We have voted on the winner of the 2009 Cowboy Of The Year Award. As always we find that reviewing the photos of poor workmanship, unsafe situations and everything in between only reminds us that there are those out who don’t give a damn about hurting people. The hurt is sometimes only financial but in many cases the poor workmanship is very much a booby trap that can harm, maim or kill without notice.
We choose the Cowboy Of The Year Award based on a few factors. The first is always safety, the second is the camouflage factor or the level to which the bodge is hidden away and the third factor is the cost of the damage caused or the cost to repair the bodge. So for example this year we had a close contest between the winner and a poor plumbing & central heating job that cost thousands to put right. The runner up however was not as much unsafe as inconvenient and costly to repair. This years winning bodge was UNSAFE, well hidden and costly to put right!
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DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD
Bad Electricians
Is there anything sadder than a fully grown adult treating someone like dirt. There is! It’s watching a fully grown building professional treating an client like dirt. So having witnessed the exact scenario this week I can safely say ‘there is nothing sadder.’ While working in a council flat this week where we are renovating a bathroom we came across live a ring main cable in Zone 1 of a shower cubicle. On our advice the tenant called the council to have an electrician come around and put it right. The sparks flew when he finally showed up. continue
DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD
Bad – Kitchen Fitters
The original request at this property was to replace the bathroom appliances, move the tub and add a shower, install some new lighting, put in a shower extractor, add a razor socket, change the radiator and add a wet towel warmer with electrical backup and then tile. Sounds easy enough but the moving of pipe work led to finding issues with the previous ‘plumber’s’ work, we found DOZENS of electrical faults throughout the house and newly installed consumer unit that were a mix of both major and minor problems and we found this kitchen that was fit by a large national company that rhymes with P U.
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DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD
Bad – New Home Builder
The home that produced last weeks winning award had another dangerous situation that has won this weeks award too. We arrived on Friday morning to sort out the issues around last weeks winner,
the kitchen extractor to nowhere (more on that repair near the end) and while attempting to change a like-for-like cooker found another problem. This time it was poor thought out electrics hidden behind the cooker. At first glance and on the surface there doesn’t appear to be anything wrong. But when we isolated the cooker circuit via the cooker switch both sockets dropped off. Do you see the problem yet?
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Location: Whitefield, Gtr Manchester, Lancs
Date: July-Aug 2009
Description: We were originally asked if we could replace just the appliances in this bathroom and we said ‘of course we would.’ When we arrived to view the job it turned out that the home owner had already removed the bathtub and flooring and another builder had added some velux windows. The job was to relocate the tub from the left side of the room to the right side so that a mixer shower could be added. We would also add a shower screen, new basin, toilet, radiator and add a towel warmer, extractor, new lights and a razor point. With that in mind we went away while the home owner purchased the bits they liked.
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DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD
Bad New Home Builder
In a previous post I showed how an unscrupulous kitchen fitter (for a for large national retailer of kitchens) put in an exhaust pipe that was camouflaged to look correct but was a con job.
See previous post here. I thought I’d take this opportunity to show another bodge that I viewed a couple of days ago when asked to fit a new extractor, cooker and hob. The company that built this new house only a few years ago didn’t seem to notice that the extractor pipe that was connected to the hood ran up and across the cupboards but ended at the inside block wall! The outside wall hd a hole in it with a vent attached but the hole was never put through.
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DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD
Bad Electricians…
The home owner told me that the electrician who did this work was recommended by the builder who was adding a conservatory. An electrician he may have been but his work was sloppy and unsafe. This guy just didn’t care about the safety of the home owners and their children.
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