Room At The Top - Knottingley

Matt C.

Jon and co started our loft conversion at the start of November, we were told this would be done in under a month. We’ve had multiple significant problems since then, and we’re now having to finish the job with new tradesmen, and the job is still dragging on months later.

The first problem was when the roof had been removed, then not sheeted off properly before a storm. The sheet came loose while we were away, water came in and the plaster in our front bedroom came through.

The staircase was measured incorrectly, and was much too large. Rather than re-order this, while we were both at work, Jon knocked down the bedroom wall without asking us, and had the staircase going from that bedroom, meaning we would essentially lose a bedroom. We’d said from the beginning if we would lose a bedroom we did not want to do the job. To knock the wall down, they took down my wife’s deceased father’s altar that was on the wall, again without asking, and this was all in a pile. My wife is a pregnant NHS children’s nurse, who has been in tears regularly with all of this, but this was one of the worst points for her. Eventually the stairs were re-ordered, but were then too short of the wall, so the wall has had to be built out.

We asked Jon to repoint the chimney breast in the loft so this could be left exposed. We came home one day and the wall had been plasterboarded over. The loft hatch then had several bags of cement on top of it to stop us going into the loft to see this. This has since been repointed by a different tradesman.

Our brand new flat roof is leaking into our bedroom in two separate areas. We've had a roofer come over, who's shown us photos of how the flat roof's been installed incorrectly, and needs to be redone. There is also exposed wood around our roof which over time would rot, with some tiles cracked or missing.

From the brickwork, there was mortar on most of the windows, windowsills, both of our gates, log store, our bin store, the driveway and a lot of the pipes at the side, which was not cleaned off at the time so had set hard, and was very difficult to remove.

The plastering was done badly, and it appears the stairwell only had one coat. The wrong beading was used for our round window so the shape was nowhere near round. We’ve had to redo a lot of the plastering.

The conversion we’ve received is very different from the architect’s drawings. Instead of two windows evenly spaced we’ve had one large window off to one side, which might not have been a major issue but again was not discussed first. We were told we could not have storage in the eaves which is on the architects drawings, which is now being done by a different joiner. There is a large cupboard where the door has been placed in an inaccessible place half way up the stairs, the new joiner is placing the door through from the bedroom which is how it was on the architects drawings so we can use this.

The bathroom window was damaged during installation so we’ve had to have this removed. The main bedroom window was leaking when it rains, so we’ve had to have this taken out and redone. The round window wasn’t even attached to the wall with any fixings – the window fitter that we’ve had round said that this was unsafe and could have fallen out onto the driveway.

Nothing was sheeted off during the work, so a lot of our wood flooring has been damaged and needs replacing.

The guttering was damaged on our flat roof, Jon said he was coming back to fix this and to fix the round window, but never came back.

Fortunately we hadn’t sent the final payment, so we’ve had some money to cover a lot of the repairs and remedial work that’s been needed, although we’re still finding more and more problems. Even with the money held back we're going to be out of pocket by at least £2000 (likely more) so are looking at options for pursuing this. Fortunately all of the above is well documented. We’re not sure when we’ll get all of this finished but will now be tight before the baby arrives, especially as we keep finding new problems. A very rough few months to say the least.

Christian C.

Avoid this company at all costs!
I have had reservations about writing a review not knowing what the consequences might be but after seeing one of the employees laughing at our expense two years on in a local pub has brought this horror show all back.
Horrible people to work with. They need to realise that their actions are having a massive effect on peoples health and well being. I didnt sleep for months worrying about the whole process.
Another sleepless night has led me to writing this.

The first alarm bell was when I was asked to check the mark up in the loft conversion to see the sizes of the rooms.
It became apparent that the bathroom proposed was 2m shorter than requested, I was told this was to allow room for the staircase and that we were getting an L shaped staircase rather than a U Shaped stair illustrated on the proposed drawings.
We requested that they stuck to the proposed drawings and layouts. Cutting corners to suit themselves.
The next thing was the general tidyness, sweeping clutter into gaps, pizza boxes and cigarettes rather than using insulation!
Lots of things had happened before I asked them to stop work on our house, it was the lack of refinement or ability to detail anything.
The staircase did not fit, the bathroom window wasn't central and placed an inch from the internal wall.
The internal sliding door didn't slide.
The walls were not vertical so none of the doors stay open. It was the worst experience I have ever been through.
To add insult to injury, once I had asked them to leave the property, whilst collecting tools etc they started to damage our property, carpets were ruined and expensive led bathroom lights waiting to be installed were smashed.
After £25k of additional costs we have had it all redone and the house is sorted. Sometimes we miss a bit of the insulation that should have been included.
The pictures speak for themselves. Do not use this company!
Finally, I fully expect a barrage of 5* reviews to follow this one, with little to no details included about the projects, from non descript fake accounts in order to bump up their google rating. This happened following a previous negative review.

Chris D.

Room at the top carried out our hip to gable loft conversion in December 2018. Can't recommend them enough.

Punctual
Polite
Efficient
Supportive

The above effectively sums up our experience. Job completed start to finish in under 3 weeks. Any changes we requested were accommodated, and Jon proposed improvements to our initial ideas that improved the finished product. Goes to show experience is a key in loft conversions.

We are thrilled with the finished product, but unlike a number of building firms the support doesn't end when the job does. Several months after completion we had an issue with the plumbing (have to stress, turned out not to do with the work room at the top carried out) Jon and team called round to resolve, no extra cost to us, they like to support their customers.

In case people are concerned about the delay in our review, the private building regs company that was supposed to sign off our work went bust and the sign off had to revert to our local council. The room at the top team have been back several times during the past year to ensure everything is signed off properly, even though the issue was nothing to do with them. A lot of companies would have cut the customer loose as 'not their problem', not this one. At cost to themselves they supported to conclusion in difficult circumstances. As a result we can't recommend them enough and would be more than happy to use Jon and the team in future.

David T.

We had Jon and his team come to build our loft conversion (including converting our hip roof to a gable roof) after receiving great reviews from friends of ours. The work was incredibly efficient; I was amazed at how precise their initial timings were and then how closely these were honoured. Really happy with the quality of their work and could recommend them highly enough.

Kim B.

I would just like to say to anyone who is thinking about using room at the top for any work/jobs doing, do it!
Jon and his team are excellent I have a loft conversion hip to gable with on suite.
They did a fabulous job at a great price and in super quick time.
Then were friendly, polite, tidy, considerate quick and nothing was too much trouble.
I really cannot recommend them enough.
Thank you all very much

David T.

Jon at Room At The Top couldn’t have looked after us any better he turned up on time and did exactly what he said he would. Our daughter now has the best room in the house complete with bathroom. The job was done as quickly as possible keeping mess to a minimum. Would definitely recommend.

charlotte B.

Our experince has been extreemly poor. Our loft conversion started sept 2017 and we have been left with ongoing water ingress and damage to our property which we are now having to employ other experts to resolve 8 months down the line. Under no circumstances would I ever use this company again, It has been one long problem after another and the issues have never been fixed the whole experince has been terrible

Marc F.

The team at Room at the top is by far the best I’ve dealt with, Polite, Punctual, Respectful, Clean and completed everything i asked for to a very high standard. I would strongly recommend Room at the top to anybody considering a loft conversation or looking for professional builders. 10 out of 10.

Thank you to the team.