Third Time Lucky?
This blog entry has its roots back in June 2008 (Fascia), so bear with me…
In June 2008, I had the bungalow’s fascia, soffitts and Dry Verge replaced with uPVC. Overall, it seemed to be a good job and I was generally satisfied with it except, over the years, the Dry Verge stuff had been bleached by the Sun (that big orange ball in the sky that makes an occasional appearance).
I’d decided that I’d get it re-done this coming Spring but last November, I’d spotted an “All Seasons Roofing and Guttering” van (NOT to be confused with 4-Seasons uPVC) parked nearby. After a word with its occupants, they offered to replace my Dry Verge the following week.
To be honest, I had serious misgivings the moment they arrived. They (or rather ‘he’) arrived late despite saying a team of four would arrive nice and early. On top of that, he was flitting from job to job. Sometimes you get a bad feeling when you let someone loose on your property and this was one of those times.
The photos (click to enlarge) show some of the defects I found the following day. The end of the Dry Verge was unsecured and flapping in the breeze, the Dry Verge was pressing too hard against the edges of the roof tiles and had forced the tiles over causing them to lift and large parts of the Dry Verge were, in my opinion, insufficiently secured – borne out by the fact that a whole four-foot section broke away just 3 months later.
At the time, I made several attempts at getting them to come round but all I could get out of them was that it carried a 10-year guarantee. At one point, I seriously considered contacting Wirral Trading Standards, but I knew they’d insist that “All Seasons” be given the chance to make good and, to be honest, I preferred to cut my losses and start again. In my opinion,“All Seasons” are nothing more than a bunch of chancers and cowboys – just my opinion, of course.
When the builder came yesterday to give me a quote, I had intended to point out what I considered to be defects – in addition to the gaping gap, of course, but I didn’t need to: He pointed them out to me!
One of the most glaring defects was that, according to the Dry Verge manufacturer’s website, all the old mortar and ‘undercloak’ needs to be removed and new, treated, battens fitted. The original, June 2008, installer hadn’t done this but that was no reason for All Seasons to follow suit.
Anyway, I’m now awaiting a written quotation from Furber Roofing Ltd to have the entire Dry Verge done properly front and back.
Hopefully it’ll be third time lucky – watch this space!