Chin man * wrote:Awaiting kronik review
Review is as follows:
My kitchen was a reno, not a build from scratch so i needed:
Good and fast
Therefore i had to eliminate cheap.
Bought some pre-fab units from roopnarine as the plan was to have the entire kitchen demolished
Re-wired
New cabinets/sink/countertops installed within a 10day period.
I could not get a reliable cupboard man to do the work within the time frame as i couldnt be without a kitchen for an extended period, hence the reason for the pre-fab.
Another reason was that the house i'm in right now is 30-40 years old and the walls werent as square as needed for a build-in install. The prefabs have spaces behind to accommodate for bent walls etc. Finally, i couldnt handle taking a set of time off to be around for various workmen to come in and work a bit and disappear etc.
So i took my measurements to roopnarine for a draft plan of the cabinets and for the countertops.
I went with their advice since this was my first build and all of this was new to me.
The manager there took the measurements and came up with a 14 cabinet plan.
So i paid down, on the cabinets and got them in 5 weeks.
During which time i had demolition, plumbing and electricals done since the entire layout was different.
They were delivered to my house along with the granite for the countertops. The package deal included free installation on the cabinets only. So the installer by the name of John and his crew came a week after and only upon the assembly and installation we realized we were 3 cabinets short and some of the bases they sent were not fitting according to the plan.
So they left the kitchen 60% complete.
Also, assembly and a install were mediocre at best.
They used steel hammers to put the dovetail drawers together and left hammer marks on most of them. And cracked 1 drawer. They rushed most of the work and when they realised they couldnt finish it that day...they packed up and left.
The sink base needed to be modified as the tankless heater was bouncing about 1" into the upper brace and the clean-out for the waste line was touching the bottom.
Mr. John too a jigsaw and "cut out" the shape of the piece of the heater that was touching. A pre-schooler could have cut that cleaner and smoother.
He cut the base too and the line up was completely off from where the clean-out was touching. They left that as is.
When they were leaving they took a bunch of my softclose hardware and I heard him tell a worker "keep them we go bring it when we coming to finish the work" so i didnt really make it an issue then
I had a meeting with the manager there a few days after about the mess up they made with the order and the install. They refused to take back a blind corner cabinet which they recommended as i needed it to put my gas tank near the stove.
Also the doors on the blind corner cabinet were too small to allow the gas tank to fit inside.
All the while the owner was there, passed me straight a few times and kept sending messages from behind the glass in his office. Most of the messages were that he not taking back any cabinets because I made a mistake with the measurements.
But i didnt, i took very careful measurements and did a CAD design of the entire kitchen in inches to include the sink and fridge which were purchased in advance and included wall and doorway measurements.
I ordered a microwave cabinet but never got it. When i inquired about it they said the design of the cabinet i chose didnt have a mircowave cabinet.
But shouldnt they have told me that before taking the order?
Needing the kitchen finished as urgent as possible i ordered the 3 missing cabinets and waited another 5 weeks.
I opted to collect them myself as it was just 3 units which could fit in the van and i was in the area that day.
I called the installer immediatley upon receiving the cabinets to make my appointment.
He said he was busy and couldnt come the same week.
I called him the following week he said next week.
I called him the weekend to confirm and he said monday he would send 3 workers to finish it. I took a day off and waited. I tried his phone all day, sent a few messages and texts but he didnt respond. I tried all week and didnt get thru. He called friday morning to say he coming now and that i have to pay him 250 per unit to install each cabinet as it was seperate job. I told him i already off to work i wont be there, He said next week we will re- schedule. I called management and told them what happened and they said dont pay him. They will stand the cost. He avoided my called for about a next week and i went to roopnarine to ask them whats up with the installer. I called him while i was there, he didnt anwer, They called him and he answered and said he will call me in 1 hr. 3 days passed and he never called. I got fed up and assembled the units myself and i repaired all the damages myself.
After i finished assembling the 3 units (1 per night when i had time).
I called roopnarine and told them i dont want that installer to come work by me and either send someone else or i'll get someone to do it.
He called from roopnarine the next day and put me on speakerphone and tried to twist the whole situation around that i was the one who set him up with the install.
I told him i dont need his services and i would get someone else to do it and he is very unprofessional and the carrying on like a lil boy by ducking my calls and to drop back all my softclose harware by roopnarine, i will pass for it. He say they never take anything. But all they left were 4 pieces which i installed and adjusted myself thr same day.
Over the same weekend i took my time and installed all the cabinets ( all came with soft close hardware) and pinned them to the wall with tapcon screws and i got a link with a tuner here (chin man*) who does granite installation.
He came and checked the work and came 3 days after and had all the countertops cut and installed in 1 day.
If everyone could do business like that, this country would be such a better place.
Pic of completed kitchen:
Countertop and joins
The cabinets themselves are good quality.
The faces come fully assembled with the doors attached so messing up alignmment is not possible.
All the assembly harware comes in the box and all the holes are either marked or predrilled.
The faces and doors were birch and the rest was a really high quality plywood which appears to be CNC milled and cut.
They all have matching sides and backing so gaps against the wall ate not seen from inside the cabinet.
Hope this helps any one looking to go or not go this route
