“In short avoid at all costs. Products only guaranteed for 12 months - the reason - they fail ! Missed deliveries, faulty specifications, limited customer support when roof collapses.
We paid £15,470 in 2017 for our 12m x 4m garden studio. £1,200 was for delivery charges. What went wrong?
1. The design specifications had incorrect dimensions for a very large window on different pages of the design spec
2. The promised delivery date was missed - I lost my builders I had booked to do the construction.
3. On the delivery day only the floor was delivered - no walls or roof - again lost my new builders
4. On the next delivery day only the walls delivered - had to wait weeks again for the roof - lost my roofers
5. Finally the last deliveries - but one panel missing and a beam (glulam) wrong length.
6. Finally complete we added a rubber roof (guaranteed for 25 years) The SIPs are only guaranteed for 1 year.
7. We had planned to add a natural green roof but this was delayed by other house projects - as it turns out this was very lucky.
8. After about a year and a half I went onto the roof and noticed that the panels had sunk, screw heads that had been flush were now raised.
9. I contacted Les Crossley the owner of Super SIPS and sent images. He said I should screw down the screws and patch the roof. He also said it was impossible the panels had collapsed.
10. I bought the necessary equipment / roof repair kit but hesitated to undertake the work on the screws as adding 30 holes into the rubber roof did not seem to be a solution for all issues.
11. Six months later I checked the roof and no change. As a precaution we decided to cover the roof with a waterproof DPM membrane and an artificial grass (with drainage holes) - this was to protect the roof from any future water or sun damage. The grass weighs 1.420 kg/m2 (12x4=48m2). No further panel collapse has taken place since adding the artificial grass.
12. We contacted Les again and he offered another solution - cover the roof in new OSB and then a brand new rubber roof. Super SIPs would pay 50% of material costs. I agreed as this sounded like the best solution. Les said he would come back with a quote. That was the last we heard from Les. I chased but no answer.
13. Weeks later we were contacted by Steve Meacham at SuperSIPs saying an engineer was checking the original design.
14. A month later after hearing nothing I wrote again to complain about the level of service. Steve did come back with a lengthy email with apology and reasons for delay. But then went on to say that our green roof may have caused the problem - the green roof never installed. Also the artificial roof was installed after the problems with the roof were reported. No further panel collapse has taken place since.
15. Five months after the first contact we get an invoice for the remedial work - they wanted me to pay 50% of their quote - all the products I could get cheaper at my local DIY store plus they added a £350+VAT delivery charge and no inclusion of the rubber roof replacement. I asked them to get the quote right and include the rubber roof. That was 3 weeks ago.
Trust me - avoid - products fail, missed deliveries, and after-sales support a joke.”
