Apache Akbi - www.facilitycontractors.co.uk

I bought a house which needed modernising, and used CheckATrade to find a bathroom fitter. I engaged Apache Kitchen Bathroom Installers (AKBI), who had 47 glowing reviews, to refit the bathroom, and paid a deposit of £3,000, from an agreed total of £5,000. It started well, with the old bathroom stripped, and the walls skimmed. After a day and a half the walls were partially tiled, and a bath fitted. I was concerned to see that the new wall tiles overlapped the old coving at the edges of the ceiling. It looked weird. My neighbour saw it and laughed. I asked online, and professional bathroom fitters said the tiling was a bad job, and they also pointed out that Apache had fitted the shower at the opposite end of the bath to the taps. The slope of the bath at that end made it impossible to stand beneath the shower, which is why professionals fit the shower at the tap end (or the middle). The pros also said they thought they had used cement based adhesive without first priming the plaster. Consequently I asked them to leave, and had three people check the work. A professional tiler concluded that the tiling had been done too soon after plastering, that they had failed to prime the plaster prior to tiling with cement based adhesive, and that the tile adhesive was not adequately applied. I found tiles almost fell off with almost no force used. Examination showed the contact area between adhesive and wall was well below the required amount. The bond was non existant. A builder wrote a survey, saying that the walls had not being primed, and that this would lead to the failure of the tile adhesive bond, a phenomenon known as ettringite failure. He pointed out poor workmanship, including the shower at the opposite end to the taps, and tiles overlapping the coving. Another builder also wrote a short survey, and he found various faults including those mentioned. I concluded that they were incompetent, and engaged a second company to rectify the work. I had to throw away the bath, as I could not reverse it as one side was covered in huge amounts of sealant. I was able to use the original WC and sink. I complained to CheckATrade, and they concluded that I owed further money to Apache, but Apache would cancel that sum out of generosity. I wrote a review on the CheckATrade web site. It was immediately pulled for several weeks, as Apache said they had had a death in the family. When it reappeared, it had a response from Apache which said that they had in fact used an acrylic adhesive which does not need primer on the plaster, and I had asked them to put the shower at the opposite end to the bath. I showed CheckATrade a letter from Apache, written to me, in which they stated that they had used cement based adhesive, and primed the wall with Bal Primer. Despite proving dishonesty in the Apache response, CheckATrade refused to take any action.

I prepared documents for a court case, and was contacted by Trading Standards. Astonishingly these people were on a Trading Standards approved list, as well as CheckATrade. Adam Chambers at Winchester Trading Standards agreed that the standard of the work was below the legally acceptable standard, and that I was due compensation. He was astonished that Apache disagreed. It took many months for Adam to convince Apache that I was due compensation, and I refused the first derisory offer. I eventually accepted £1800, even though I needed to buy a new bath, and only recovered a WC, a sink, a shower and some taps. The latter turned out to be the cheapest sold by ScrewFix! Although I lost a substantial sum of money, wasted massive amounts of time getting surveys and preparing a court case, and suffered considerable stress, at least the second refit by another company was a decent job. I was fortunate as I was not living in the house at the time, and so I could fight these people. I also had the funds to fight them.

I pity anyone with limited funds, living in the house, having to go through this experience. What I do not understand is how they could have had 47 glowing reviews on CheckATrade. The good side of this story is that it encouraged me to do work in my house myself, and I discovered that I could do jobs such as hanging a door to a high standard.