On 25 Aug 2003 06:32:55 -0700, (dg) wrote:

BTW, I find it curious how someone who knows "how stingey builders
are" can promote a handyman service involving building work.

Sorry if I offended you, it wasn't intentional. However I've worked on
enough houses to know that when an estate goes up it isn't unusual for
the workmanship to be poor, or for mixes (etc) to be maladjusted. It
is possible that one reason for the crack appearing is that I have a
slightly heavier than normal car (Freelander), so if the concrete
floor was in any way "thin" then I guess that would explain why the
slab has moved causing this crack - it wouldn't take much short
changing of concrete on the part of the original groundworker for that
to become a possibility.

Advice I've received from several different places suggests that when
workmen are hired for these estate homes they are paid a basic flat
rate for the job. Simple logic will tell you that they ain't going to
waste any more time than they have to.

As an example, a couple of weeks ago one of the dual 13A sockets in
our home was playing up so I decided to fix it. Took the socket off
the wall to be met by an obvious bodge job by the electrician who
wired the house - the socket hadn't been off the wall since we moved
in. The earth ring wasn't complete because one of the two earth wires
wasn't made to the socket.

And for what it is worth - concrete isn't one of my deliverables.

Andrew

http://www.handymac.co.uk