Drive getting redone bloke not turned up
Discussion
Adrian E said:
Round here if you want a dropped kerb, or to modify an existing one, there's a process to go through which is relatively painless but involves the county council's own contractors doing the kerb changes.
Assuming your drive doesn't require planning permission from your district council (ignoring the dropped kerb) then as long as you can access it off your existing dropped kerb and it's suitably drained then I don't think there's an issue (AFAIK and I'm sure will be corrected if it's not!)
In Brighton & Hove you have to use a contractor approved & licensed by the city council. For me, dropping the kerb & tarmacking 1 metre square of verge cost £1000 including licenses, permits, land searches - really. Had to get a letter from network rail even though the nearest track was 2 miles away!Assuming your drive doesn't require planning permission from your district council (ignoring the dropped kerb) then as long as you can access it off your existing dropped kerb and it's suitably drained then I don't think there's an issue (AFAIK and I'm sure will be corrected if it's not!)
From memory - Gas, Leccy, Water, BT, Virgin, Network Rail & Council were all contacted and needed to provide written approval stating they had no conflict. All bar 1 did it for nothing, can't remember who it was that charged - might have been Southern Water.
alfie2244 said:
No existing dropped kerb where car is parked in photo????? Not seen mentioned that kerb has been altered or extended in any way....did i miss that?
I assume OP wants to drive straight onto the grass bit and there is a crossover there. I also think the trader mentioned it in one of his responses back to the OP so assumed it was part of the requirements of the job.You can't just 'drop a kerb' (assuming this is what you're doing all the way along you're frontage).
The footway is currently constructed to a footway specification, if you want to cross it in a vehicle you need to reconstruct it as a vehicular access. In Northamptonshire this is 150 sub base, 100 binder course and 20 surface course. Obviously if you just drop the kerb you're removing the existing material is it's going to be no where near the 270mm depth above.
There's also a nice scar in the footway so that should be fun. Need to be very careful with mechanical excavation because I bet it's no deeper than 300mm at the very most. Really want to break the surface off and hand dig.
For this I would be very surprised if you didn't have to get a license from the county council highways department, as it's their footway.
To drop the kerb for the full length, reconstruct the footway and the do your drive 100% how it should be done, 5k sounds cheap.
As as side note - probably best that you've got rid of the other bloke. Good luck in finding someone decent I'm sure it's a nightmare. Maybe see what contractors the local council use for their schemes, they have an interest in doing a proper job.
The footway is currently constructed to a footway specification, if you want to cross it in a vehicle you need to reconstruct it as a vehicular access. In Northamptonshire this is 150 sub base, 100 binder course and 20 surface course. Obviously if you just drop the kerb you're removing the existing material is it's going to be no where near the 270mm depth above.
There's also a nice scar in the footway so that should be fun. Need to be very careful with mechanical excavation because I bet it's no deeper than 300mm at the very most. Really want to break the surface off and hand dig.
For this I would be very surprised if you didn't have to get a license from the county council highways department, as it's their footway.
To drop the kerb for the full length, reconstruct the footway and the do your drive 100% how it should be done, 5k sounds cheap.
As as side note - probably best that you've got rid of the other bloke. Good luck in finding someone decent I'm sure it's a nightmare. Maybe see what contractors the local council use for their schemes, they have an interest in doing a proper job.
I'm looking at this at the moment as we have no off street parking
Surrey have guidance online which is actually quite straightforward to understand - I'd already established from Reigate BC that they didn't care what I did, so long as it was permeable/didn't drain onto the road. We don't actually have a kerb to drop, but the stones that mark the boundary edge of the road are owned by Surrey CC so we'll have to go through the process in order to make it 'official'
https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/ro...
Worth a read as I doubt the process will vary much, just the costs and processes involved.
Surrey have guidance online which is actually quite straightforward to understand - I'd already established from Reigate BC that they didn't care what I did, so long as it was permeable/didn't drain onto the road. We don't actually have a kerb to drop, but the stones that mark the boundary edge of the road are owned by Surrey CC so we'll have to go through the process in order to make it 'official'
https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/ro...
Worth a read as I doubt the process will vary much, just the costs and processes involved.
Fireblade69 said:
In Brighton & Hove you have to use a contractor approved & licensed by the city council. For me, dropping the kerb & tarmacking 1 metre square of verge cost £1000 including licenses, permits, land searches - really. Had to get a letter from network rail even though the nearest track was 2 miles away!
From memory - Gas, Leccy, Water, BT, Virgin, Network Rail & Council were all contacted and needed to provide written approval stating they had no conflict. All bar 1 did it for nothing, can't remember who it was that charged - might have been Southern Water.
Our nextdoor neighbour wanted to move their access and we wanted a second driveway so went halves on the £1800 the council charged to do both areas at the same time. Didnt think it was too bad at all From memory - Gas, Leccy, Water, BT, Virgin, Network Rail & Council were all contacted and needed to provide written approval stating they had no conflict. All bar 1 did it for nothing, can't remember who it was that charged - might have been Southern Water.
wjwren said:
Great letter alfie!!
He has just called me! I had a rant and said
You never turn up or let me know, countless excuses as to why you cant come, poor quality of work, sending the blocks to my house without even lettign me know they are on the way, let alone they are not even paid for! He said he had money issues and didnt know why i was annoyed as i had to have the blocks anyway. I said i gave you the money for the blocks 3 weeks ago and you said ud bought them and had an invoice - phone went quiet. He said maybe he could of communicated better with me. He said he had been fined £50 by the merchants for a wasted deliver, i said no you havent as ive just spoken to them and the manager said you havent been in contact at all let alone any talk of a fine. He said they dont "fine" people.
He said check my fb page out loads of good reviews on there, i said they are all your friends. Line went quiet again.
He said have a think about it.
10 mins went and i got this text
Just forget it we have no trust get someone else to finish your drive we have no trust so get someone else in.
so to sum up, the bloke is a tosser, total liar/shyster and crap at his job.
Best to avoid basing any construction contract on trust.He has just called me! I had a rant and said
You never turn up or let me know, countless excuses as to why you cant come, poor quality of work, sending the blocks to my house without even lettign me know they are on the way, let alone they are not even paid for! He said he had money issues and didnt know why i was annoyed as i had to have the blocks anyway. I said i gave you the money for the blocks 3 weeks ago and you said ud bought them and had an invoice - phone went quiet. He said maybe he could of communicated better with me. He said he had been fined £50 by the merchants for a wasted deliver, i said no you havent as ive just spoken to them and the manager said you havent been in contact at all let alone any talk of a fine. He said they dont "fine" people.
He said check my fb page out loads of good reviews on there, i said they are all your friends. Line went quiet again.
He said have a think about it.
10 mins went and i got this text
Just forget it we have no trust get someone else to finish your drive we have no trust so get someone else in.
so to sum up, the bloke is a tosser, total liar/shyster and crap at his job.
If you intend to write a letter before action to reclaim part of your deposit it might encourage him a little if you were add something to the effect:
Do not misjudge me as I will follow this though and obtain a CCJ against you (as I have plenty of evidence) along with subsequent escalation to the High Court Bailiffs for recovery of the money. I will then make it my mission to leave appropriate reviews and feedback wherever I am able which I'm sure wouldn't be welcomed but it would be true. Alternatively, you can refund my money by return and without a fight and we can each chalk the whole sorry matter up to experience.
If he returns your money it's up to you whether you feel others need to be warned.
Do not misjudge me as I will follow this though and obtain a CCJ against you (as I have plenty of evidence) along with subsequent escalation to the High Court Bailiffs for recovery of the money. I will then make it my mission to leave appropriate reviews and feedback wherever I am able which I'm sure wouldn't be welcomed but it would be true. Alternatively, you can refund my money by return and without a fight and we can each chalk the whole sorry matter up to experience.
If he returns your money it's up to you whether you feel others need to be warned.
As m3jappa has said elsewhere the problem is that this is how most contractors lay block paving, 75mm depth of Type 1 is more than many use. It is, of course, why so many block paving drives sink. And as for 150mm below the DPC, very few bother.
The Op's original contractor probably thinks he's done nothing wrong and has a had a lucky escape.
Good luck trying to find someone at £4k who will do it absolutely by the book.
The Op's original contractor probably thinks he's done nothing wrong and has a had a lucky escape.
Good luck trying to find someone at £4k who will do it absolutely by the book.
Willy Nilly said:
cossy400 said:
Palmers said:
I can be a proper arse.
But being an arse is nt going to make this bloke magic 1200 quid up as he sounds very poor. The OP clearly doesn't want to square up to the first builder in any way or means sufficient to draw the best line under this. It is clear that he considers £1,200 to make that problem go away is fair. And with regards to the continued work it seems pretty clear that he doesn't want to pay market rate to have the job completely correctly or to go through the complexity and harshness of having a specified contract of works drawn up. It all paints a picture that if he were to hire a hitman to take out the builder's parents and possibly other siblings he'd probably pay £1,000 to some random from Wetherspoons and then sit there waiting for nothing to happen.
Sorry OP but you've tried to do it in the cheap once and it seems pretty clear that you want the second attempt to also be done below market rate. Sometimes you just need to do things properly.
SmoothCriminal said:
Does the op need planning for his block front?
In this situation the builder was not constructing it to permeable standards as required since 2008. (Type 1 sub base and sand to lay the blocks on isn't classes as permeable)So yes he would require planning permission.
The government document was written so badly that nearly 10 years later people still do not understand it.
Heres the bottom line:
You only need planning permission if the run off water is run off onto the road or public drainage system.
Ultimately you need to retain your own rainwater. How you do this is up to you, you can either:
Have permeable paving. which has lots of drawbacks.
Have normal block paving/concrete/tarmac etc but it runs into a drain which then goes into a soak away, you are allowed an overflow from this into the drainage system.
Run the surface water to a 'rain garden' which is basically flower bed/lawn etc.
in reality literally no one bothers, i tell every customer and about 3 in ten care. The vast majority of companies fail to mention this, probably because they think it will lose them work. Especially when some other know it all comes round and convinces the customer its only for new drives (its not, its any area over 5m2 even if you replace like for like).
Heres the bottom line:
You only need planning permission if the run off water is run off onto the road or public drainage system.
Ultimately you need to retain your own rainwater. How you do this is up to you, you can either:
Have permeable paving. which has lots of drawbacks.
Have normal block paving/concrete/tarmac etc but it runs into a drain which then goes into a soak away, you are allowed an overflow from this into the drainage system.
Run the surface water to a 'rain garden' which is basically flower bed/lawn etc.
in reality literally no one bothers, i tell every customer and about 3 in ten care. The vast majority of companies fail to mention this, probably because they think it will lose them work. Especially when some other know it all comes round and convinces the customer its only for new drives (its not, its any area over 5m2 even if you replace like for like).
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