S&S Builders. Beware the builder who repeatedly claims how honest he is!

Well I have finally decided to write a note on my experience with this company as I prefer not to do this unless is there is no other way and the company concerned has had more than enough time to make right.

Schalk Burger, the owner of Take Note Trading 267cc trading as S&S Builders, of 35 Berrydel Avenue, Somerset West, presents himself as an old-school ethical and trustworthy building contractor who only does quality upmarket projects. In reality, be wary of the man who continually highlights how ethical and honest he is…I think its more a case of him trying to convince himself of these qualities!

My experience has been that he is arrogant, stubborn and skilful at denying responsibility for work he is clearly responsible for. As master contractor, Schalk used a sub contractor called National Crete to lay a 212 sqm concrete floor in our house. Long story short, he totally neglected to manage the installation with numerous problems developing and the floor had to be redone by a 2nd company. After numerous requests and eventually threats, Schalk brought Stucco onsite to evaluate, quote and redo the floors. He understood that he would be liable for the costs as I was very clear on this from day 1. He initially agreed, but backed out after the work had been done. His reason…National Crete is responsible for the floor problem not S&S Builders. Speak to National Crete and they claim S&S Builders is responsible. To get progress on solving the problem, I had to contract Stucco directly and then claim the money back from S&S Builders. Naive you might think…but the floor had to be redone. It was not liveable the way it was. Even after getting lawyers involved to get Schalk to honour his commitment, the finger pointing and industry expertise at not taking responsibility for bad workmanship makes finding a resolution impossible. A 212 sqm cement floor has so far cost me R1,206/m2 and it is still not finished as Stucco have taken 7 months fo far to finish the job.

Anyone considering S&S Builders should be cautious. They are very expensive, don't like to quote against other contractors, stubborn and have such an inflated view of themselves they think they can’t do anything wrong. If anything does go wrong, its the sub contractors fault and not his own.