Smallbone Kitchen Disaster

[smallearth]

We have recently had a Smallbone Kitchen fitted in our flat and it has been a nightmare. The design is great but due to poor fitting and painting they had to remake and refit all the doors and mirrors, sink and plinths and repaint the whole kitchen. It took 4 months instead of 4 weeks and still isn't perfect, we just couldn't stand any more. Luckily we weren't living there, it would not have been possible to.

If you are thinking of having a Smallbone kitchen or you know of anyone who is - my advice is don't!

I have plenty more photos if anyone would like to see.

Wow. That's a surprisingly poor finish. You must be so disappointed.

It looks so dreadful that I can't help thinking that you haven't had a pukka Smallbone. It is hard to tell from just 3 photos that could be of anything, frankly.

We had a Stonehams (possibly a bit cheaper, but still ££) fitted a long while ago and the kitchen designer was a regular visitor to the house when it was fitted..and then back to check after it was installed. It also had a big fat insurance policy covering it against defects (and I checked out the insurers as we needed to tweak a few details).

Fingers crossed that you can get the kitchen you hoped for.

Definitely a genuine Smallbone Maccassar. Below is the letter detailing the repairs they needed to do after we complained. We ended up with three handovers and they didn't finish until the 28th Nov. Just want to warn others not to have the same experience.
Thank you for your time on site yesterday to discuss the issues with your Smallbone kitchen. Please accept my sincere apologies once again for the inconvenience and disappointment this has caused you. However I am now in a position to propose the following plan of action for your approval in order to address and rectify all issues as swiftly as possible.

I have arranged for cleaners to attend site tomorrow. Our carpenter will attend on Friday 3rd October and Monday 6th October to fully adjust and align all kitchen furniture and to attend to any remedial works. Following this he will then go through the process of removing the doors from situ to be returned to our workshop here at Devizes. The glass will be removed from the doors in our workshop and we will also fit new handles, as required. The doors will then be returned to site and refitted prior to the full repaint of the kitchen furniture. It is very important that we use the existing doors as these have been manufactured specifically for your kitchen and their respective cabinets. To fully remake the doors would be a considerably longer process and cause further inconvenience to you and this is something I am very aware of and do not want to do. (they did have to remake all the doors they were so bad and they did cause us massive inconvenience!)

I have detailed all other issues we will be addressing to enable us to complete the kitchen installation as follows:

• Kitchen and bathroom to be cleaned

• All Plinth for kitchen to be replaced

• All hinges to be replaced

• All Mirror Strips to be replaced

• All shelves to be replaced

• All handles to be replaced

• Carousel to be adjusted

• All drawer boxes to be attended to by polisher

• Walls to be painted to kitchen zone only

• Wine cooler scratches to be removed

• Dummy drawers to caulked and filled and be painted in with furniture

• Face inner faces to chimney and outer faces with new cladding to give clean finish and substrate for clients tiling

• All back screw to be fitted to magnets

• Floor to be repaired

• Fully shoot in entire kitchen with full alignment

• Fit cover caps to wall units

• Change wall fixings for tall cabinets

• Shelf ferrules to cabinets be replaced where applicable

• Wine rack to be attended to

• Wall hanger cover caps to be fitted

• Underside of worktop to be caulked in prior to painting

• Paint on side of drawers to be removed

• Glass splash back to be replaced

• Underside of worktop to be resolved

• Furniture to be fully repainted.

Our painter Penny will attend site during the week commencing 13th October to rub back the entire kitchen in advance of fully repainting. She will be very happy to discuss paint colours with you and will provide samples as required so that you are best placed to choose a colour. It will take Penny approximately 10 days to fully paint your kitchen, so I anticipate that everything will be completed on 24th October. Either Richard or myself will be present when the kitchen is completed to ensure that you are completely satisfied with the works. (We are not completely satisfied with the works but cannot stand them taking over the flat any longer, surely 4 months is enough time to put a kitchen in a flat?)

That finish is awful.

How much did it cost? (nosy)

Bloody hell, I hope this kitchen was cheap, absolutely abysmal fitting and service!

Bloody hell. I think we'll stick with a cheapo B&Q job when we get ours done.

No such thing as a cheap Smallbone but dare not admit how much. The design is really good and they have repaired most of it now but what a nightmare. I asked them for a full refund as it had been such a complete disaster, they offered a 40% discount on any other kitchens or bedrooms we ordered from them. As if we would ever buy anything from them ever again!!
Think B&Q is better option definitely.

That's very disappointing. I'd expect a hefty discount for your troubles. Not good service AT ALL.

I fitted my own B&Q kitchen 8 years ago and it cost 1800 quids , it runs rings round that
I had to replace the floating floor as well out of that figure. No leaks and still looks ok

Fools and their money comes to mind

Will update once I have everything sorted but just wanted to add to this thread, we are currently having an absolute nightmare with Smallbone too. It became apparent a week before they were due to start fitting our kitchen that they were running a month behind schedule. It has thrown our whole build into disarray. They didn't tell me until the last possible minute when they had known full well they wouldn't be able to fulfil our order weeks ago. I think I can already say I wouldn't recommend them though.

Smallearth and Crusoe16 - whats the update with your kitchens? Did everything get resolved at he end? Smallbone are currently installing a kitchen at our house too and I might just about lose it too!

Bit nasty roneik. No need.

Ha ha just saw the dates. Doh!

Small bones and Mark Wilkinsons are owned by Canburg. We have had a similar experience with our kitchen from Mark Wilkinson, They tried for 18 months to correct all the faults with the kitchen and then gave up and decided they had to rip out the whole thing and start again. Leo Caplan in a three way conversation ( i recorded it) bawled out his managers and then decided to walk away from the whole mess. The head carpenter came out and said the kitchen was so bad there was nothing he could do. Every single unit is bowed, the carousel has never worked, the doors dropped with in weeks, the fridge/freezer doors keep rusting, the microwave was fitted in to a gap too small for it so the door keeps bumping on the unit and damaged the microwave door. The larder unit doors are bowed and don't open and close. The runner the doors are on fell off with in weeks. The draw banged on a pipe moved by their plumber, which meant they had to reduce the size of the draw, the breakfast bar was too low so they propped it up on to two bits of wooden top of the draw units below it, instead of providing the right size draw units. The centre support for the bar was supported by 5mm conti board and so fell off. We paid for a solid wood kitchen as described by Leo Caplan in his phone conversation, we have more compressed wood and overlay then solid wood.

Do not buy a kitchen from this company it is a disaster. We are now suing Canburg, anyone one that would like to join our claim please contact me.

@Fuzzy123 did you sue? What happened. We were supposed to be having our kitchen altered- new worktops and some units but have just been told that Canburg is going into administration and that means Smallbone too? They have 100% of our money!

Four years after our Canburg (Small bone, Mark Wilkinson) kitchen was supposed to be finished ( no it is still not finished) we are still trying to get them in to court. They keep delaying it. I have had no less then 12 kitchen companies in to cost the removal and replacement for this kitchen for the exact kitchen I paid for (i.e.. solid wood and not conti board) and the costs are as you would expect ugly, but all in the same ball park (for nosy, over £100, 000 we saved and scraped for 10 years to buy this kitchen)I literally cry every time I have to walk into it. They also damaged the floor when they installed the dishwasher and the repair of the floor came apart after two days, they left a hole in the external wall where they moved a pipe and we have had to pay to have the microwave fixed because of the damage caused by the unit. The fridge freezer has not been fixed (four years and counting) they have and continue to make our lives miserable. We managed to find some one to do an independent report on the kitchen and he described it as the worst kitchen fitting he has seen, it is definitely NOT solid wood as described by Leo Caplan himself (recorded conversation). That should give any one thinking about buying one of these things pause for thought and the insurance that they told us guarantees the kitchen is not worth the paper its written on (it is better recycled as toilet paper).
I have now instructed the solicitors to go to court and get this settled finally, so my family can move on with our lives.
I will let you know how this goes in January.

Probably not many more people will be buying Smallbone / Mark Wilkinson kitchens - they have gone into administration this week

Canburg saved from administration.

Sapphire 700 Limited has purchased the business and its assets

www.kandbnews.co.uk/news/canburg-saved-from-administration/

Omg over £100k for a kitchen and it's faulty. I don't know what to say.
Will you still.be able to.claim or will you get shafted by the buy out? A bit like the house of Fraser debacle whereby they got the asserts but didn't accept liability for anything else.

Sorry to hear this.

@sbplanet thanks for that info, we thought that 22k was down the drain.
However fuzzy123 im so sorry to hear about your experience. This has me worried about them doing work in our kitchen now. We have just installed beautiful flooring and it makes me nervous about them fitting it.

We have electric underfloor heating under our kitchen floor tiles so we have to rip up the flooring and the underfloor heating and start again. As well as replacing the entire kitchen.
I suspect Saphire have bought the business with out its debts, which means we probably will not see a penny unless we can claim on their business insurance retrospectively.

I will have speak to our solicitors who I warned a year and then two months ago about something like this happening. I had heard stories about Leo Caplan not being too well and thought this was something he would do.

I have to say I am shocked my solicitors have not said any thing to me about the administration, which they should have known about.

thank you all for all the information it has been really useful. There is clearly not enough protection for ordinary people against builders and contractors. They on the other hand seem very well protected. Note the kitchen companies like Canburg take 100% of the money before they start.

Anya,

If you can get something from them in writing to say they will replace the flooring in its entirety should they damage it before they start work, that would be the way to go. Also note there is a clause in the contract for the kitchen that says that they are not responsible for any costs over and above the cost for the kitchen. Which means if you have to remove the entire kitchen and replace it, that cost and the additional cost of electrics, gas and plumbing removal and reinstatement and the associated repair as well as the additional cost of any like for like replacement is down to you and currently if they only damaged one tile and the tile is not available you have to pay for the replacement tiles and fitting for the rest of the kitchen, bar the one tile they broke (I truly hope every thing goes smoothly for you, I really could not bare any one else going through this, I am registered disabled and this kitchen was supposed to make my life easier, instead it has made me really, really unwell). Oh and record any conversations you have with them, they seem to have a policy of deny, deny, deny.
I wish you all the best.

That is unfortunate. I have had 2 kitchens designed and built by Smallbone and I have to say they are a work of art and I would highly recommend their craftsmanship. They are one of the best kitchen designers in the world. BTW I live in the USA.

The website looks quite vulgar and tacky, much better off with a german kitchen from someone like bulthaup.