written by karinbrawn on 21/07/2011
This company is back in business. The name has been bought by Everest and is now able to trade with impunity. We went through the most painful time of our lives trying to recoup the enormous investment we made in a product which, in the state it was put up in, was almost worthless. If you do chose to invest in this product you need to be aware of a few things we discovered to our cost:
The product is not a hardwood product (whatever the salesman tells you.)We eventually managed to get our building painted with two coats of external paint about two years after our project ; this was not being done for all customers even though the conservatory arrived on site coated only with a base coat.
There is no requirement for the design to incorporate any measures to combat damp or water ingress if the conservatory is smaller than a certain size. We had to have our windows sealed with mastic to try to prevent the terrible problems caused by water getting through the gaps in the glazing. We retrospectively had a damp proof system put in thanks to the vigilance of our Buildings Inspector (as our building was an extension and so required these.) If you do not need Buildings Regulations approval, you have no way of enforcing this.
We discovered that our building had been attached by only four screws and had not incorporated the steel work which had clearly been included in the original design. We employed a structural engineer who eventually found out from Amdega's design engineers that the building's rigidity is afforded by the glazing and based on tests carried out over 10 years ago. This in his opinion was far from desirable and so we put in extra support to make it safe. We also managed to get hold of the invoices of the glass which was used on our building; it was a standard stock product.
We could also itemise all the problems we encountered which turned a three month building project into a two year hell. Hopefully Everest will sort out the payment of suppliers and ensure that their customer service does not reduce customers to tears by threats of legal action even though a build has not been completed, by sub-contractors leaving projects half finished and by lies which ended us up in the County Court to get restitution (Amdega paid two days before we were due in court!)
At least our build is finished and we now have a funtioning, non-leaking building. The fact that our 15 year warrantee (granted to us by Endless LLP in recognition for all that we endured) is now worthless is galling but we have heard of customers who have nothing to show for the enormous investment they made.
As a past customer I would advise; do not believe the hype, find out as much as you can about what can happen over time to a basic wooden structure and if you do choose to pay the enormous premium that Amdega charge, be prepared to be disappointed.
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