Handyman issues .... How to settle invoice

Long answer short, what ever is left after deducting the cost of electrician that repaired his bodge.

 

Not gonna be much left then!

Mr. HandyAndy - Really

 

Lemonthelime - i am not trying to condone what has happened, but where the cables buried in the wall and not within a vicinity of a light switch or socket?

 

Most peeps would scan the area before drilling ,for pipes, cables, but sometimes it's not 100% accurate.

 

everyone in the trade drills through pipes and cables, they are very hard to miss, only two trades dont hit them, never done nothing people and liars, OK, he should have fixed it proper but what is a proper fix? and don't forget an electrian will never say a handymans work is good, why do a witch hunt ? whets done is done and now its mended, learn from it,

 

This is true Tom, but why should the OP be out of pocket for the handyman bodge, if he'd put his hands up and said sorry I've accidentally hit a cable and am not qualified to fix it properly, then yes it could be taken as an unfortunate incident, but to try and hide it, deserves it to be paid for by the handyman, then he can learn a lesson, honesty pays.

 

As you say, everyone makes a mistake or has something go wrong possibly through no fault of theirs.

But...but...but...

This 'handyman' "denied knowledge, bodged a dangerous repair then plastered it into wall without telling us."

So the handyman thought he'd get away with a second-rate repair. Was his repair good enough? Nope, because "Cue problems with lighting circuit last night."

He's been caught band to rights. The customer almost got caught 'BANG' from the wall.

No sympathy for the handyman - he needs to pay for the repair to be fixed properly. If he is of any value at all, he will do so with good grace - and then you can even consider hiring him again for any other future jobs since he's ok at them (er, not electrics...)

 

Me thinks if you only owe him 120, then he'd be lucky to get any of it, bearing in mind you had to get an electrician in.

How much did the real sparks charge by the way???

 

Dunno about that KIAB. I usually assume electrics and other services are in safe zones, although I have come a cropper a couple of times. Once drilling a hole to fix a base unit to the wall, I hit the cooker cable (conveniently run at 45 degrees from the switch to the outlet) The other time I drilled through an incoming water mains pipe which came through the wall then run 2 feet along parallel to the wall, before coming up through the bitumen floor

 

yeah we all like to think people have installed correctly, but those detectors can be a bit hit and miss and not everyone adherers to the zones for cables. I remember stripping a room out ready for skimming and some T**T had run the shower cable almost at 45 degree from the top of the wall to the location of the shower entry.

 

Drill through a live gas pipe, despite house having no gas meter, meter was found in bricked up recess.
Water pipes, electrics cables all running at funny angles & directions I've drill them all, worst one was about 25 years ago working on a old house, been breaking up old floors, working in lounge, when I put the kango through a very live, but old incoming mains type cable, electric company traced it coming across the front lawn going through the house & down the rear garden & across a field before losing it.

 

Lemon, you owe the Handyman the full £145.

And he owes you £100.

Explain to him the situation clearly - you are happy with his other work, but very disappointed that he didn't declare the electrical 'incident' and have it sorted professionally as he should have. His inadequate 'repair' has caused problems, so you had to call in a pro sparky and they fixed it properly for £100.

The outstanding balance to the guy is now £20.

That's it.

If he is anything other than hugely grateful and apologetic to you, then he ain't a guy to deal with in future.

 

sounds like you've got the t-shirt there mate!

 

A customer asked me to remove a cable from a cupboard I was renovating, he assured me it was "dead" fortunately I decided to use a plastic handled chisel for the job, just in case, needless to say it took an inch off my chisel when it blew up.

 

You want one of them non contact detector pens moose great bit of kit