Plasterer won't source materials

Not quite a saga yet but getting there.

Plasterer quoted me for a cornice repair on his own judgement that he could re-use the fallen cornice. I gave the go ahead and added that I'd be happy for him to replace the cornice with a plain one if the original one turned out to be unusable.

Now he's expecting me to supply him with a new cornice before he'll start! He hasn't even tried the fallen cornice yet. And it's not like I'm demanding a pattern match, I've said that I'd be happy with whatever he can manage to find. Isn't he supposed to be the one with the suppliers and contacts in the industry? I can't imagine a carpenter asking me to get his wood for him.

I thought the point of me engaging a plasterer and not a handyman was so that he could take care of the entire problem for me. Is that unreasonable?

PS - there's also some additional plastering jobs in the quote, a decent day of work at least so it's not like it's not worth his time.
 
sounds like he doesnt want to do the work so is being difficult. Try finding someone else?

Have you given him a deposit or anything?
 
The stuff is like $10 a length at bunnings. Tell him if he needs it the nearest bunnings is just down the road and to add it to the bill. Sheesh!

Admittedly the fact that it is so cheap and his time is going to be severely wasted doing that is probably why he expects YOU to supply it. How much do you need? If it is a short amount, just nab some out of a rubbish skip on a building site or something.
 
I think the cornice is the old fashioned plaster and not whatever they use in new houses these days. So it's not just a matter of going to Bunnings, but surely a plasterer would have addressed these problems many times and know where to find something with a similar cross-section.

Haven't given a deposit yet but it's taken three months to get to this point, it'll be annoying to have to start all over again with someone else.
 
ah - so you're not actually replacing it with "plain", readily available cornice if the patch fails.

i can see his point. you want to replace with a plain 'old style' cornice.

it can be a real pain in the proverbial to find a supplier of old style cornice, the cornice is heavy and fragile and they usually don't deliver. there are also many different styles available so i can understand the plasterer not wanting to pick, in case you are not happy with his choice.

have a look on the internet under 'decorative cornice', see if you can find a maker close-ish to you. they usually have their styles and sizes on the internet as well.
 
It is possible to repair old cornice. My cousin did it for my room (it was pretty old and had lots of details which the misses stepped on when renovating :rolleyes:) but as others have mentioned its a long process. Took my cousin about 4-5 visits to get it to how it should be, thats without the sanding and painting.

Your guy probably just wants to avoid all that.
 
You guys were right - the plasterer has now done a runner! Luckily without money or labour changing hands, just a whole lot of wasted time.

Normally I get quite hands on with repairs but in this case I just wanted to throw money at someone to solve the problem for me - didn't think that was going to be so difficult!

I'll see what suppliers I can find, thanks lizzie.
 
turns out he was a lousy plasterer after all - the second quy I got in successfully repaired the original cornice, did all the jobs perfectly over 3-4 visits, AND cost almost half the price! Can PM names if anyone needs one in Adelaide. Cheers.
 
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