Carpentry & Joinery

Advice on stopping carpenter finishing job due to terrible work.

Anonymous user 23/02/2024 - 2.59 PM

Hi, I employed a carpenter to make and fit 3 bespoke doors and 2 bespoke windows. One set of the doors is a double front door, 1 door is a part glazed backdoor and the other is a simple ledge and brace door to a store room. The windows are fairly simple, small double glazed with 1 opening. The carpenter arrived and fitted the glazed door and the larger of the two windows. The work was not a particularly good standard, the cement round the outside of the door had holes in and was lumpy and uneven, the door didn't stay shut unless it is locked, and the glazing panel was too small for the hole in the door and installed unevenly. The window was slightly better although the concrete round the edge was also not to a great standard. I wrote to the carpenter and asked him to rectify the problems with these before he can continue with the rest of the install. He came last week, and although there is some improvement in that he took out all the concrete and re-did it, 2 days later it has cracked again, the door still won't shut easily, and the glazing has not yet been fixed although he admitted the unit in the door was too small. The "making" good on the inside of the window rebate was awful - lumpy plaster and then they painted the plaster with eggshell paint instead of emulsion (to say nothing of not letting the plaster dry). Anyway, I really don't want him back to fit the remaining 2 doors and window, especially as one of the doors is the front door - if they make as much of a mess as they have of the backdoor it will ruin the look of the outside of the house (rendered Victorian property in a conservation area). I paid a deposit of about 33%, which to my mind more than covers the 1 door and window that has been (poorly) fitted to date, (the breakdown of the quote was roughly 2/3rds for the 2 doors and 2 windows, and 1/3rd for the double front doors). Do I have the right to cancel the rest of the works given I am not happy with the workmanship? I had read the CAB website on all this but was slightly confused because he was hired to make the doors and windows, which he has clearly already done so do I have to pay for them? Any advice greatly appreciated.