Econoloft Ltd

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Excellent company, very satisfied my loft conversion, it was done very professionally in November 2008 still as new

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I had a far from satisfactory experience with Econoloft (or Eco-NO-loft as I now call them) After spending £3000 with them as a deposit, all I got for that were basic architectural drawings, some paperwork for a planning application, and a one hour site survey. I have no new loft because I fired them before the work even started, and nine months were completely wasted. I have supplied a detailed account below. I understand however that most can't be bothered to read long reviews, so here is a brief summary for those people: I found them incompetent administratively, unreliable, unprofessional, untrustworthy and I did not feel in the least bit valued as a client. It became clear as time went on that there is just something 'dodgy' about them. Make sure you do your due diligence thoroughly if you are thinking of using them. Now for the detail: I was referred by a friend who went with them because they were the cheapest. He had a builder called Edbin do the work, who he said did a good job. So I made it clear to Eco-NO-loft that I wanted Edbin to do the job. Econoloft do not have their own builders. They tout your job to a tradesman for a negotiated price. They do not volunteer this information and I only found out much later in the process. The basic architectural drawings were incorrect 3 times and caused a month of delayed time whilst they were sent back and forth. Once I signed off the drawings (which still were not 100% accurate but I was fed up with telling them by now) I expected the planning application to be made. After 6 or 7 weeks of checking the public planning portal on the council website, there was still no sign of my project, so I called the council to find out why. They told me that they had received the application from Econoloft but they had sent the wrong certificate with the application. The council had made Econoloft aware of this and had requested the correct paperwork straight away. The requests went unanswered for 6 weeks. Econoloft denied any responsibility. Eventually the planning was approved and a start date for the work was agreed, and I was told Edbin was on board to do the job. After this, contact from the company became very poor. As the start date approached there was no final contract/specification as promised. My requests for information were being ignored or fobbed off. I started to smell a rat and called Edbin myself. He told me he had been offered the job by Econoloft but had turned it down because he was not happy with the money he was being offered. It was also him that told me Econoloft do not have their own team of tradesmen. I was also promised by the sales rep, Paul Tibbert that he would speak to our neighbours on our behalf regarding the party wall agreement as our relationship with them was not great. He never did speak to them or return any of my calls or messages about it. When I told Econoloft I had spoken to Edbin and found out he turned the job down and why, I was again fobbed off by the company directors with some crap about the job being 'too problematic' for him. It was a simple dormer conversion, and a much smaller job than the one he did for my friend. I was promised details of another team that could do the job and contact details of previous customers so I could check them out. I never received any such details despite waiting two weeks. So I fired them off the job once and for all because my patience had finally run out. I asked the directors for a £1000 refund of my £3000 deposit, as any reasonable person should not expect to pay that much for what I actually received, but my request was flatly refused. I now have a reputable company lined up from Checkatrade to do the work. I'm having to wait until October for the work to start but that's ok. Incidentally, Econoloft are no longer members of Checkatrade which I find quite telling.

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Did not bother to reply to my emails or get me a quote as promised. Do not recommend at all!

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The loft conversion work started positively in December 2022. The PM explained the whole process to me and the timelines with detailed instructions and videos. The scaffoling was erected and the builders started work promptly. By mid Feb the work was 90% complete and thats when the problems started. The project manager assigned was incompetent in handling the dependencies in completing the rest of the work and it took 3 months to put the staircase, plumbing, electric works etc. The builders accidently damaging the first floor ceiling. The damage caused was due to negligence by the builders as assessed by the Econolofts plasters. But econoloft failed to take responbility at the beginning. After escalating they agreed to pay for the painting of the ceiling in case I leave a positive review (As mentioned to me by Pete). However when the painter and plastered came home they informed me that econoloft had not agreed to pay so far. So I agreed to pay them for the time being to get the work done. Till date I have not received any update on payment. The glass ballustrate in the second floor staircase has not been fixed so far even after several attempts. I have not received a building inspection certificate. And every time I have to chase Pete to get this done. I cannot believe that anyone in econoloft believes this is normal or acceptable behaviour. While I can ingore the delays and project management issues, rest of the experience left a sour taste.

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It's nearly a year since completion and we are still really happy with our loft conversion. It's made such a difference to our house and family. It stayed very warm up there during the winter and cool through the summer heat. Absolutely no complaints from our experience. They gave us good down to earth advice with our initial plans, the price was competitive, all the trades were professional and very helpful and the project was finished on budget and pretty much on time! Our builder was particularly great - friendly, professional and worked very hard to get things finished to a high standard.