Poor landscaping work - garden resembles a swamp

tom_e said:
I'm surprised he didn't just refund you to save the extra hassle/cost of redoing it knowing that you'll now be on at him questioning everything to make sure he doesn't just make a bigger mess.
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I'm surprised he's not taken this route either, subtract cost of materials, and perhaps the wall as that's looking good. But refund the cost of the patio/garden and leave it to some other contractor to sort out. I guess it's a negative review that he probably didn't want.

OP I'd definitely be taking photos after each days work. With a soured relationship, if there's further issues at the end he's really going to kick off, so better to have everything documented.
 
I had a patio done a while back and they took the effort to put a proper base under it, then the concrete on top, and finally slabs.

Not sure if I still have pics but it definitely wasn't a thin layer of concrete on top of soil!
 
tom_e said:
I'm surprised he didn't just refund you to save the extra hassle/cost of redoing it knowing that you'll now be on at him questioning everything to make sure he doesn't just make a bigger mess.
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The amount he paid I reckon they can do the job 2 or 3 times over without worry. My roofer was the same.
 
I've seen a couple of comments about the price I paid and I don't feel like I overpaid for the job. We got a couple of quotes and the others were around the same price (prior to changing the design). One told me I would need to find my own bricklayer so I went for someone who could do the entire thing themselves. Perhaps I overpaid slightly on the extra for flattening the entire garden but that was a snap decision as they had to know for the following days work. If it's done properly (big if at this stage) then I don't think £15k is horrendous given that we'll have a garden that is useable and it makes the house more desirable should I come to sell. It's a 6 bed detatched house in a great location (commuter town to London) so the garden always let the property down and I expect would have caused me issues when I came to sell.

I'm going to look at what's under the patio. I think it is soil but I do also remember them compacting and levelling that area before they started laying the patio. A family friend in the building trade is sending around a contractor tonight to have a look at the work to help me out so I'll see what he thinks.
 
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Adam said:
. If it's done properly (big if at this stage) then I don't think £15k is horrendous given that we'll have a garden that is useable and it makes the house more desirable should I come to sell. It's a 6 bed detatched house in a great location (commuter town to London) so the garden always let the property down and I expect would have caused me issues when I came to sell.
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I think typically on the Internet people are always inclined to say "I got it better", "did it better" or "got it cheaper". This is particularly an issue if comparing to pre covid prices.

I wouldn't be concerned about cost now you've paid, just quality. Good to hear youre having someone have a look.
 
I dont see this ending well.
The base could be some crushed run. We can drop our rubble off at a yard and they crush it, screed it then sell it. Cheaper than MOT1 or dust
The slabs should not have come up like that. Porcelain/vitrified are practically impermeable. There is no way that 20-30mm of mix will adhere without primer. You can lay them as you would an internal tiled floor. Concrete base then exterior tile adhesive, but this doesnt look like that.
I still dont see their drainage solution working. I dont think they have the fall to get to the aco, if that is their plan.
And what do they intend to lay your new turf on? Are they bringing in topsoil (sharp sand mix would probably be better in this situation). Is that how they are going to run the land drain so shallow? Build up the back wall then grade it down to the paving?
You have found yourself in a horrible position.
 
Buffman said:
I think typically on the Internet people are always inclined to say "I got it better", "did it better" or "got it cheaper". This is particularly an issue if comparing to pre covid prices.

I wouldn't be concerned about cost now you've paid, just quality. Good to hear youre having someone have a look.
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That's if you can even get someone out for a quote. Not even that, it's if you can even get them to answer the phone! I tried about 6 different people for something recently, in the end someone did come out (via a friend of a friend of a friend) but they were not cheap, but what can you do if you need the job doing and can't do it yourself.
 
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honest - Call them off the job...

Those slabs have been laid on bare muck/soil - they aren't suddenly going to spend time/money properly laying them again, your simply going to end up with another half arsed job....

Call them off the job - make a final request for a refund/partial, cut your losses now. He's not spending good time and money fixing this to a better standard, he's simply trying to appease you so that you don't surly his name/end up in court.

It's a horrible situation but the pictures you have of those slabs been lifted gives me the fear of god.....
 
There should be a 50mm layer of mortar beneath the tiles ideally, and the tiles should have SBR type primer applied before laying to ensure a proper bond.

Tidybricks on YouTube is a good place to see how it's done properly, he's a Marshall paving accredited installer.

 
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Ok quick update before I finish work for the evening. I also had the contractor come over after they left.

The contractor raised his eyebrows at a few things but overall it's not a complete disaster and is salvageable. He thought the plan of using downpipes was over the top, unneccessary and not cost effective when using perforated land drainage would have achieved the same thing without him having to cut a load of slits.

There was some concern with the patio being laid on soil. I can confirm it's type 1 aggregate that has been compacted. The contracted (older guy) said he would have put a concrete base down but he goes overkill on these things so this is more than likely to be absolutely fine. The image I posted earlier was perhaps a red herring.

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He also identified the acco drains as being too shallow (only 25-30mm). This may not be an issue based on the next point. Also he said he'd recommend having some shingle between the house bricks and the aco due so the bricks don't get wet from rain water splashing and getting the damp course wet.

Perhaps one of the most useful things I took away was the drainage. The guy doing the job was going to connect this in to the foul drain but the grid of pipes he has created for the turf sits below the drain. The contracter who came over identified a downpipe which may connect to the storm drain. He gave me some die to give to the other guy to test. This may solve a lot of problems and make his life a lot easier if he can tap in to that drain.

I'm actually feeling a lot better after his visit. I called the guy doing the job and told him these are the recommendations and I think he saw the storm drain suggestion as being positive but perhaps not so much the aco being shallow and having the shingle between the aco and the house bricks. He said it would collect water and it would have nowhere to go. I'm sure I saw something earlier on in the thread about angling the rain drops so I'll have to go back and check that.

Here is the progress so far today:

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