Demax Designs Reviews 17

Just found out that the directer is now running Uk Creative castings and ukstairs from Ashill, if you google Barry Rowe in Ashill and staircases it comes up. Granary Fields, Ashill. They stole £10,000 plus off of us when requiring materials.

Surprised companies/people can still get away with pure theft in today’s world. Ros is the most awful person to do business with And pleaded that we trust her when all along she knew they were folding and setting up again with her bank balance intact but suppliers and customers in the red. Hopefully one day these people are investigated. Seen so much bad press and people that have been conned by this group of people. So sad!!!

Poor in Every Respect — see Photos
Design, Manufacture, Delivery and Installation were all poor.
The stairs arrived with dozens of deep scratches, which Demax refused to rectify.
Engineering tolerances were so poor that none of the glass panels fitted properly, so various botches were required to make them sort-of fit.
Fitters didn’t have the right tools to do the job.
And the “unscratchable” glass is anything but.
To see photos, just search on “DismalDemax” (all one word).
Be Warned — and do not go near this unprofessional, unscrupulous and dishonest company.

We have recently had a staircase designed and fitted by this company. Their professionalism from start to finish can not be faulted. We were kept up to date every step of the way from the initial design to the final fitting. our house now has a wow factor when you walk through the front door, so much so that our neighbors are now looking to use Demax themselves.

Worked with Demax on a new build property which the client specified demax for the floating staircase and glass balustrade. I know they had there financial issues and the change of company but with the new management in place they produced a fantastic job and the staircase looked brilliant. Also the after sale care in which they went above and beyond to get the parts needed to cover the NHBC conditions was most professional.
Would definitely use again.

From the start we found Demax a pleasure to work with.
They were kind enough to show us round their Showroom and Workshop so we could understand the whole process.
The price was more than competitive and the staff were all very knowledgeable to answer all our technical queries.
The ‘Site Team’ were friendly and all very polite whilst the installation took place.
We are more than happy with the work and would highly recommend them to anyone.

Our sad story is the same as the other bad ones. It is all true. Do not believe Demax. In retrospect it is obvious the deposits were taken with no intent to provide a staircase. The last ’deposit’ danded and paid just weeks before the company when under... same story as others, calls persuading us to pay.. and then threatening don’t pay second deposit and we won’t start making your staircase ‘its all in the terms and conditions’. We had £17,000 stolen from us by Demax and were thoroughly conned due to me giving them the benefit if the doubt. They apparently ‘went under‘ BUT still have the same con artists running the place??? How does that work??

If you require a totally bespoke staircase to your own or your architect's design, then Demax is certainly worth looking at. Demax has recently been restructured and is now under new ownership. I have worked with both the old Demax and the new Demax on different projects. Despite issues encountered due to the restructuring, and some increased cost for me, Demax is still in my view the most competitively priced provider of bespoke staircases in the UK. The standard of workmanship is excellent. Everything is handmade in Norfolk either at their workshop or on site. Their joinery team in particular have excellent attention to detail and as such are happy to spend extra time to ensure the finish is perfect.

When looking into replacing my awful staircase in my cottage I had no idea about stairs and where to even start! Demax are local to me and came recommended by a friend. Their Sales manager was incredibly helpful in guiding me through the design process to placing the order.
They quickly undertook a survey and got some designs out to me, showing me what I would be receiving which put me at ease.
The installation team were prompt, clean, tidy and polite throughout the entire install, and the Team manager kept constant communication from point of order to its completion, and even called a month or so afterwards to make sure I was completely happy. The stairs are fantastic value for money and of superb quality. I would highly recommend to anyone looking for a beautiful staircase.

Great new staircase now finished and looking fantastic.
We had a delay in the middle of the project when Demax was restructured but Ros and the team pulled out all the stops to complete the project and we are really pleased with the outcome.

DO NOT GET INVOLVED WITH THIS COMPANY UNLESS YOU WANT TO LOSE LOTS OF MONEY

We too had the same experience as the other two customers losing over £15k. We ordered a staircase in early 2019 and were asked to pay a 30% deposit. Two weeks later, we were asked us to pay another 30% in order for manufacturing to start. We did question this at the time but were told this was in accordance with the terms and conditions and we didn’t want any hold ups with our project. We should have thought it strange that the so-called Managing Director was pestering us for payment. We now know from detailed research she must have known our project was unlikely to be delivered and our money would be at extreme risk. Obviously, we cannot ever prove this.

Less than 2 months later we received a phone call to say the company was going into liquidation and were told the same as the other customers in their reviews. We too were contacted by the new company who had supposedly bought the assets and were picking up the existing projects, this happened to be the original salesman who had provided the quote under Demax. Initially, it was stated that we would only pay a ‘small’ additional payment for the project to be completed. It transpired that we would have to pay the full price again to get our staircase. Given our extremely low confidence in this unprofessional company we decided to cut our losses and seek another stair supplier. This was not an easy decision but the correct one.

After much research on companies house it appears that a new company Capital 12 Limited trading as Demax was set up on 23 April 2019. We urge anyone even contemplating using any of the following companies: Demax, Demax Staircases, Demax Solutions, D Staircases, Capital 12 Limited, Capital Manufacturing Limited, to thoroughly research the sordid trail on Companies House and find a much better supplier. Feel free to commission them if you want to lose lots of money.

We strongly feel we were stolen from, when our money was taken at the beginning of March the company must have known it was in difficulty as by the 23 April a new company had been set up.

Unfortunately we had the same experience as the customer below. We ordered a staircase (Jan 2019) at a cost of £22k for a barn we were converting as our new family home.

We were asked to pay 90% up front in three bank transfers. We were not comfortable about doing this but we were assured by the Managing Director that our money was safe and unless we paid they would not fit the first stage of the stair carcass.

The stair carcass was fitted in March 2019. Then when were ready for the next stage of fitting we could not get in touch with anyone from Demax. Eventually we spoke to an ex employee who told us the company had gone into liquidation. I did speak to the Director who was confrontational and made me feel as if I was the person in the wrong not the customer. We were told there was nothing we could do and our money was lost. We were told a ‘new company’ would be taking on the work of Demax and they would be in touch. The new company did get in touch but wanted a further £15k to complete the job! We do not have funds to do this.

DO NOT get involved with this company or any connected companies (Capital Manufacturing Ltd) . Do Research on companies house, you can see all the connected Directors of these companies and registered addresses. I should have done this first!

I think we were lulled into a trap. We were given a competitive price but we think the company knew it was in financial difficulty but took the job on and made a start in order to get the cash up front.

We have been totally robbed. We now have to move into our new home with an unfinished staircase as we have no funds left to rectify this. We will be unable to obtain building regulations sign off until the staircase is complete which has financial implications for us in terms of VAT and CIL. It has been a total nightmare.

Contracted them to design and install the staircase as part of our complete house renovation. Design work was good but required up front payments up to 90% before completion. Unfortunately they went into company voluntary administration but never told us so we continued to make the payments in good faith scheduling the final completion in April 2019. However, they then went into liquidation before the job was complete so we were left with a half finished staircase having paid 90% of the money.

The Managing Director of Demax contacted us to say they were in liquidation and we would be contacted by the company that had taken over the assets of Demax to see about completing the installation. She said there was nothing further she could do and we would have to deal with the new company.

When the "new" company (Capital Metalcraft) finally did contact us, it was one of the same people from Demax and still using a Demax email address. The "new" company re-quoted me about 75% of the original contract value again for completing the works!

After some further investigation it turns out it is the same people involved in running the "new" company as Demax that went into liquidation. It seems they've used the liquidation route to avoid paying HMRC, suppliers etc and leaves private customers like me out of pocket.

I wrote to the "new" company again requesting that they complete the works for the remaining 10% of the original contract value. Basically they are the same company and people and should do the right thing. This was ignored.

DO NOT TRUST THIS ORGANISATION, they want the money up front and because you cant pay by credit card you have no protection if they go belly up again which is highly likely given its the same people running the company.

Don't get caught out like we did, look elsewhere and make sure you check out the status of the company on the companies house website first!

Design side great. Delivery and communication thereafter a dogs dinner. Our stairs look great but this was a long and painful process. Inefficient and poorly managed. Frustrating. Still waiting for some bits to complete - chased and have been told its now a new company and it wont honour any previous customer commitments. Proceed with caution.

Product is good .Management is poor. Communication abyssmal . Our biggest concern was that they went under before completing the job. Promised the world (OK they lied ) .We were expecting four days to measure and fit . It took ten visits . Job that was supposed to be done by October finished in January. Painting was told would be done in the workshop was done on site.

while product was good process was abysmal.
demax were recommended by our architect.
initial site visit and plans ok but they assume in communications and diagrams that you have good technical knowledge. we relied on our architect to interpret.
carcass fitting; initially went very badly; trades had "wrong van" and so couldn't fit stairs. involved a lot of very bad language and a wasted day.
second visit- carcass fitted: but doesn't reach floor. two inch gap at bottom. Demax blame builders: say that final floor level isn't as specifed.
Builders and architect disagree. much emailing and a three way meeting. demax solutions - extra half step, distributing difference across three steps not acceptable.
turns out that carcass isn't fitted properly, is twisted and not fitted correctly at top. this is redone and suddenly they fit. lots of wasted time and anxiety for nothing.
fitting wood; it's only about ten steps but takes five days. wrong parts, parts not templated right, glass possibly flawed, no filler, wrong filler. staff leave, new staff start. during this our new wooden floor gets damaged - heat damage from compressor and dropped tools.

the finished stairs look good but the process was a farce.

one thing they are very good at was invoicing. we suggested that the last invoice should be reduced in light of the poor service but they insisted on full payment.

further research indicates that the company entered a CVA this year in part to pay off large debts to HMRC. on reflection we are just happy that we got the stairs finished and that the company didn't go in to liquidation leaving us as unsecured creditors with a half fitted staircase.

would not use on another project and suspect our architect won't be suggesting them again,

Our finished cantilever staircase is lovely..... however, it's been a painful process getting there (hence 3 stars). Problems with production/handling/installation (design side great). General lack of communication, failed to turn up/deliver items, stair stringer had to be moved, glass not ordered. Once emailed immediately before due onsite and cancelled (no phone call). 90% of the payment (3 x 30%) required prior to installation of the carcass, all payable by BACS, so no comfort of credit card protection with a Company we were unfamiliar with (no reviews on here) but we wanted to use local trades.