial is recommending that we sue them. We have to have a lot of it redone, I don't know what the cost but it has already cost us over £2,000 for the remedial work and completion of the plumbing. It seems they were an expensive exercise 
|
Smooth Hound
|
sounds like an expensive lesson. :oops:
|
Sassinak
|
Absolutely.
We didn't employ Polish builders from choice - it was the complete lack of local builders available that made the decision for us.
Having said that, we have a couple of young Polish joiners from Phil's work doing the skirtings, window sills etc and they are superb. They called me to look on Saturday as they were unhappy with a window sill that they were fitting. "It is Ok at this side, but the other side there is a gap, do you want us to cut another one?" You would struggle to fit a playing card in this "Gap" lol
I did assure them that it was fine. Their mitred corners have to be seen to be believed - absolutely wonderful 
|
Smooth Hound
|
sounds like you wre just unfortunate and had a bad penny or 2 on site, i think i met one of them  did the say what it is about the electrics that is so bad,
|
Sassinak
|
Most of it lol
The 'bus bar' on the consumer unit has not been split, so the whole thing is operating as one (as I understand it !!)
There is no isolator switch for the electric shower, the immersion heater or the electric pumps ets on the bath.
None of the switches or sockets have any earth sleeve on the earth wires.
The kitchen has halogen ceiling lights which have been embedded into the insulation - therefore no ventilation and they get very hot !!
I could go on .............. lol
|
kimmie
|
oh sue ...am so sorry to hear this! its just one thing after another!....the electric company are right....you should sue them and get some of your money back if you can!!
we are there for you if you need us!
|
IainC
|
Ouch... expensive and time consuming to sort as well.
Mind you, I guess far better that these things were picked up now and not after the house had burnt down or someone got hurt. Its about the only "silver lining" I can see though.
|
Smooth Hound
|
best to not look at the big picture , it might be too much, look at each individual problem and it might not be quite as bad as you think,
|
Sassinak
|
I've just been saying that I am probably more upset about the delay than the money (woman thinking here !!)
I thought the electrics would be connected and switched on yesterday and that would be another step nearer to moving in
|
Smooth Hound
|
youll get there, its all apart of building a house, theres always problems  but youll get there. 
|
BikeOnBye
|
Most of the problems would not be hard to fix, how do they expect Polish workers to know our regulations?
Sorry to hear you have problems, but would it not have been better to wait for someone local to do the work, even if it is more expensive?
Do these workers even care if the work is correct, take the money and go appears to be the done thing.
Though it is very easy to tar them all by the same brush.
As you said by your own post, the joiners were very good.
Shame the rest of their countrymen let them down!!!!
|
Sassinak
|
I was assured by the Poles that they had a copy of our regulations and had studied it so that the wiring would pass regulations.
As I previously stated, it wasn't the price that was the deciding factor in employing Poles, it was the complete indifference of local labour. They have so much work that they are not interested in trying to get any more.
The electrician that will be doing the remidial work is great, but he had previously said that he didn't have the time for the forseeable future to tackle the whole job. He is now going to fit it in amongst his other commitments, but it could be a slow process
|
Smooth Hound
|
yes getting a builder in the first place was a job a yr or so ago, may not be hard now thogh, maybe thats one positive of a recession, or whatever you call it
|
Smooth Hound
|
have you come on any further with the electrics problems.
|
Sassinak
|
The mains power is connected (see other update posts!) and an electrician is coming in and putting things right . Slow job because he is fitting us in between his existing jobs. But we are making progress
|
Stonehead
|
Our house has dodgy electrics, too. And they were done by Scots sparkies...
|
JamesB
|
I remember all too well the joy of coming back one day last year and our house has lights for the first time! I also remember the previous year the joy of having electricity for the first time.
We were very lucky in our house to have good local tradesmen. The electrician was recommended by the joiner and he was great. He is 65 and has worked as an electrican for 50yrs! He let me do all the cabling and wire up the sockets and he did the lights and consumer unit. Only took a few days once I had done all the cabling. There was no way I was going to allow anyone to cable our house since they would just ruin the airtightness by drilling holes all over the place.
Unfortunately, I would recommend him to you (he stays in Mintlaw) but he has had an accident now which means its very difficult for him to use a screwdriver or cable cutters. We are wiring the workshop just now and I'll be his hands and he just makes sure I'm doing it right!
I did think of offering to become an apprentice for him but decided against it.
James
|
JamesB
|
just thought I mention a story my plumber told me. An electrician from down south ran cabling to all the sockets and then the plasterer plastered the walls. The electrian returned south. Days later when someone else came to wire up the sockets he found that the guy had just stuck bits of wire into the wall to look like wires has been run! I think of this everytime we had problems on our house, at least it never got this bad!
James
|
lachlanandmarcus
|
Thats awful!!!! cant believe that!!
We are using a local sparky for the house and hes done a great job to date.
We did get a southern pal who is a sparky to do the stables electrics as we didnt want to delay the house stuff and the two were parallel and also this stables chap knows the horses so wanted to come up and do their new home for them.
He did a great job too, no wires showing anywhere despite having to retrowire after the building was up. 
|
JamesB
|
well its apparantly true. I should point out that im sure they are lots of excellent sparkies from the south. its just that its easier to get caught if you employ someone from a long way away, north, west or south.
I had a similar problem with the lpg car we bought from grimsby, it took ages to persuade them to pay for warranty work, would of been easy if he had been local.
James
|
