Electric knockout boxes - fixing...Is this right?

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Hi all

Looking for some advice please.

(TLDR version- electrician left a mess...but is it okay?)

I've recently instructed an electrician to do some work, including changing single sockets for doubles.

Electrician quoted, but excluded "making good after".

No issue, as we have decorator coming and plaster patch repair around sockets is easy enough.

However.... this is how they originally left sockets




This one they'd breached the cavity on the internal side of a cavity external wall, and appeared to have mounted with a packer directly to the external side of the cavity wall. Large gap all round, plus a good inch or so between faceplate and box.

Decorator dropped in in passing, said its crap, and I needed to get then back.

I told the electrician that he needed to return, repair the cavity wall, and mount the box properly. They pointed out the "making good clause" to which I simply said this isn't an issue about making good. (It's not- it's about leaving it safe and in reasonable condition).

So, they came back in to rectify.

This time, they appear to have set the box in rapid set concrete:




The concrete isn't flush with the wall... its set back a bit enabling room for plaster.

Question: is this a 'normal' / acceptable way of securing the back box, and is it going to cause issues if adding plaster over? and should I be upset about this?

(I don't mind leaving not quite perfect as always knew some rough edges may need doing, and happy to leave plasterer and decorator to finish fin surface as they're responsible for end finish)

Options appear to be

1. Accept it, sand / plaster and decorate.

2. Get them back again

3. Get someone else to fix it.

I've not paid yet.

Grateful for your thoughts (especially any electricians, plasterers and decorators).

Cheers

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I'm assuming he'd opened up the cavity due to the amount of little polystyrene balls that were spilling through.

I'm generally pretty calm - I work in sales / contract mgmt so am used to dealing with large issues between big companies.... and 'shouty' tends not to work so well....but harder to see clearly when more emotionally invested.

Appreciate all the replies.

Re how its now left. What are the options?

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Box is now moved forward. They'd 'fixed' before I got back there (plumber let them back in....we're having quite a bit of work done so are living elsewhere...), so I don’t know if they've properly restored the cavity wall (several years of rain will tell sure enough) but the box is at least in a more or less normal position.

I can do a sh*t job myself. Annoyingly if left to it I'd have used a multi tool to cut a square, then chiseled out from there...arguably would've been better.

I'm unable to take leave (busy job...lucky to have it, although quite demanding) so had hoped itd be more effective to pay people to do what they are good at whilst I focus on something I pretend to be good at.

Edited by Previous on Friday 26th February 00:11

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Black_S3 said:

Isn’t this fairly normal for a sparky?

Also it’s a plasterer you want to do the making good before the painter/decorator turns up.

Understand that. There's a difference between leaving making good and leaving in an unsafe condition though.

Excluding making good doesn't mean no need to show reasonable skill and care.

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Thanks for all replies.

Plasterer and decorator have agreed they can make good now on top of whats there, to a good finish (hesitate to use the term 'new build standard' as Iots of horror stories about new builds!)

They want an extra bit of cash to do so.

I called the spark and said that I appreciate some times jobs don't work out as expected, I've got no desire to get into an argument however simply felt its below what was expected, and that he'd likely agree it wasn't his best work.

We agreed that perhaps I should have been clearer about my expectations and equally he should have informed me about exactly what he'd be doing.

We agreed to pay the bill minus the £300, with no ill feeling either way. That covers the extra decorating cost, and means that only the decorator is now responsible for overall finish.

Seems a sensible compromise.

Until the next issue.....

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Gary C said:

Thats a really good point.

British Gas fitted a new boiler...

If they had discussed what they had to do then it might have not been as much as a shock.

Yes.

My issue is naturally assuming people will actively attempt to put it back to a roughly acceptable standard.

In your pics, I'd describe BG effort as a not making good (you've made good after).

Based ony recent experience BG may well however that as acceptable.

A mate has previously worked fitting bathrooms in housing association properties. I spoke with him today and he pointed out that if a trade regularly works in that environment there's no incentive to do it well - the money isn't there and it'll only get trashed again in some cases. That'll naturally follow across to other works.

Ill admit, this week has been a bit of a learning curve !