Stonehousefireplaces Avis 8

I should have written this review at the time, but I think I actually felt a little intimidated.
We spent over £10k and I have never been happy with the finished (not really finished!) product.
I’ll keep it brief, but don’t use this company if you want a professional service, a well-finished product or attention to detail.
The process of fitting was terrible. Plasterer was an odd man, left an absolute mess - I spent ages having to hoover, mop and scrape clumps off our oak flooring after he left (he made absolutely no attempt to tidy or to protect the area in which he was working). I should have said something at the time, but as a lone female in the house that day, I didn’t. The finish is rubbish too, when the sun shines, the wall is rippled!
The electrician, well it would take me hours to write down all the unprofessional interactions that I had with this man. I actually felt very uncomfortable with him in my home. My husband got in touch with the shop to explain this and they said it was odd as they had never had complaints before. However, other workmen openly said there were often complaints from customers about him! He was rude, had a clever attitude, lazy in his approach and stroppy with me when I asked for him to take the skirting board off rather than knock holes in my walls! He stopped talking to me and started ignoring me! He ended up communicating with me through Mark (another workman) and didn’t even say hello or goodbye when he entered/left my home - how childish!
The stonework is rubbish. Some of the stone was broken in transit, so they cut a new piece from a new batch. It didn’t match. They tried to fob me off, but eventually came with another bit to see if it was any better. It is marginally better, but what they should have done is cut the whole thing from a new batch, so that it did match. Shoddy and cost cutting at my expense.
I found Chris and his wife extremely arrogant, liars and not people I would recommend anyone to deal with.
I should have written this review a couple of years ago when it all happened. I certainly should have done my research into the company too!

Avoid this company at all costs - seriously avoid like the plague!!
Full payment up front should have been a warning - DO NOT DO THIS.
Hearth measurements were wrong so now we need a new carpet - no recompense.
The job took 3 weeks to complete rather than 1 day and was unsatisfactory when finished.
Did not clear any rubbish away even the delivery boxes
Did not do any back check
They use sub contractors who have no skin in the game
THIS COMPANY's SERVICE IS SIMPLY ATROCIOUS

I must have gone to a different shop! Linda in store was thorough, knowledgeable and generous with her time.
The fire we chose was competitively priced and just what we wanted. The engineer/fitter was excellent, came prepared with dust sheets, took his shoes off at the door, removed the old gas fire, bricked up the flue outlet, sealed the fireplace, cleaned the hearth and fitted the fire perfectly.
After sales was as good. We had a slight problem with the delivery of one part and Andrew came out twice to sort it out.
Overall a great service - thank you Stonehouse

While the stove itself is a great product, the service from Stonehouse Fireplaces was extremely disappointing.

To start, the chimney sweep (Phil King) did an excellent job with no issues. However, the real problems began with the installation, particularly with the concrete beam. The installer handled it with unwashed hands, leaving very visible finger marks - not what you want on a beam that costs hundreds of pounds. Both the installer and Andrew at Stonehouse assured me that a damp cloth would remove them - this was absolutely not the case. In fact, it then turned out that you're not supposed to use a damp cloth on a concrete beam!

On top of that, the skirting was not properly measured in advance, causing unnecessary delays. It took an entire month to get this sorted, which is unacceptable. When their joiner, Mark, finally arrived, he was incredibly rude and aggressive. He didn’t even call ahead (apparently, he was given the wrong number), and it was clear he saw the job as an inconvenience. His work was subpar - holes from the beam installation weren’t properly filled, leaving an unfinished look.

When we flagged Mark’s attitude to Andrew at Stonehouse, his response was that Mark is often like that - which is crazy. If they know he behaves this way, why are they still sending him into customers' homes?

To make matters worse, Stonehouse requires full payment before any work begins, yet their service doesn’t reflect that level of professionalism. I would strongly recommend looking elsewhere if you value customer service and a job done properly.

UPDATE: the day after I posted this review I was contacted by Chris at Stonehouse. He refuses to admit fault and take any responsibility (despite all issues having been raised previously with them directly through email). I would also say he was very aggressive on the phone, demanding we take down the review and ended the call with a threatening “I’ll be seeing you”.

Avoid – how my £3,749 quote become £6,956!
The fireplace is good, but these are very unpleasant people to deal with. On refection, I should have brought from another company.
On visiting the showroom, we chose the fireplace and installation setup that we wanted, replicating how it was in the showroom. We were quoted £3,749, which was a lot but acceptable, and we paid a deposit of £2,200.
Then we were told that decent glass and logs would be extra, so we moved to £4,534.
Following the survey, it transpired that recessing the TV, as in the showroom, would be extra. We now moved to £6,606.
The project proceeded to first phase installation, this builds the internal metal frame and plasterboard exterior. It then remained this way for a few weeks as the plasterer was on holiday. I was however left with a large box. I assumed was just cardboard that I could put out with the recycling, but was a mix of plasterboard, wood, electrical and the fireplace packaging. Apparently, they don’t want to be a registered for waste disposal, so after some effort getting it into the car, it was trip to the tip.
Next, we had the plasterer. He then said more plaster board was need as a wall wasn’t level. Despite the survey, and the visit specifically to fit the plasterboard, this was my problem. His additional time was a further £350. So, we moved to the final price of £6,956. I made another trip to the tip.
There are other bits about further visits, that I had to prompt them to undertake, to sort out skirtings and the stone shelf that I won’t bother you with.

The absolute worst customer experience I have ever known. Belligerent staff at the Harrogate branch with no customer service skills whatsoever. Wanted full payment before the fire was fitted. The fire was fitted incorrectly with parts missing and was unsafe to use with pieces falling off as I went to switch it on. The frame around the fire was uneven and had to be redone. Engineer had to come back 5 times and fire was unusable for a month after initial fitting. Compensation was requested but refused. This is what happens when you pay for something that hasn’t been done. I would definitely not recommend this company to anyone.

We ordered a wood burner and installation. Choice, advice and installation were all of the highest quality. Would recommend.

Only fault was rubbish removal was not discussed and we had to make arrangements to remove.

Our experience with Stonehouse Fireplaces has been extremely stressful and very disappointing, especially having read all the supposedly positive reviews on various platforms.
Chris came recommended and based on this reference we paid upfront in full, which was a big mistake, especially for a project that cost nearly £14k.
The work was to include a long false wall with six alcoves, being built to hold the fire we had always dreamt of having. To justify the cost Stonehouse promised the project would only take a couple of weeks but ended up taking over 3 months.
The problems began with a very poor quality of plastering and were compounded by incorrect templating and fitting issues. We also had issues with oversized granite panels which should have sat snuggly at each side of the fireplace. They had to be replaced, but only after numerous discussions and causing damage to the plastering.
Since we were having glass back panels supplied by Stonehouse and inserted into the shelving areas it was essential that the plastering was of reasonable quality as straight edges of the glass would highlight any differences. We pointed out many times that the quality of the plastering was not good. The edges in the shelving were not straight along with numerous other issues. The response was this was normal, and any discrepancies would be resolved by our decorator with a ‘bit of decorator’s caulk’. Despite the best efforts of our decorator the shelving still looked uneven, and we returned to Stonehouse requesting the wall be plastered professionally.
Stonehouse insisted that once the shelving and glass backs were in place it would look better. It didn’t. The gaps around the glass were laughingly big and uneven, so much so that their fitter had to force them in at certain points, causing further damage.
It took weeks of arguing before Chris finally agreed to come out and see us. He came out with Oliver one of his senior employees, who immediately acknowledged the plastering was not good enough. It took Oliver several visits to create a professional finish. We then had to get our decorator to repaint the whole wall again.
To add insult to injury Chris also refused to pay his initial offer of the £200 contribution towards remedial work because in his words he had to redo the plastering afterwards (to fix their own initial bad work).
We acknowledge that Stonehouse did finally offer us an extended warranty and a years’ service for free, but this nowhere near covered what we’d been through, plus they inflated the price of this offer to make it seem more than it was.
I am unsure how Chris will respond to this review. No doubt he will deny the poor quality of work, blame it on us etc. He does like to throw up smoke screens to put you off, possibly in the hope that you just put up with things.
All we wanted from Stonehouse, despite months of issues was a small contribution to our decorator’s costs to cover work we had to repeat due to their poor quality workmanship, but even this was refused. There was no acknowledgement of the time we had to take off work to be there for all the additional work (at short notice to suit them) and certainly no apology for what they put us through, but definitely lots of denials and blatant ignoring.
We are not the sort of people who write negative reviews, but Stonehouse have treated us with such contempt and based on our experience we could not recommend them on quality or customer service. There are so many other fireplace companies out there who would value your business and treat you with respect, never mind when you are spending £14k +.
Chris, please do not insult us any more by saying something to belittle this review, the impact your company had on our lives was massive and totally unnecessary, you drove my wife to tears on numerous occasions and never showed us any respect as customers, this is your time to acknowledge your mistakes and review how you deal with customers who put their trust in Stonehouse.