Distinctive Home improvements ltd

Distinctive home improvements Ltd was great done everything I asked and more can't recommend enough thanks guys

Great company used several times over the years

We’re efficient in answering call. Quick working. Had to call them back as a section of guttering not secured. However this was rectified. Felt the whole thing was a bit rushed and expensive. More...

Great company great workmanship great price what more do you need
Definitely recommend these guys

Excellent work, fast, little waiting, very reasonable price, Tom was very friendly and polite. Recommended.

Great company
Provided a free written quotation
Did what they said and more to mark sure I was happy
Reasonable price and great workers
Will definitely use them again

Great guys would definitely recommend

Great company absolutely 5 star complete transformation to my property

Some of the slate tiles on our roof had been blown off so we asked for a quote from several roofers to fix the problem, and we went with the highest quote thinking this would ensure the work would be done correctly, unfortunately our logic was proven flawed by the work that Distinctive Home Improvements carried out.

When we posted the job on Bark, Distinctive Home Improvements responded quickly, and came out promptly to speak with us, we explained the problem and they listened to what we said, and they were confident about what work was needed. Tom said he would put a quote together and send it to us by email, which he did. So within one day of posting Tom and Allen had been out, looked at the job, priced it up and then sent us a quote, which we considered impressive.

The following is the quote they sent us:

install scaffolding at the property

Remove all the existing slates and battens front rear and extension

Apply wood worm & rot treatment to the roof rafters to maintain and preserve

Supply and install new two in one Vented eave and drip trays to ensure the roof is ventilated correctly

Supply and install new geothermal membrane and 50mm battens to meet British standards and regulations

Reinstall existing Welsh slates removed from the roof replacing and damaged/defective slates

Rebed/reset existing ridges removed in a mortar mix

Sand/rub down all the woodwork faicas to the property
Apply long life barn paint in white to preserve

All waste removed from site

Total cost £11,700,00 all inclusive

We accepted the quote and they started the following week, which we were also pleased about.

However, as the work went on, I started to have concerns that they were cutting corners.

While I did ask for as many tiles to be preserved as possible, they seemed reluctant to spend too much money on replacing the slate tiles that needed to be replaced, and even at one point asked me for another £5000 to replace all the tiles on the back of the house, which I said I would only cover half the cost of given it was in the contract for them to pay for replacement tiles for those that were damaged or defective, to which they said don't worry about it they will cover the cost themselves.

In the end some of the slate tiles they reused were cracked or a large chunk of slate was missing from the tile to the extent that doubling up the tiles was not going to be very effective with such a large amount of tile missing. Some were flaking meaning they were no longer waterproof and others lacked the ringing sound when tapped meaning they should have been replaced as they were no longer waterproof either.

I felt as if more corners were being cut as the work progressed so I started to prompt them in regards to one of the issues I could see, which was big gaps between the tiles they were reattaching to the roof. They said they would sort the issue by putting some small cuts of tiles within the gaps as that is how big the gaps were. I prompted them a few more times and they did try to address the issue on the front of the house, but failed to do anything in regards to the gaps at the back of the house.

When they said the job was complete, I took a quick look around and from the outset the work looked ok so I said I was happy with what they had done.

However, over the course of the next few days several issues became apparent:

1. Some of the slate tiles have gaps of 1cm or more, and the biggest gap we measured was over 1 inch in size. We mentioned the gaps while the work was being done in regards to the front of the house, and some of the gaps were covered with small cuts of slate. But there are still more gaps.

2. Some of the tiles that were cut were not cut straight because a slate tile cutter was not used.

3. The breathable membrane that was put down is about 20cm too short from the eaves, it doesn't even get to the facia boards never mind the gutter.

4. The breathable membrane was fitted top down, so the water doesn't run down the membrane like it should, it runs through the gap between the where the membranes overlap into the roof.

5. The wood was not sanded down well enough before painting, there is a lot of loose paint that was just painted over.

6. The painting that was done was incomplete, there are patches where no paint was applied, and there is wood that has not been painted at all. Reasonable skill was not used in applying the paint either as there are paint splashes everywhere.

7. The work is incomplete as far as what was mentioned in the quote, as other than changing the ridge tiles on the extension, which we asked for after the work started, the following work was not complete in regards to the extension:
"Remove all the existing slates and battens front rear and extension"

The following work has not been carried out either:
"Supply and install new two in one Vented eave and drip trays to ensure the roof is ventilated correctly"
"Apply wood worm & rot treatment to the roof rafters to maintain and preserve "

8. The guttering they removed to paint the wood was put back on backwards, so it wasn't even screwed to the fascia.

9. It has since rained and there are now water marks on the internal walls.

10. Not even the scaffolding was right as we had a letter from the council saying we would be fined if the scaffolding wasn't made compliant, because there were no contact details on display, no lights, and the pole ends should have been capped.

11. They were in such a rush to leave they left things behind such as a waistcoat and extension reel.

Tom's response when I questioned him about this was seemingly that he knew about these issues.

Tom did offer to put the work right but in my experience if someone doesn't do the job right the first time, they are unlikely to get it right on the second and subsequent attempts.

As a result I said to Tom I didn't want the guys to come back out and do anymore work, so he offered to reduce the amount we'd have to pay from £11,700 to £7,200.

I don't think we should have to pay anything given we now have to pay another roofer to redo the job in entirety as it is worse now than it was before they touched the roof.

We have houses up north as we are landlords, and know that there are sometimes issues that need to be addressed when getting roofing work done, but never before have we seen so many issues with one job, so we won't be using Distinctive Home Improvements again. They have also lost out on other work they knew we had lined up for them, such as a new bathroom we wanted fitting and some masonry work to the front of our house, as well as an upstairs extension.

I've give two stars as opposed to one because they took most of the rubbish away, were very polite and friendly, turned up when they said they would and got on with the work promptly. Even when it was bad weather they still did what they could to get on with the job. More...

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Reply from Distinctive Home improvements ltd

The scaffolding was put in place by an independent company based in Ipswich not ourselfs So is no fault of our own and we no longer use there services At various stages of the work we approached matt And said the slates were no longer usable And said we really need new slates his reply was if we split the cost go ahead As you said you was changing the defective ones anyway The odd defective slates 100 odd reclaimed slates Is a lot of difference to 1200 new slates So I declined and no if your happy to ise the old slates will go ahead This is a 300 year chapel the was a lot of existing paint on the faicas so a lot of layers to sand and get level when we approached yet again he said looks great After the work was completed He says the faicas look horrible I said not a problem we will return use heat to strip back the existing layers then apply the paint as far as paint splashes they was there before hand He even asked us to do more work on his porch replacing ridges which we did free of charge Happily We worked there nearly two weeks and every day matt said he was more than happy with our work Truth of the story no one work for matt at the chaple in dennington in Woodbridge Suffolk As he did not have the funds to pay us before we carried out the work as he also said He was selling his propertys in north as he was in a lot of debt Me and my colleague work hard and continusaly threw the week and easter bank holiday We are honest and hardworking company as you can see we have never had any bad reviews and always aim to leave our customers 100% satisfied

Great job guys will be hearing from me again in the future for more work

Great team well recommended roofers

Great guys roof has been finished to a very high standards looks great highly recommended

Well what can I say
Tom and Allan was absolutely remarkable always made sure I was happy with everything they done as there was nothing to be faulted truly great roofers thank you Tom and Allan so much I really appreciate all the work on the roof you did for me

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Reply from Distinctive Home improvements ltd

Thank you mrs wingfeild was our pleasure to meet tou and carry out your works thanks again for your hospitality

Very prompt reply to my enquiry. Quoted on the same day as they came out to view the job and work concluded the following day. Very positive response from start to finish. Job well done, will definitely keep this Company's number in my contacts for future use! More...

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Reply from Distinctive Home improvements ltd

Hi Megan pleasure to work for you and glad to hear your happy

Highly recommend great team of workers our roof now looks amazing thanks so much

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Reply from Distinctive Home improvements ltd

Your welcome it was our pleasure

Brilliant job on our drive great company wouldn’t hesitate to you then again

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Reply from Distinctive Home improvements ltd

Our pleasure glad your happy woth the end result

Well where to start just honestly great form start to finish
Done our loft conversion with new dormers
Absolutely outstanding company would totally recommend to any one as this company is all you can ask for really
thanks again Andy

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Reply from Distinctive Home improvements ltd

Hi andy Glad your happy bit of a tricky challenge glad your happy with the end result great working for you and see you in the new year to carrie out some more work for you Regards team at distinctive home improvements

Great landscaping company 5 star reasonable prices

Great roofers good knowledge and know what there doing definitely would recommend reasonable priced

Distinctive home improvements done some paving and fencing really where great very good at the job

Excellent service great workmanship BEST LANDSCAPING company

Very good and reasonable price