Chuffing carpet fitter has bust my wall!

WillyNelson

WillyNelson

WillyNelson

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More of rant thread than advice really. Still, feel free to chip in with any words of wisdom!

Newly (well, a few months ago) plaster boarded and skimmed walls, painted on Monday and skirtings done yesterday. Carpet fitted today and this is the pic my wife sent me
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That skirting and wall were pristine yesterday. I'd caulked the joints and topcoated. :mad: The plasterboard is polystyrene backed insulated stuff and was solid. I'd even replaced the battens below it (it's an external brick wall underneath).

What on earth is he doing hitting the skirting so hard that it's broken the plasterboard joint!?! He shouldn't be touching the skirtings! I'm going to have to cut the jointing tape out, re-tape it and re-skim it, then repaint.

This is the nursery for our #2 child who will be arriving a week today!

I am, as you may tell, hopping mad! :mad:
 
Can't you scrape a filling spatula down the corner to remove the loose bits then use a ready mixed flexi filler and spread it down the corner with the square edge of the spatula?
 
noj said:
what did the carpet fitter say to your wife when she noticed it?
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Something along the lines of "was the skirting like that before". I wasn't really taking it in as I was seething.

thenewoc said:
Can't you scrape a filling spatula down the corner to remove the loose bits then use a ready mixed flexi filler and spread it down the corner with the square edge of the spatula?
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I'm not sure, haven't seen it first hand yet. From the look of it though the jointing tape that the plasterer put in the corner has come away from the board, possibly taking the paper face of the board with it. If I just fill over it without taking it back to something solid it's always going to be fragile. Less than ideal when this is a child's room.
 
You don't use tape in corners do you? wouldn't that create a weak point?

I'm no expert just seems weird to me, had 7 rooms plastered this year and none has tape in corners.
 
kaptainmarc said:
You don't use tape in corners do you? wouldn't that create a weak point?

I'm no expert just seems weird to me, had 7 rooms plastered this year and none has tape in corners.
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Nah, not normally.

the tape is generally for the edges of boards. rather than for in corners; although it's been a while since I've had a plaster boarded room skimmed.

The carpet needs to be stretched correctly over the gripper rods, else it will shift; if he put the kicker a little too close to the wall then it could have caused this, or it could have just been to do with the challenge of stretching it into the corner.
 
If he's a proper tradesman then he should have insurance to take care of this sort of damage!

I'd tell him that you are holding him responsible - my guess is he would just want to take care of the damage privately rather than involving his insurer (he'd most likely have a third party property damage excess on his policy anyway!)
 
I'm going to contact the people I bought the carpet through, they arranged the fitter, and go from there. As the same fitter is supposed to be coming back in a few weeks to carpet the stairs & landing I'm loathed to get shouty about it but I would at least expect my fitting fee back for this one.
 
They should arrange for the damage to be put right to be honest!

The only issue is if they sub the fitting work out to any Tom, Dick or Harry and don't have any vetting procedures and the guy flat-out denies any wrong-doing!

If the carpet place have anything about them I'd imagine they wouldn't want the negative press of a complaint!
 
I'd imagine that polystyrene backed plasterboard has a bit more give in it compared to the normal stuff and the carpet stretching tool has caused the plasterboard to move to towards the blockwork momentarily. Since there probably isn't anything behind the corner of the tape or the fact that the tape has to be attached to both sides of the corner, any movement is going to cause the surface to crack.

Same thing happened along the top of some of our skirting boards since you're going to get some movement when it gets bashed with the carpet stretcher. I think it's sods law as you have to do the decorating first. The backing of the carpet also scraped off paint on our newly painted stair case but it's big stuff to handle and it's got to go somewhere whilst it's being positioned let alone getting around corners etc.

If it's only happened in one corner then it might be that corner isn't done as well as the others in terms of the plaster boarding.
 
He shouldn't be bashing it with a carpet stretcher though. If he's smashing it into my skirting boards he's not stretching the carpet properly.

I nailed that skirting into place and thumped it with my fist to make it sit flat, and that didn't make the wall move. He must've kicked it pretty hard to do that sort of damage.
 
Are the solid walls or stud? I guess stud.
He's kicked in towards the skirting trying to stretch the carpet and your wall has moved.
Looks like he was a little brutal with it but it is an easy fix.
 
Cant you just get the plasterer to sort it? I guess he's still working on it judging by the random unfilled holes, unsanded filler (and a couple of creases in the tape on the right?) It'll take him 5 mins.

If he has gone and left it in that state, i'd say it's more likely to be him at fault than the carpet fitter anyway.
 
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Bit of an over reaction I think, bit of filler bit of paint...

Annoying I know but in the the amount of time and effort kicking off about it you could have filled and painted it yourself.
 
I know it's just an honest mistake. I'm just a bit hacked off because the carpet was the last thing to do for that room and now I have to spend time I don't have to spare making good.

(That's the finished surface. I pulled that flake of paint off with a bit of misplaced gripfill when I was fitting the skirting)
 
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