Kitchen Recommendations

Furts

You have named the insurance company, and if you name the contractor folks on this forum might be able to shed a tiddly bit more light on what may be going on.

One contractor I am aware of is mediocre/variable/dreadful, and all the more so if you end up with the insurance repairs under the control of one (nameless) Contracts Manager. That company has some excellent employees and some good sub contractors, so it is not all bad. The problem is the management of all these well meaning trades, and what goes on behind the scenes.

eripmav

Furts wrote: »

You have named the insurance company, and if you name the contractor folks on this forum might be able to shed a tiddly bit more light on what may be going on.

One contractor I am aware of is mediocre/variable/dreadful, and all the more so if you end up with the insurance repairs under the control of one (nameless) Contracts Manager. That company has some excellent employees and some good sub contractors, so it is not all bad. The problem is the management of all these well meaning trades, and what goes on behind the scenes.

I’ve not named the insurance. Oriel are the third party that acts as intermediaries between insurance and builders:)

The actual guys the builders DID send out were amazing. Punctual and very thorough. It was their manager that were on and off. We’d be told by insurance work would start the following week, I’d call and be told then that the managers wanted to visit again. Rinse and repeat this four or five times, it was beyond a joke.

FreeBear

eripmav wrote: »

We have a chimney breast in the kitchen, which was hiding quite a large damp spot for years - totally unbeknownst to us. Once the units were torn out, it became clear that the area, even after drying out with huge dehumidifiers, would keep returning to its damp state.

Presumably, this chimney breast is blocked off after the fireplace became redundant.
Has it been capped at the top of the chimney stack and has a vent been fitted where the old fire was ?

eripmav

Yep it’s capped. I got the builder I know to punch a hole through part of the bricked up area and it was jammed full of crap. I’m assuming it was dumped behind it prior to being sealed.

FreeBear

You may well find that if the cavity is cleaned out and a small vent inserted, the damp will be greatly reduced.

A fireplace in the kitchen suggests that this might be an older property ?
If so, and you have solid brick walls, it will be beneficial to use lime plaster rather than modern gypsum - Lime plaster will allow the moisture to wick away faster as well as being resistant to mold. Always an advantage in a kitchen as long as the walls aren't painted over with a modern paint or fully tiled.

Furts

An emulsion paint is breathable if you use obliterating/new plaster type paint. This allows moisture to dry out so could be used behind kitchen base units. Could be used above, too, but it will mark and not be as durable as common emulsions like matt and vinyl silk.

Matters are puzzling because the chimney should have been investigated in conjunction with the insurers. It is understandable the insurers not wanting to get involved here, but this is the interface with the claimant. Unfortunately the real world means the claimant has to take control, and take the initiative. In these negotiations the claimant can bounce matters back to the insurers- but accept there is a cost to be borne for whatever investigations have to occur.

Four months with no progress to reinstate the rooms is crazy, so all parties to this should be asking serious questions here.

eripmav

FreeBear - yeah, very old. Something like 1880 or so - but the kitchen, from my understanding, is an addition and was built in something like the 40s. We did have the hole knocked in and a lot of crap pulled out, literally like three or four rubble sacks, but I imagine there's probably even more in there. There are two vents, that I can see, on the outside of the kitchen - but I suppose where there's so much crap in there built up (I was told by next door that the guy we purchased the house from had the chimney capped etc just before he sold it to us. So how long it was open for, Lord knows) over the years. I have a guy I know coming out this week - he said about potentially battoning the walls and then plasterboarding over the top. Is this not something viable, once the damp's been taken care of?

@Furts - when I do use that style of paint? Right now we're literally down to bare brickwork and have no ceiling. I'm a absolute DIY idiot and just have no clue about these sorts of things.

For the first two months, it was three weeks of drying, then a week when the builders were meant to start - they then only came out once the insurance started chasing them (I was never given a contact number for the builders themselves) again. THey then came out, took damp readings and said that it'd actually gone back up again. I mean, it's bloody obvious it'd go up again, because of the removal of the DPC and it'd rained heavily a few times in that time frame.

Drying company back out, another few weeks. Repeat above.

Then I warn the insurance I'm going to be up and down - in and out of the country for a few days, I'm told that's ok - work will start next week. I phone home and I'm told by the missus that nothing's started. She then spends the next week chasing and is told that work isn't going to start, because the builders can't guarantee their work...what?

So fast forward a week or so to last Friday, I settled with the insurance for the money. I've just had enough and want this sorted out and my wife happy.

Steve51

We ordered a kitchen from Wren which was delivered in August. During installation, the fitters noticed that one of the worktops was faulty. I reported it to Wren who demanded a photo of the damage, which I sent them. They promised a replacement a week later which was not delivered as promised but arrived later and only after I had chased them. I raised this with Wren customer service, whose initial response was that “you shouldn't have organised your fitters until you checked every item” - there were 67 items in total, and we would not have been physically able to do this in a small garage. They then took the position that “it's in our terms and conditions which you signed up to”. They don't seem to care about meeting customer expectations, only about avoiding any liability.


Wren have a history of bad customer service – back in 2015, BBC Watchdog launched an investigation into Wren Kitchens for poor service and incorrect orders. Later that year, a Which? survey of consumers placed Wren Kitchens second to last in terms of customer satisfaction. Another review website has also listed multiple examples of poor customer service, as recently as June 2017.

eripmav

@Steve51 - funnily enough, they're a company my wife was considering. I know now to avoid.

seashore22

I agree with a couple of the posts on here.

Avoid Wren kitchens at all costs. I knew they were bad, but sadly my daughter employed them to do her utility room. It was very stressful and Wren were terrible to deal with.

We are doing our own kitchen next year and will be using DIY kitchens. We've been to their showroom twice and are very happy with the product and the choice. I haven't looked at up to date reviews, but they've always been good in the past.