Has anyone had any experience in having their council house modernised. We live in Shirecliffe and are having our house started on next week. Just wanting to know if anyone has any ideas on what to expect with mess etc?

lol, i can't comment on the 'modernisation' programme as such but if the guys who just fitted my burgler alarm today are anything to go by, expect mess...LOTS of it!!!!
In my experience even if a council workman is stood next to a bin he is unable to use it, no idea what its for.... they also forget if they've moved things; despite telling several of them so far that i cannot currently lift anything heavy, they insist on using my set of (very old and heavy) ladders and leaving them where they used them, then just going home!!!
GRRRR
:rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant:
I'll stop now.....

em3978 you are not the first person to complain about these council burglar alarm fitters. Various people have said exactly the same thing about them to me.

Its such a pity that none of the paper work they gave me had their contact details on...


good old Google ;) they will be getting a strongly worded complaint!!!!


the other annoying thing... both of the workmen(!?) were younger than me... I FEEL OLD!!!!!!!!!!

All I can say, based on my own experience, is 'brace yourself for impact'.

They did our kitchen a couple of years ago.... the standard of work can be judged by the following facts...
1) I refitted the double glazing while they had gone for dinner-they hacked away at the internal beading as they couldn't get it in !!!!! until it was too small so I removed it all and took some more while they were away and fitted it correctly.
2) The units wouldn't fit as they had measured the room wrong.
3) The tiling all had to be removed and redone - I again finished it myself.
4) They ruined the new sink by standing in it to decorate

......the list was endless.

Then came the double glazing... where they tried to get out of plastering by using pvcu trim up to 4" wide, but not one peice, but 2 side by side, but it all fell down. They even put a 12" square hole in between the staircase/toilet and tried to just cover that up with the same method.

And then the bathroom.....

1) The hand basin fell off the wall the 1st time we used it as they had 'stuck' it on with silicone instead of screwing it to the wall.
2) We lost all the upstairs lights due to poor workmanship on the bathroom lighting - the wires all came out so the upstairs circuit was not complete.
3) They bent the wastes that much they would leak constantly.
4) They fitted an extractor fan, but because there had been one in before, they didn't bother putting any new vent pipe in, they just stuffed it in the wall and put the new fan over the top so you couldn't see it, but it didn't go anywhere to extract anything anyway.

All I can say is, good luck, rather you than me.

Can you not opt out of the improvements, I only ask because I went through a kitchen and bathroom "modernisation" 18 months ago before I left Sheffield and it was a nightmare.

Sink taken out on first day, new one didn't appear for 2 weeks, had to use bath upstairs for washing of dishes, to get water for drinks and cooking etc.
Re-plastering on all kitchen walls was atrocious, cracks appeared almost immediately, wet plaster not even cleaned off my things properly, cupboards and doors not hung correctly, beading bent and pushed till it "fitted". New sockets fitted were loose and not even straight and one set of drilling in a kitchen wall went straight through to a plug socket in the living room. Dust covers they provided were re-used on my carpets in living room to gain access upstairs, were left with bits of wet plaster stuck to them. Sink and draining board fitted at an angle.
Then the bathroom!! new bath, new handbasin, new toilet and radiator, new lights, had to call them back out after they'd left bare wires in bathroom ceiling because for some reason none of the lights in any part of the house worked after that. They didn't have the correct size radiator (their words) so had to put a massive one in that was just 6 inches from the edge of the loo. They removed my shower and just tiled all the wall, when I'd specifically asked for my own shower to be left in.
Was advised that it would take 2-3 weeks but in reality they started in October and didn't finish until mid-January.
I complained to the site foreman with not much luck, I ending up collaring him as he walked along our street showing some big-wigs what a good job they'd all done. I did get a response then.
So as Yorkiepudd says, "brace yourselves" and buy a load of dustcovers for anything and everything that you can cover, cos they leave a s**tload of mess and don't clean it up properly.

i live on the arbourthorne and we are having our houses done up. we are due anyday to have our windows renewed dont know when they will be doing the inside but i dread it. i have heard that many complaints over how long the work is taking to be done and its not being done properly and the mess. i have 2 dogs one does not like strangers she goes mental when strangers come to the house.

Originally posted by summer1955
i live on the arbourthorne and we are having our houses done up. we are due anyday to have our windows renewed dont know when they will be doing the inside but i dread it. i have heard that many complaints over how long the work is taking to be done and its not being done properly and the mess. i have 2 dogs one does not like strangers she goes mental when strangers come to the house. get stocked up with plenty of headache tablets , believe me you will need em , and make sure you watch everything they do , and dont be afraid to complain when you get problems , good luck .

Originally posted by tinker
and dont be afraid to complain when you get problems , All our whinging, and that is the best bit of advice I have seen, well done you.

Some good points made though, I always wondered fi it was just us that were unlucky. Best thing is to buy your house (if you can possibly afford it) and then the responsibility is all yours.

Originally posted by summer1955
i live on the arbourthorne and we are having our houses done up. we are due anyday to have our windows renewed dont know when they will be doing the inside but i dread it. i have heard that many complaints over how long the work is taking to be done and its not being done properly and the mess. i have 2 dogs one does not like strangers she goes mental when strangers come to the house.

yep, me too.
they told us it would roughly be about august before they got to us, but as they havent even got as far up arb road as eastern avenue yet, it will be august 2006 before they get to us! i would put money on it being the middle of winter before they do the windows!!!

FWIW my other half is a plasterer for kier, and prides himself on being tidy, considerate and helpful to the tennants he has to do work for - even his boss says so!! so they arent all bad (just quite a few!!)

Originally posted by susa41981
em3978 you are not the first person to complain about these council burglar alarm fitters. Various people have said exactly the same thing about them to me.

had half of the burglar alarm fitted last week, and have spent several minutes picking the fixing tacks out of my kids feet!
em3978 - yes, you're right.....they only looked about 16, and one of them never stopped grinning :confused:

We had our bathroom and kitchen done in 2001, what a joke, pathetic, i hope they have got better for your sake, from start to finish, ive not got one good thing to say about any of the work men that came through the door, from the plummers to the elec, IT WAS A NIGHTMARE!!! no thought for us, just felt like , "well we do have a job to do...."
:rant: these workmen that we had from the council were not council workmen but subs working for them, so i just like to state that i have been a council tenant for 16 years and never had a bad job done..... until these clowns came....

only one thing more to add to this ........
6mth after..... i ripped the lot out and paid someone to fit me a good bathroom and kitchen out of my own pocket !!

Ah the joys of the public sector! Nice to see yet more examples of SCC wastage on bodged refurbs. These guys can get away with murder as they know there is a bottomless pit of funding and a job no matter how incompetant you are at building.... They could never get away with this with private clients but it seems the taxpayer must continue to foot the bill for incompetance.

hi samsmum

i am on berners just round from the school and i thought they would be starting on our road next as a few weeks ago they took the scaffolding down from just round corner on east bank road

I had all my windows replaced when I lived on Stradbroke Road and they did a good job, I have no complaints.

My advice is to get a digital camera if you havent got one, they are cheap as chips these days, and photograph everything they are going to do at the start of each day and again during and at the end of the days work. That tends to keep them on their toes. Any probs and you have photographic evidence of their incompetence. Then get the housing or environmental health which ever is appropriate out to look at the work.

There are five different contractors on the refurb works and it depends on which contractor you get, dont beleive all the rubbish you read in the local paper, some of the work that is being done is very good and the houses look really good afterwards. Just think you are getting a new kitchen, bathroom, rewiring, central heating and new flooring. There is going to be a lot of dirt and dust but if you can bare with it the end result is well worth it.

Some people have been moaning about the time it takes and others are jumping on the band wagon to try to get compensation.

Originally posted by dazzer


Some people have been moaning about the time it takes and others are jumping on the band wagon to try to get compensation.

And some people couldnt wait to see the back of them...!:rant:

I was one of the unlucky people who was first inline for this lot and for what ive been told things have got better... ive had the bathroom/kitchen/windows/re-plaster/flooring/part-rewire/out side wall repointed and pebble dashed, wall and railings on front garden, All in one go it took them from sept 01- march 02, yes it was alot of work, but it was also bloody hard to live in a building site too! with 4 kids and 3 dogs etc, there was very little thought for us as a whole we had to shut up and put up, was it worth it? NO! as well as changing the kitchen and bathroom after we replaced the flooring too.... i did not ask for any compo i just wanted them out A.S.A.P. THEY DID OFFER TO COME BACK AT A LATER DATE TO CHANGE/REPLACE, TO WHICH WE SAID NO .... some of the work men we had were crap some were brill.......but never again...:suspect:

i live on myrtle rd ,just off east bank.............they just finished my house ............well apart from a few touch ups...........i had live wires hanging down from my kitchen ceiling............i was left without heating and hot water for weeks..............i couldnt use my washing machine for 2 weeks..............i aslo didnt have a bath in the house for 2 weeks and didnt have the use of my cooker for 5 weeks so me and my kids were living on microwave food..............admittedly the work is nice wen finished but we had a bad time..............wen they took my old windows it exposed the cavity wall insulation...............whidch i found out was fibre glass .............. i am asthmatic ...............the fibre glass dust was getting on my chest and it made me really ill.................so i ended up living at my mother in laws..................some of the workmen r ok but others no so good..............an electrician left some large vey sharp wire cutters on my sofa.................my 3 yr old picked them up and gave them to me .................... oh my god he could have lost his fingers.................ill stop now cos i could go on forever about this lol

Just to let you know, all the work is nearly done now and granted there are some bits that need finishing off, I would just like to say really really impressed with everything. It has been well worth it and would definately say to people to prepare yourselves for the mess but not been as bad as what I'd imagined. So dont listen to the stories saying how bad it is, it is really worth it and the results are fantastic. Got to say on the whole as well, workmen have been brilliant.

Originally posted by em3978
lol, i can't comment on the 'modernisation' programme as such but if the guys who just fitted my burgler alarm today are anything to go by, expect mess...LOTS of it!!!!


i had problems with the burglar alarm company...make sure they clear up!

never had any problems with council work though other than it takes a long time.

the new door at kelvin flats took SIX MONTHS from start to finish! although everyone did get a £56 "disturbance allowance"!

to anyone who's already had porch toilets replaced:

how/ where does the toilet go if you are having a porch toilet replaced by an internal toilet?

Toilets - that's one I forgot.....

The toilet they ordered to replace the downstairs loo was much bigger than the original - so much bigger that you couldn't open the door! - they had to take them all off and hang them so they opened outwards into the entrance hall (and it now blocks the stairs off).

Anyway susa41981, glad to hear your's went well and you are pleased with the results.

Originally posted by em3978
lol, i can't comment on the 'modernisation' programme as such but if the guys who just fitted my burgler alarm today are anything to go by, expect mess...LOTS of it!!!!
In my experience even if a council workman is stood next to a bin he is unable to use it, no idea what its for.... they also forget if they've moved things; despite telling several of them so far that i cannot currently lift anything heavy, they insist on using my set of (very old and heavy) ladders and leaving them where they used them, then just going home!!!
GRRRR
:rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant:
I'll stop now.....

Just an update.... since the alarm was fitted, i've cleaned up their mess, picked up the staples they left on the floor and the wood splinters and got used to the knackered floorboard they prised up to put the wires under it.

NOW..... I've had to call them to come back to the house as the sensor they put in my hallway reacted whenever i got post that landed anywhere other than the doormat, it also went off when i came down the stairs in the morning to switch off the alarm, they simply told me to set the alarm without that zone activated!!!
Oh and to top it off, the door sensor fell off the other day, just as i was closing it to go out, that would have been interesting if i'd not noticed!!!! Its now stck back on with sellotape til i get round to calling them back AGAIN to fix it!!!
USELESS!!! ALL OF EM!!!!!!
rant over
Em