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For some reason I only read the first paragraph of your reply earlier.
Wise words. Thank you. One of the difficulties is actually getting people to quote for remedials - everyone seems super busy. I've had one quote but it didn't include for the repairs by the doors, even though I scheduled out the repair locations with typical photos and estimated areas/ numbers of locations. I chased up for clarification but nothing yet. However late this afternoon another contact let me know that he does expert witness stuff for this kind of thing (there's another phrase he used, which escapes me just now) so I'll be back in touch with him tomorrow to see if I can get him to survey and write some recommendations/appraisal.
Cupcakes-
When we had a different but similar issue, we showed the tradesperson the standard/finish we expected from other similar jobs and let them decide to either a) spend the time to fix the issues to meet that standard but if they couldn't, told them we'd still not be paying the full amount for sub-standard work or b) refund a reasonable amount to enable us to pay someone else to do the fixing.
No option is comfortable, or perhaps fair in the tradespersons eyes. I'm acutely aware it's tough being a tradesperson and i'd like to think very few of them set out to take the piss (although your's sounds like he has). Needless to say, for us, the tradesperson was happier to walk-away without the final installment.
if you've paid up already I'd imagine it'd make life way harder.
I found other tradespeople were happy to send pictures of their work as an example of a 'good' job.
GoatandTricycle
terlg
He won't make it much better than it is. This is almost certainly a case of him trying to make a big job as small as possible and hoping to get lucky with the result / your expectations. One thing is for sure: that's the best he's capable of doing. If he was capable of better, he would have done it already and warned you of the extent of the job before hand.
You might do well by getting another contractor in to look at it and see what he quotes / details to fix it. Then I'd revisit with the first guy and tell him what you've learned. Sometimes second opinions are powerful weapons.
I would definitely not let him perform further work. before you know it you'll have ruined the door trim and baseboards.