Alan Barnes Plumbing & Heating Ltd

excellent for service and price - i would highly recommend this business

In May of this year, my wife and I decided to refurbish our bathroom, i.e. replace the bath with a walk-in shower, and replace the cistern, toilet, handbasin and pedestal unit with new pottery. We trawled the internet and found a suitable shower enclosure from Roman Showers. Windsor Bathrooms in Bradford were suppliers of this product, so we went along to one of their local showrooms, ordered our new pottery and the shower enclosure. The Windsor Salesman recommended a fitter, a Mr Alan Barnes. We contacted Mr Barnes who gave us a quote of £1,400 for the refurbishing which we accepted. After completion of the work, we decided that we had to renew the carpet tiles in our bathroom, this was due to the state Mr Barnes left the carpet tiles in. I must state, at this time, that Mr Barnes is the messiest, unkempt and dirtiest tradesman I have ever experienced in over 30 years in the building trade. I had asked Mr Barnes before he started the work if I needed to take up the carpet tiles, he told me no, he would cover them and no damage would occur. The carpet tiles were ordered and the fitter eventually came to fit them. It was then found that Mr Barnes had placed the new pottery over and on top of the old carpet tiles. The carpet fitter had to remove these. When the floor was complete, there was found to be a gap of over quarter of an inch between the bottom of the handbasin and the top of the pedestal that was supposed to support this. Had Mr Barnes taken up a row of carpet tiles, fitted the new pottery and then replaced the carpet tiles, there would have been no problem. I spoke to Mr Barnes on the telephone, told him of the problem and asked if he could refit the pottery to make it safe. Mr Barnes said yes he could, but I would have to pay for this work. I told him I had already paid him £1,400 and that the fault was his substandard work, placing pottery on top of carpet tiles and I was not prepared to pay anymore. Mr Barnes said it was the carpet fitter that was at fault and he should pay. I gave him the opportunity to correct this fault at no more cost to myself. He refused. I obtained quotes to have the pottery refitted to a safe standard, the wall repainted where the pottery was and an extra meter of carpet tiles to be refitted. This work came to £400. I was prepared to take Mr Barnes to County Court over this matter, but found that the legal expenses would be far in excess of what I was claiming from Mr Barnes. Mr Barnes got off scot free for his substandard work. During his work, Mr Barnes kept telling me he was a “perfectionist”. In my humble opinion, Mr Barnes is neither a perfectionist nor a professional. BEWARE. Should you be considering for Mr Barnes to be added to your shortlist for bathroom fitters for new work or refurbishment, THINK TWICE