It all started on the weekend when Hubby was going over our final drawings and noticed two small plaster walls on the plan at the top of the stairwell where our lovely steel ballusters were supposed to be.
So first thing this morning we contacted PD to notify them of their error. "D" our administrator was very prompt in calling us back but was just as prompt in notifying us that the only error was ours. Apparently where the contract states steel ballusters to "whole of the stairwell", we are supposed to read - "only to the staircase itself" (our bad - thought whole meant entire and thought stairwell meant all the way to the top and around). Of course, we were told if we would like to rectify "our error" it would cost an additional $3K!
Of course, we complained profusely and went higher and spoke with a manager who seemed to be listening. Maybe a small fish was finally getting somewhere? But no, "D" eventually called us back, towed the party line once again and then gracefully offered to take a couple of hundred dollars off the quote but that was all they could do.
So now we have a decision to make
- steel ballusters to actual "whole of stairwell and loft" to make the place look good - $3K
- wooden ballusters to entire staircase and stairwell/loft - $1.6K
- fight to the a satisfactory conclusion - priceless.......
...although we all know that can never end well for all concerned.
PS: Apparently the upper areas of the stair"well" are actually the called the stair loft (or something similar). Keep an eye on this if you are heading into similar territory with PD.
6 comments:
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarghh!!! I feel your pain....and yet they have you 'over a barrell' , don't they? That's how we felt....Very, very frustrating. I'm sure it will look fantastic, whichever way you choose to go.
Nice colours, from your last post, too! ;-)
Grrrrrr, not on and not acceptable. I'll say though that I think for your style of stairs the steek balustrade with plaster dwarf wall will look nice. Probably not what you want to hear if you've thought that you are getting the full steel look.
steel not steek! Oh, I wish you could edit in the blogs!
Gang,
sorry to hear about this and dilema, we will be keeping it in mind as we have also gone for different stairs with glass, wooden and steel framing.
R&C
It is a bit confusing isn't? Our iron balustrade doesn't include the top part of the stairway. The top part is plater- we want it that way, in case our kids throw stuff over the stairs! But we were lucky it was obvious from the display house. I am not sure if you can win this war, but you should still fight it!
Good Luck.
Thank you Petal, HTB, r&c and Sam. Of course we can never win the war with these building companies but wouldn't it be nice if we could win a battle or two here and there. Had small progress with PD today but still looking at paying $2.5K for something we thought we had already paid for. May have to take it further in the future if more problems arise however our administrator "D" has assured us it will be smooth sailing from here!
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