Case No. HT-11-503

. 108.Although, as I have noted, Mr Woodall did not have any criticism to make of Mr Thomas’ calculations, and did not suggest that the 100 days was unreasonable, Mr Thomas was cross-examined about some of the matters which he had been obliged to assume for the purposes of his valuation. This is despite the fact that, in his closing submissions, Mr Plewman largely accepts Mr Thomas’ approach to this large head of claim, in preference to the pleaded claim based on the invoices.109.I deal briefly with the remaining carpentry items where a dispute remained. Mr Thomas excluded the re-hanging of the doors and door linings. This was because the evidence established that the doors and door linings had been removed following the first inundation. The evidence that any of the doors and door linings were re-hung after the first inundation and before the second was impossibly vague and unspecific. Moreover, such re-hanging would have made no sense given that, by the time of the second inundation, Brit Inns was still 6 or 7 weeks away from reopening. Accordingly, I find that Mr Thomas was right to exclude those matters from his valuation. 110.There was a suggestion that Mr Thomas should have allowed for work done upstairs as a result of damage to the oak doors on the ground floor which were used for access. There was, of course, no invoice or specific item of claim which related to such work. In my judgment, if the oak doors were damaged, it was because they were not properly protected during the reinstatement fit-out works carried out by or on behalf of Brit Inns. Therefore, without any specific evidence to the contrary, this was not an item which could be at the defendants’ account. 111.Finally, it is important to note that Mr Thomas’ valuation included for the work involved in screening the vertical Delta Drain. It excluded the partitions because a separate contractor, Tim Sweetman, carried out the ceiling work, and not the carpenters. His work has been allowed elsewhere. Mr Thomas did not regard Mr Sweetman’s figure as unreasonable for reinstalling the ceilings in the basement.112.Accordingly, subject to the increase in the rate to £175 per day, I find (as Mr Plewman ultimately accepted) that Mr Thomas’ valuation is the most accurate way of arriving at the reasonable cost of the carpentry in the reinstatement fit-out. It gives an adjusted figure of £17,500. In my judgment, that compares reasonably to the figure of £25,000 for both basement and ground floor in the original fit-out works. I therefore allow £17,500 against the carpentry claim.113.For completeness, I should say that, in my view, the claimed figure of £72,911.37 was always wholly unreasonable and irrecoverable. The invoices were wholly unreliable. The work allegedly done was unclear. It had not been shown that £72,911.37 had actually been paid. There was no explanation for how and why the sum claimed was three times the cost of the original works. The item should never have been advanced in this form and in this amount.