A1 Garage Conversions

I wasn't going to leave a review but I feel the need. Chris came round gave me a price to carry out a garage conversion, upon arrival I thought he was a very pleasant person to talk to and communicate with, he talked the talk. Problem is he did not Walk the Walk. The work started and I was excited for my garage conversion. The original quote was for a brick-up at the rear garage, install window at the front and knock through into the hall and plaster, electrics and insulation. (Alarm Bell 1) Upon coming around I decided that I would like French Doors at the rear, he explained not a problem there is an extra cost for the French door, No Problem. Work went under way and he told me that he was getting someone in to fit the French doors and he cant fit them. This was the start of the alarm bells going off, at the time I had some extension builders doing the work on the rear of the house and lucky enough they managed to do this for me, but they shouldn't had too. (2nd Alarm Bell). Then I noticed that once the French Door was put in there was a massive air void about 300mm that rain and wind can come in at the top of door, Chris said to me "do you want that filling???? For a cost? . Erh yeh good idea not to get wet. (Alarm Bell 3) The next thing that surprised me was I should have saved money on brick-up at the rear of garage as before the original quote was for it to be completely bricked up, but I had less bricks, mortar, and less labour. So one would think you would save money and he would deduct it. NO I was wrong he told me that he has lost out because he got a brick layer to do that. What the hell?? Not my fault that you are getting tradespeople to do your job. (Alarm Bell 4) Next thing is there was a cut through to be done from the garage to the hall. Chris drilled holes in the wall and pencilled where the door is going and he proceeded to cut and put lintels in and almost finished and said "oh no, you have electric there and BT telephone wires there" It is a common thing for a professional garage specialist to check, even after drawing all over the wall that there is wires there. He said you got to get BT to move the wires and he doesn't touch them. I explained I wasn't happy about this in an email and his reaction was a very abusive email, to the point me and my wife was very offended and though he was doing a runner. (Alarm 5) A day later he apologised for his rude email and he said he will try to fix it, but technically he meant when he came round that I would grab his drill and figure a way to pull enough slack underground to move it. Again not my job to do. (Alarm 6) There was extras I wanted on-top of the quotation, such as boxing in boiler and gas meter. On the last day he had not finished the extras off or the main part of the conversion. (Alarm 7) My extension builders told me that he asked them to help him for sorting the wiring out for half a day. This cost me £150 just for them to help. That job had nothing to do with them. (Alarm 8) I walked in the garage to find electrical wires hanging off the wall. Dents in the wall and ceiling and holes in skirting, no caulking, hole in ceiling in hallway, door completely bodged, hole in PVC outside. There was a few issues, radiator wasn't straight, plug sockets were not straight. (Alarm 9) He never finished and extras off he left me high and dry. He also didn't finish off the normal conversion. His answer to finish off was get your extension builders to finish it. (Alarm 10) Then he asked for the outstanding money, which was only about £150 ish and I declined because of the problems that I had with him. (Alarm 11) I just found out from ringing Building Control that it has not been signed off. (Alarm 12) The Building Regulations officer has to pay me a visit and possible I have to dig up the floor if required to check whether certain aspects the conversion has been done correctly. There is also is The quote was originally was for £8495 and in the end with the extras and roof,boiler, French door, gas move, etc. It was close to about £12k. The extension builders told me that they could have done it for about 10k and would have done the roof, boiler. My extension builders didn't think that the finish was very good. You get what you pay for. All this is negative, but it is my experience, I am a very honest person and this is really what happened. I don't like leaving bad reviews but people should be aware of all this before making a decision. The only positive I will give is he is a nice person to talk to and I have ended up with some sort of garage conversion which was a nightmare to get to the other side and I had to touch up and fix, but does looks good with my touching up. I just hope the Building Regulations Sign off goes through.