Painting and emptying planters

Hi

i have been requested by AEA to empty the planters as part of the painting works or else they will dispose of all the plants.  This is a lot of work and I see some recently painted apartments have kept their plants.  Are AEA just trying it on or do I really have to empty everything.  

Thanks in advance 

steve

ps copy of email below.  Is this a standard email?

DUQUESA VILLAGE – PAINTING AND WATERPROOFING

Good morning,

We would like to advise you they are going to start the works on Block 14. Please note they have to waterproof your planter due it causing damp problems. The workers will not take responsibility of keeping the plants, therefore if you wish to keep them, please remove them from the planters so that they can start the works.

Also if you wish to keep the earth as if not they will go ahead, in any case they will put it back into the planter.

If you do not wish to keep the plants, please let me know so that they can go ahead.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Sara Collado

Grupo AEA ADMINISTRACION SL 

I never emptied the planters on our terrace and the painters just painted around the plants.  Maybe there is a particular problem with yours (they mention damp problems) which requires the planters to be waterproofed?  We didn't receive an email from AEA - only the general notice that was put out.

We did have to empty one of our planters and were asked if we wanted to keep the soil and plants.  We decided not to keep the soil as although we had added lots of compost, there was a lot of clay in it and this caused the wall to be damp and the paint was flaking.  All the soil was removed for us and disposed of and the planter was sealed and painted and the drainage spout extended.  We have since put the plants into troughs and then filled the planter with small stones instead of soil.  The other planter didn't need to be emptied and the guys made a really good job of painting around the plants.  Hope this helps.

We weren't asked to empty ours or advised of when work was starting and the painters just painted with the plants in situ.  Next door to us emptied theirs though and said they were asked to so it could be tanked.  Maybe they asked those where there were signs of damp to they walls.  I'm not sure.  I know next door had all of their plants in buckets on the terrace for a couple of weeks though because the painters were back and forth and not very specific about when they were painting the terraces.  We cleared our terrace of furniture etc last may when we were out as they had been on terrace to prepare it but they still hadnt been back on to paint it over a week later when we left.  It was all done when we got back in August but they were still doing the stair wells and halls at that point.

Thank you all for your responses.  Yes it seems that they survey and only ask you to clear the planters that need to be so as they can sort out specific damp issues.  

Steve