Slow builders..how do you speed them up?

[James_B]

Work started on our house in early Feb. this year. Our target completion date for the work was Easter. We have an English architect based in France and are using French artisans. The builder is frustratingly slow but his work is good and he is widely used in the area. Maybe he has too much work. We reckon he has about two weeks work to do if he organised his men to get on with it but based on his track record so far we'll be lucky if he'll be finished by Christmas. The other trades are queuing up behind him as they can't complete until he does. Despite this and the accute earache I have given our arcitect, nothing seems to get him to step up a gear.

Any advice on how to get things moving would be greatly appreciated!

[Val_2]

Quite normal for France. Remember that artisans usually have three or four sites on the go at once, as recommended by the government so that social charges are always covered in the event of a hold up on one site and no money coming in. I am afraid that english people are well known here for being impatient and unless you want him to walk off the job, I suggest you don't upset him too much and remember that you can wait for upto four months for specially ordered joinery to arrive and the month's shutdown for August only makes it longer too as well as the 35 hour week now. Bad customers are real grapevine talk here in the building game.

[Neilc]

>Work started on our house in
>early Feb. this year. Our
>target completion date for the
>work was Easter. We have
>an English architect based in
>France and are using French
>artisans. The builder is frustratingly
>slow but his work is
>good and he is widely
>used in the area. Maybe
>he has too much work.
>We reckon he has about
>two weeks work to do
>if he organised his men
>to get on with it
>but based on his track
>record so far we'll be
>lucky if he'll be finished
>by Christmas. The other trades
>are queuing up behind him
>as they can't complete until
>he does. Despite this and
>the accute earache I have
>given our arcitect, nothing seems
>to get him to step
>up a gear.
>
>Any advice on how to get
>things moving would be greatly
>appreciated!


Sorry to hear about this James but as someone has posted below this seems to be the norm with french builders. Customer comes first is not very high on the agenda. I used to always pay building companies artisans etc exactly in line with the amount of time they were in delay i.e. finish when you say you would, then get paid when you ask. Finish three months late get paid three months late etc.

As an aside I got a phone call once from an electrician about two years after he'd given me a devis saying the materials were now in and could he start on monday. Could he $%^&.