Dangerous and shoddy work
Dangerous and shoddy work.
Summary: an external rollerblind weighing in total around 30kg was attached to the outside of our house on the 2nd floor using MDF, wood screws and mastic. The main box containing the rollerblind, and weighing approx. 20kg, was being held up by just one screw and some mastic, the other screw having rusted and snapped. The guide rails were attached to the wall over MDF board which had (predictably) absorbed water and swelled, and snapped some of the rusting screws. This installation was dangerous. The whole lot would have come down in the next strong wind.
Five years ago we had Able Shutters install an external rollerblind over a 2nd floor bedroom window. This year it stopped working and we had them return to fix it. They charged us £250 saying one of the scaffolders must have damaged it. Three weeks later it failed again. This time they showed zero interest in fixing it, saying once again that it wasn't their fault, the scaffolders must have damaged it when taking the scaffolding down. They would only come to service the rollerblind if we erected scaffolding again at the cost of £1k. Hence we made the decision to remove the rollerblinds and have internal ones fitted as we didn't want to be spending £1k every time it broke down. At that point we discovered what a shoddy and dangerous job Able Shutters had done installing it in the first place.
Bottom line: they are cowboys who don't care about doing a good job. Our builders were of the opinion that it was just a question of time before the whole thing came crashing down, endangering everyone below.