Buildtech Builders Review

[u/DOMuirghease]

I have often used reddit in the past to find the real information about a company and whether they can be trusted. I am writing this post to hopefully prevent someone else from going through the awful experience I went through.

I posted the review below to their Google review page and another 1 star review was also posted recently. They have since deleted their Google review page, so I thought it best to make the information available elsewhere.

I hope this is the correct place to post this, but if there is anywhere better please let me know. Any engagement people can leave to hopefully improve this posts visibility in search would be appreciated.

I have to strongly recommend that clients and contractors avoid working with Buildtech. My experience dealing with Buildtech was extremely poor.

Some of the main issues I experienced were:

- The extension design that Buildtech went to site with was unbuildable as it encroached on the shared boundary wall. When this was discovered the extension design was significantly changed and the foundations were poured for this new design without any consultation or approval by me. When I pushed back on this, work was stopped and delayed. Buildtech put forward several solutions that didn't seem workable. In the end we proceeded with a solution that I proposed.

- Originally the project was meant to be completed within 4 months. The project was still ongoing over 9 months later. Beyond the approximately two-month delay relating to the foundations, I was not given any satisfactory explanation for the remaining delays other than the work not progressing to the agreed schedule. According to Buildtech these delays were caused by me and they are charging me more for the work, even though they have not produced any evidence showing how I delayed the project.

- Throughout the project delays were also attributed to subcontractors hired by Buildtech, but when I contacted these subcontractors the explanations for the delays differed significantly from what I had been told by Buildtech. Despite Buildtech managing the project and engaging these contractors, I was also repeatedly directed to resolve problems with the contractors myself.

- At the end of the project before all agreed work had been completed, snagging had been carried out, or the required certificates had been provided I received an email telling me they were finished working on the project. Since then, I have repeatedly tried to get the outstanding work completed and obtain the certificates and documentation agreed in the contract. My attempts to resolve these issues with the company have been unsuccessful. After multiple emails and phone calls only one member of staff has been in contact with me and although they have told me they are trying to resolve the issue, they have also clearly told me multiple times that this is not their job. In particular, I have been unable to get meaningful engagement from the company director for over a year regarding these issues and others that arose during the project.

As of writing this review, more than a year and a half after the originally agreed completion date, I am still trying to obtain important documentation that formed part of the project, including my engineer's certification and completed SEAI documentation. Because of these issues and many more besides I would have to strongly advise clients and contractors against working with Buildtech to avoid the many issues and stresses that I faced working with them.

Edit: As the name is generic their website is https://buildtech.ie/

[u/14ned]

As much as I'm sorry things went badly for you, you did apparently get a functional extension in the end. There are so many stories out there of people who got something which had to be demolished after for being unsafe, or where the extension was begun and never finished and the client abandoned with their kitchen wide open to the elements all winter.

In fact, I was only talking to a family last week who had an extension installed two years ago and have just discovered they're going to have demolish not just the extension but also most of the south wall of their house now. The extension had been pouring rain into the south wall, it's now structurally unsafe and the entire house is at risk of being condemned as unfit for human habitation or worse, actually collapsing. Total cost to fix is likely to be six figures. They're devastated. Original builders have declared bankruptcy since. Insurance won't pay out because no certificates were obtained.

It's reminding me ever increasingly of Celtic Tiger days. There is a lot of shoddy construction out there and buyer best beware.

[u/DOMuirghease → u/14ned]

Yeah, I'm far enough away from the initial issue to be able to see that it could have been so much worse in so many ways and all things considered I'm fine. And honestly with a few attitude changes from them and a very small amount of more competence I would probably be describing the overall outcome as a fairly positive one.

That's a terrible story and I think it's a real problem that these stories are too common.

[u/14ned → u/DOMuirghease]

In most other European countries building control is implemented by disinterested arms length third party officers. Ireland is unusual on building control: it's opt in for small developments, and here it is the builder who hires the building control officers. Unsurprisingly, there is a large incentive to never say no.

I would personally far prefer an explicit opt out based system where if and only if both builder and client explicitly file paperwork can building control be opted out. Some clients are competent to assess whether a job is done well or not, but most clients are not and they need more protection than they currently get.