PlusRooms

[motorbird83]

Hi all, 

 

we are planning an extension and were wondering if anyone has any experience with PlusRooms.  They seem to be all over East Dulwich so curious they’ve never been discussed in the forum!

 

Any thoughts or experience (even gossip) welcome! 

[Ergo_mark]

We used Plusrooms for our wrap around extension. We are very pleased with the extension. But we wouldn’t use them again. Our Project Manager was a chocolate tea pot and quickly lost our trust. Plusrooms use contractors to do the work so you don’t actually know what builder you will get - just luck of the draw.
 

Essentially you pay for Plusrooms and they just get others to do the work. We knew this, and were happy to do this - paying for a PM essentially. However when your PM is useless, what are you paying for?? All the issues are for you to resolve - and you end up managing all contractors and the PM.
 

Not much went right for us - from the simple architectural drawings, to putting in windows, poorly secured building, to how long it took, builders regularly not turning up. 
 

We agreed at the beginning to having work done on Saturdays thinking it would speed up the build. What this actually meant was our project was deprioritised during the week as some builders work on other projects.
 

You have to use the contractors they state - electrician, plumber, glass company etc. and they are not part of the ‘plusrooms’ costs. They provide ‘estimates, but they are wildly wrong. We ended up paying 7k for bifold doors. When we questioned the cost (as they admitted you can get the same doors for 2k) they said it’s because of the ‘service’ they provide AND I had signed a contract agreeing to use the suppliers that they have selected so have to pay whatever they charge. We were taken aback by just the size of their ‘cut’, and the lack of flexibility. 
 

And when I pointed out things that we had agreed in writing and had paid for that were not done we had weeks of delay and internal conflict.

They have a ‘finishing team’ they use with appalling reviews (decorators).  They offered an additional PM at an extra 20% for this work so that the standard would be good - why would you offer a finishing team that would not do a good job.

 

We were very pleased with the final result. But super expensive, super stressful. Years on, the pain fades as we love what we have - but it’s really as a result of the kitchen and the internal finishes we put in afterwards. The build (a box at the end of the house) is really pretty simple. But it’s water tight so shouldn’t complain. 

 

The one thing I will say is that all the various things that have gone wrong with the build since finishing 4 years ago - they have come out and put right.

[motorbird83]

Yikes, that is a bit worrying...