No contact from builder

so realistically he has done a months work without pay & you don't seem to want to pay him so I can understand why he is disappearing on other jobs , would you do a months work for nothing, this is only one side of a storey would be very interested to hear your tradesman's side, if originally told it would take 10days that's two weeks so at 5 weeks how has he taken 5 times as long also if the first contractor has pulled out would be interested to know why from that tradesman, sorry but you have changed everything about this question to suite what ever agenda you have I feel really sorry for the tradesman that was working for you. you have changed completely the remit of this question for that alone I have serious doubts now about anything you say, you need to contact your tradesman and discuss your views with him this is very one sided which seems to continually change why is it that customers seem to think that tradesmen have magic money trees in there gardens and everything should be done & completed before payment is made, while you say you don't mind you refused to pay him so realistically what you say and what you do differ considerably, also if he has been ill that does not stop your bills coming in so maybe he had run out of money & see you were in no hurry to pay him. AS A CUSTOMER ALL YOU SHOW ARE BIG RED FLAGS SPEAK TO YOUR TRADESMAN & SEE IF YOU CAN MEND ANY BRIDGES SHORT OF THAT TRY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO FINISH THE JOB as I feel your tradesman may have just had enough & is now cutting his losses and calling it a day as far as you and your job are concerned

He's either had enough or not interested.

At first you price the job let’s say it was going to take him 10 days to the job . I’d sign a Contract agreement with the customer first. Ask for deposit before you star the job so you can buy materials at list. If the job looks like to take longer than what you priced Then this could be that the tradesmen made a mistake on pricing the job. And run out of money. Or he isn’t tradesmen at all and the job isn’t done to a good standard.so the customer has every right to not pay him the mess he made. So they are both in trouble. Tradesmen can’t find the money to finish the job And customers needs to invest on fixing the mess which it could cost him double the amount to bring a different tradesmen in. Unless the customer trying to add more work on the tradesmen that he hired with the original price then customer needs to cough up and pay the extra work. Then this is why the tradesmen is going to work elsewhere to cover his own expenses. Rather than do extra work for nothing.