Is This Bespoke Built Staircase Acceptable? information and advice on general building topics, builders merchants, problem builders, DIY Stores etc....

[shedges]

Having spent close to £4000 on a bespoke built stair case (incl. banisters/spindles, I'm trying to work out whether this workmanship is acceptable. (you can probably guess my opinion by the fact that I'm on here)

The woodwork is going to be stained and our builders knew this from the off... they were asked to apply the protective wood stain on installation (which wasn't done).

We aren't using paint to cover up imperfections / filler, etc.

In the four photos attached (I wanted to attach more, believe me!) you can see the poor finish I'm talking about:

1. A supposedly flat wall (plastered by the builders) with a supposedly straight half newel screwed to it - a gap of up to 5mm
2. Gaps between banisters and newel posts
3. Some weird bits of wood stuck to the base of the final spindle next to the newel post
4. Shoddy joins with glue smeared around and exposed screws.

Is this usual for this kind of work? Is it that they just haven't finished/tidied up? Or should we be kicking off about this?

Any opinions / help / advice gratefully received.

Thanks
Sam

[thedoctor]

Hi

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you - I've passed this around a few of our chippies as they've been back at base today and the unanimous decision was that it's a shocking job!

In light of this you have a few options, namely get whoever did it originally back in to sort it out until you are satisfied with teh job.

If this isn't an option or they are not willing to play ball then trading standards is also an option.

If you found the company in question using a find a tradesman service e.g. Rated People etc.... then it's also worth contacting them

Hope this help

[collectors]

That is one of the worst i have seen. If a staircase is to be waxed of varnished, you should not have one single screw or nail showing, all should be hidden using screw bolts & dowels. You would also use a hard wood & not cheap pine as being used hear. Those knots are a weakness & danger to children as they will easily break. This is defiantly not a tradesman that did this.