A County Durham foster family is appealing for help to complete their new bathroom after claiming it was left dry by the contractor who started work almost six months ago .
Ellena Coleman, of Stanley, expected Washington-based Eco Home Improvements to resolve outstanding issues in her bathroom after company manager Darren Keall promised to speak to her when Chroniclelive contacted him in July. At the time, Mr Keall said: “Although things did not go as smoothly as we would have liked, I think we bent over backwards to accommodate Mr and Mrs Coleman. I will talk to them this week to discuss the latest issues and wish them well.”
However, two months later, Mrs Coleman, 43, is still awaiting news from the bathroom company, which Mrs Coleman and her husband, Mark, have hired to dismantle their bathroom and install a new one, to from March. The couple, who have four children, initially decided to go with Eco Home Improvements because the idea of a stress-free renovation by a company from start to finish appealed to Mr Coleman, who has terminal cancer .
Read more: The Newcastle couple’s dream kitchen turns into a ‘nightmare’ after being left without an oven for months
Eco Home Improvements apologized to the family in July, with Mr Keall saying the working hours were unacceptable but the job had hit an unprecedented number of hitches and ended up with his business out of pocket .
But according to Coleman, there are outstanding issues that still need to be resolved, including:
- The two sides of the shower enclosure are different sizes and the shower is not sealed;
- The shower tray needs an anti-slip application after the wrong one has been installed and a large scratch on the tray requires a specialist repair;
- The wallcovering is not installed to the satisfaction of Mr. and Mrs. Coleman;
- The bathroom door frame needs to be finished. Ms Coleman claims a pointed piece is missing and she doesn’t think a trim will cover it, so more trim may be needed;
- A mirror must be connected to electricity and a second mirror must be hung;
- The shower part of the bath faucets must be fixed to the wall;
- The light is not in the middle of the ceiling and needs to be moved.
“We were without a sink for weeks until I begged them to put in a temporary one, so the kids would have somewhere to wash their hands,” she said. “It was all just a nightmare and I wish we had never continued the work. We have had problems with other construction companies in the past, but it seems that we have not did not learn the lesson.
“Mark has friends who are traders who could have done the work for us, but we thought it would probably take longer – how wrong we were. Given the circumstances, Mark just wanted to make sure everything was in order as quickly as possible for me and the children.There was also a guarantee which was important for my husband because he might not be here in the future.
Ms Coleman says she has now given up asking Eco Home Improvements to help her family and is struggling to find another company or contractor to complete the necessary work. In July, Mr Keall said: ‘I can’t stress enough the sympathy we all have for the family’s situation, so we’ve gone a lot further than we normally would have. We’re setting up 4 to 5 bathrooms a week and yes like every business has issues and hiccups but this seems to be the one that has gone on and on and cost us thousands of pounds I agree the customer has points valid and I agree that this job took much longer than is reasonable, it was not helped by the customer not wanting the original installers to come back and some later installers refusing to backtracking, which further delayed him.
“Although things did not go as smoothly as we would have liked, I think we bent over backwards to accommodate Mr and Mrs Coleman. I will speak to them this week to discuss the latest issues and wish them well. chance.”
Ms Coleman said: ‘I can’t believe getting a bathroom has gone so wrong. It’s been a nightmare from the start and we’re desperate to end it now.’
Eco Home Improvements has been contacted for comment, but has not responded.
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