I was clear I wanted all my ridge repointed,SBR bond to be used throughout (SBR is a glue/bond for mortar), then the gutters cleaned. The builder said no problem he keeps SBR in his van. We agreed £380, a bit expensive according to a builder I have onsite building a porch, but I thought it was ok.
Day 1, no show. Mis-communication between the builder and his team. No worries.
Day 2, his team didn't want electric which I thought was odd then when I talked about the gutters they only thought they were cleaning inside not the outside. So I said no to that, no problem. I mentioned SBR and how I wanted it used and he said that's not how he's done it, again seemed odd so my builder he came out and explained it.
Then they said they had two other jobs and couldn't do it in time. Turns out, he thought his job was to go on the roof with his chisel, patch literally one or two tiles then leave and be done in an hour. A mis-understanding between the team and boss again. £380 for an hours work!
They showed me the 'SBR' they use. Turns out it was plasticiser not SBR. SBR is a glue and quite expensive, plasticiser keeps mortar soft for longer and isn't a glue! When putting mortar on a ridge the last thing you want is the mortar to say soft for longer. So clearly there was no intention to use SBR.
Overall if I didn't have a builder onsite I'd be £380 down with not even half a job done and runny mortar not fixed to the ridge. Instead my builder has lost two days good work.