The whole distressing experience is too long to go into here, but I will summarise the main reasons why I would not recommend this company to anyone.
1. POOR TIMEKEEPING
The workforce rarely arrived when agreed, being significantly late at least eleven times, and failing to turn up at all on six working days, despite my having made arrangements to be present on site. The first no show was was on 15 April; on that day I finally received a text message at 11am, which was as follows: " Have to be in the morning the lads had to much to drink last night".
2. DISREGARD FOR HEALTH & SAFETY
Access to the rear of the house was through the garage, and at the end of May I discovered that workmen had been smoking inside the garage, where paint was being stored, and discarding the ends in the corner. This would have been unprofessional enough, but was compounded by the ends being thrown near a large can of paint stripper.
It was obvious from the large quantity of dogends, that smoking had taken place in the garage on more than one occasion, thus jeopardising the health and safety of not only the customer and the customer's family, but also of the workmen themselves.
3. LOSS OF ITEMS FROM MY PROPERTY
The garage was also used to store some long life groceries. I discovered that food and drink had been pilfered; I found wrappers for cereal bars discarded at the end of the garden, as well as in the garage. In addition fruit juice boxes had been opened, drunk from, and left half empty on the shelves in the garage. The local Senior Trading Standards Officer, whom I eventually involved, said that the food and drink had probably been taken by the East European members of the workforce who were more than likely being very poorly paid for their labour.
Other items also disappeared from the garage, mainly because there seemed to be a high turnover of workforce members who didn't realise that some tools and materials belonged to the customer, and not to the company. However, that does not adequately explain why a wrought iron gate that had been propped up by the front drive for over two decades, had also mysteriously disappeared.
4. CONSTANT DEMANDS FOR MONEY
On more than one occasion I was subjected to a sob story of how I needed to pay more money up front for materials, and "the lads" who needed paying. This was unprofessional and embarrassing; particularly the time when a member of the company actually entered the house without my permission, to hassle me for further payment, despite more than half the agreed sum being already paid.
5. POOR WORKMANSHIP
One of the reasons the job took so long was because work was poorly done, necessitating it being done again. In some instances, such as the woefully poor painting of the windowsills, I did most of the work myself.
Another reason the job took so long was the lack forethought and preparation, thus extra work was required to put right what been done wrong. Instances include: the mindless rendering in of an overflow pipe, and of the exterior door cabin hooks.
I agreed to have some aquadrains fitted, but the men who fitted them were too lazy to drill the necessary holes to let excess water actually drain away, preferring to allege that the water would disperse by evaporation. I had another workman remedy this in a matter of minutes.
6. THE MESS
Most of the time while rendering and painting were being done, it did not seem to occur to most of the workmen that protecting other surfaces such as the block paving, doors or windows was necessary. This has left me with a lot of mess to clear up, even though the company, at my insistence, did attempt to clean the block paving several times. I had to clean all of the window frames of excess render and paint myself, and repaint all of the external doors (front door, garage doors front and back, side door and back door) after the company had, thankfully, gone.
Two external drains, and the garage roof drain were blocked by builder's debris and paint; one drain was full of cement which had been swept down and solidified at the bottom. Some of the clearance I did myself, the rest was put right by a contractor working for the company, again at my insistence.
The website for Buildsure Exteriors alleges many things that I have not found to be the case, including that they are an approved contractor for Wethertex; when I rang Wethertex to check, the person I spoke to had no knowledge of such a scheme.
With the help of the Senior Trading Standards Officer, I did get a refund; this was paid piecemeal with much prevarication and delay, and was only completed last week. I am still waiting for the guarantee for the work, though I suspect it will not be forthcoming.
In conclusion: I cannot recommend Buildsure Exteriors (known in another incarnation as Amazon Property Solutions, and Skyline Building Solutions Limited) in any respect to anybody.