R.A Builders Ltd / Building Maintenance in Te Atatu
89% approval from 20 authenticated ratings
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Like the previous rating suggests, we too were also sold the "dream". We engaged with Ralph to break down and rebuild a single car garage for us. Exactly the same as what was on site previously, but with new materials, and one that wouldn't leak.
Ralph came over almost straight away after we advertised the job. He promised the world, and he seemed like he could deliver. The garage was going to be the best looking… garage you'd ever seen, and all dismantled and rebuilt within 3 weeks. Perfect! Quote came through - it seemed very reasonable. We paid the 40% deposit and awaited the start date.
Start date arrived. By 11am, Ralph still hadn't shown up. We hadn't received a phone call or text message to say there was going to be a delay. Eventually that day he showed up.
Within a day the old garage was dismantled and the materials left beside it. We were told he couldn't find a "proper" skip bin, (which I find hard to believe given there are so many companies in Auckland with skip bins for hire), so Ralph used a Flexi bin to discard all materials, which quickly overflowed.
Ralph didn't show up for the rest of that week, and there was no communication about this either.
Eventually Ralph came back to the site the following week (after having to chase him like a child!). He started putting the wooden frame up. After engaging with a number of builders asking why the concrete pad hadn't been laid first, Ralph said it was just the way he was going to do it. I'm no expert but that didn't seem right, but I preferred not to force the issue.
When the old garage was dismantled, a few old weather boards were exposed. Ralph said he'd put new ones up. Upon a visit to the site, we see that he'd used old, recycled weather boards to cut costs (a discount we still are yet to see). When we accepted the quote, we had paid for a metal channel drain to be used. Upon visiting the site, I see a plastic one was used. Ralph said metal drains cost $300, but this cost $90. Again, a discount we are yet to see.
A couple of weeks later we received another invoice for a bit of extra work Ralph had done, including painting and the roof of the garage. Ralph text saying we needed to make payment immediately as the roof of the garage was now on. I checked the site before paying to see there was absolutely no roof on the garage whatsoever. Yes, some painting had been done to the sides and the back of the new framed garage, but there were entire panels missing from the garage that would need painting, and also pieces of hardy board which weren't even nailed in to the stud.
Then, the concrete arrived. To put it mildly, the concrete apparently laid by civil engineers is possibly the worst concrete job you will ever see. Not only did the concreters close in our channel drain, but they also built such a big slope going in to the garage that the frame can't even fit an SUV underneath it. The finish of the concrete was so rough that it looked like someone had just used a tiling trowel to "smooth" the surface over, yet it was far from smooth!
We questioned Ralph on the quality of the concrete to which he said it was really good, and we must go back and see it. We went back a week later, and nothing had changed. It was shocking! Not to mention concrete up against a wooden frame.
To make matters worse, the whole idea of building a garage next to the house was to have indoor access straight through from the garage. That would be ideal if the concrete next to the doorway was laid correctly. Now, for any person of normal height must duck underneath the doorframe to get in to the house. Disaster!
Throughout this time, communication between Ralph and I was pretty sporadic. He only text when he wanted to be paid. Other than that he was and still is virtually impossible to get hold of.
Now we are stuck with the most terrible frame work to a garage you will ever see, with which a standard car can't even fit inside.
My advice is to use someone that is qualified. Ralph is not a qualified builder, and is possibly the worst tradesperson you will ever encounter!"
Communication: 0% | Quality: 0% | Reliability: 0% | Value: 50%