Ultimate Kitchens & Bathrooms

A dream for a new kitchen has become a nightmare. We have a half finished kitchen renovation by Ultimate Kitchens. The delays for the starting date rang some alarm bells. Contract date was May 4 2023. The actual start date was August 15. After ripping out the kitchen and finally installing the cabinets (about 4 days work in 6 weeks) all work just stopped at the end of August. No communication. The director Jeff promised an updated schedule by October 7 which never arrived and since then, no communication or if you do get through, empty promises. “ I’ll get back to you in 24 hours” and there is never a return call. Not one person in the entire company has had the decency to follow up, try to help and let us know what’s going on. we are still living out of our garage 3 months later with a half finished kitchen. I now know this has happened to all their clients, and suppliers who have not been paid. Heartbreaking for all concerned.

We have endured hell with this company. We were dealing with them since Oct 2022. After months of design discussions, we were advised that a "spot had come up" in Aug 2023 and on that basis signed the contract in May 2023 and paid a material deposit. We were asked to restump our home before they could start. We did this in June/July and moved out, and have been waiting for them to start. No contact, no responses to emails or phone calls. Very evasive. Then, when we stood in the showroom for a response, we were told to deal with a third party on our contract rather than them. This has been the most stressful situation of our lives and affected us and our children. They do not care. They have consistently lied, including about our cabinetry having been made - it never started as they did not pay the supplier. They took >$35k from us and we have nothing, and cannot live at home. We have lodged complaints with CAV and the police.

A terrible ordeal! We contracted UKB to renovate our small ensuite bathroom in Nov 2022 with the job to begin in April 2023 that was expected to be completed within 6 weeks. It is now October and the renovation is only half completed with only 4 days of work being done over the past two and a half months. What began as an exciting project has turned into a complete nightmare causing our family a great deal of stress with no end in sight. UKB can't seem to organise supplies or tradies and for months have not returned our calls or msges. Before the job was due to start in April, we frantically prepared our home so that the tradies could work unimpeded. Sadly, no tradies showed up and no phone call from UKB for an explanation. We rang a number of UKB contacts but they did not return our calls. When we did receive a call from UKB several days later, they stated that the job would be delayed by a month due to supply issues, and the reason why no one called us was because we “fell through the cracks” – nice. We can understand supply issues causing a delay, but a simple courtesy phone call could have alleviated a lot of stress and confusions. Due to a site check measure error that failed to identify our walls as being brick instead of gyprock, we required a plasterer to render the walls – a task that would take over a month to perform and was only done so after numerous calls. We were informed by the site manager that UKB only had the one plasterer and he was busy doing a bigger job. We have been waiting for 6 weeks for a tiler but UKB have not responded to our calls or messages to provide an update. During this stressful ordeal, we have honoured our payments in a timely manner, we have remained calm in our discussions with UKB, we have been flexible and accommodating to their many issues, but numerous recent attempts to contact the site manager and the owner of UKB via phone calls and messages for an update have been ignored leaving us in a heighten state of distress. We felt like we had no choice but to contact Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) for guidance and they stated that we needed to write a formal complaint to UKB outlining the situation and steps to remediate, which they kindly provided a template. We did as CAV advised, but UKB did not respond to our letter of complaint. CAV has advised us to pursue the matter with DBRV, which we have, and currently waiting for the next steps. It is unbelievable that a small renovation costing c.$40k could cause so much stress and anxiety and we feel very unlucky to have chosen and trusted UKB.

Started the journey with UKB early this year to design, plan and undertake full renovation of an ensuite, bathroom and kitchen in a Victorian home. What can I say all was great until they got into the renovation. We went with UKB as they promised they would project manage everything and take the stress out of the process. It has been not been stress free. Although they gave an agenda of works once it started to deviate communication got worse and blow outs and people would just turn up without any warning or not show. This is when things started to get missed and not picked up. When I did raise concerns about items that were missed the response was would then be we'll get to it. We are well over a month past the expected completion date. The kitchen island was put together the wrong way, the stone top had to be replaced after the island shell had to be adjusted. When we raised that there were issues with the island we were told it will work out. Finally when it was realised there was an issue the island had to be deconstructed and stone top demolished and island put back together. The kitchen tap had to be repositioned as well and not installed properly the pull out tap head will not retract as gets caught. The sink has been caulked three times and probably need to be removed again to fix the tap. One of the main drawers in the bathroom vanity could not close and still waiting for it to be fixed which has been a number of weeks. Hinges of one of the kitchen cabinet doors do not line up and when installing cabinets in pantry no one cut into the architrave for a tight fit against wall. One of the main issues which remains outstanding for over a month is a wall in the ensuite not being straight and the gap between the wall and large shaving cabinet is visibly uneven and the first thing you seen entering the room. When you open the door you can see that the wall was not tiled to the end as the cabinet went up prior to tiling. Still hoping someone will just set a date and say all will be fixed in one go or by this date and stick to it. They seem to be rushing between jobs and a some of the trades needed to come back as things not done properly the first time. Tired of the poor communication, and workmanship, customer care as it just drags on with no end.

My experience with this company was a very disappointing one. From day one they proved how unprofessionsl they are by failing to remove part of an old skirting board and actually working around it and NOT ONE member of the whole team noticed it! They also fitted damaged materials and the project manager FAILED to inspe t the work properly allowing many mistakes amd shoddy work to proceed. The designer did not show much interest in the job and also stuffed up the splashback tiles order ending up with the wrong colour tiles in the end. Go elsewhere if you value your home.

A complete renovation of two bathrooms and a kitchen within an apartment complex can be a daunting assignment. Ultimate Kitchens and bathrooms went to great lengths to ensure complete professionalism in every step of the process. This was facilitated by a ‘hands on’ project manager who ably communicated with us every step of the way. In a difficult work environment we were promised the task would be completed to satisfaction within a given time and this was achieved. All tradesmen were conscious of the issues working within a communal environment. Their consideration for other apartment residents was very commendable. We would have no hesitation in recommending Ultimate Kitchens and Bathrooms undertaking similar work in other apartment dwellings. Well done UKB Peter & Judy

We are THRILLED with our kitchen and bedroom. Ultimate Kitchens was terrific, from the wonderful design by Beata, through to the final details of the work under the supervision of the construction manager Raymond. We live in a high-rise apartment building, and some companies refused to work with us because houses are easier. But Ultimate Kitchens took the job and never let us down. They operated ethically and fairly through the entire process and the quality of the design and building team was top, top notch! We were also very happy with the range of materials we were able to get through them, and they were great at interacting with our appliance retailer so that we didn’t have to spend our time relaying information. Wish I could give 10 stars!

We liked our kitchen layout but overall it was worn out. Beata listened thoughtfully to our thinking and cleverly streamlined the layout. She brought wonderful design ideas for storage drawers, cupboards, and pantry. Her advice on the stone benchtop, tile splashback and cabinetry was excellent. Trent was a great project manager when it came to installation. The process ran very smoothly and we were given a copy of the schedule so we knew what was happening when. The trades people were all very skilled and professional. Minor hitches on the way were all addressed quickly and well. John too was most helpful when we needed to switch our microwave. A high quality team and service to work with. Beata, Trent and John provided excellent communication, were most accessible for questions and lovely people.

We recently completed our en-suite renovation with Ultimate. We could not be any happier with them. The entire process from initial consultation to project completion was outstanding. All Ultimate’s trades people were extremely polite, professional and meticulous. We were assigned Brad as our Project Manager. He was highly efficient, very communicative throughout each project stage and always returned our phone calls/text message in a timely manner. Given our high level of satisfaction, we will be re-engaging Ulitimate to design and renovate our main bathroom in the near future. Yes, there are cheaper kitchen and bathroom renovation businesses out there but you get what you pay for. If you want a top quality job with piece of mind from start to end then Ultimate is the perfect choice

Terrible service, cannot be relied on to fix any mistakes We used UKB to remodel our kitchen in mid 2020. Our old kitchen was tired looking but fully functional. It's on the ground floor with perfectly working sewerage. With the new design done by UKB the kitchen sink was moved to a back wall instead of being under the window. We were informed they would install a pump which would pump waste water up instead of connecting to existing sewerage pipes. My husband and I had trust in a company which specialized in kitchen and bathrooms, so we didn't object even though I had never come across a pump under a sink before. Eighteen months after the project was finished, beginning of December 2021, the pump stopped working. Any liquid down the kitchen sink spilled out onto the kitchen floor, we couldn't wash hands ,prepare any food for cooking or use the dishwasher which was also connected to the same pump. I called UKB straight away, the pump was still under warranty ( 2 years ). Excuses were given including the original plumber can't be contacted, they didn't have the invoice etc. Finally a new pump was installed mid January 2022. The new pump started playing up within 3 weeks. Leakage of liquid happened every time we used the sink. Because waste water wasn't pumped up there was a constant stench coming from under the kitchen sink. Again, the whole family had to revert back to walking half way through the house to the laundry to cook, wash, clean dishes, just as we did over Xmas& New Year period. Since then I had been in contact with UKB constantly demanding a solution. It's now May 2022, and we still do not have a working sink. Yes, the kitchen looks good, but what's point when you can't use it? I have had a few plumbers in the house, some sent by UKB and some I hired to look for a solution. All of them told me that for a ground floor kitchen conventional sewerage is the best way ( my old kitchen never had a plumbing issue for 17 years ), the only reason UKB installed a pump is to save cost so that they didn't have to cut through the tiles and go under concrete. Pumps are used for basement toilets and showers and couldn't handle grease. Why would that even be considered for a kitchen sink where dirty dishes are washed and grease is unavoidable? Now we are faced with the dilemma of ripping up the island bench and do sewerage as it was supposed to be done or cutting into the wall behind the kitchen and having a waste pipe put into our living room and installing a new wall to camouflage it. I believe you judge a company not by the looks of their work at the end of project, but by how they deal with problems when they arise. My experience with UKB has been awful. I have had to chase up every one of the project managers, and had written

Ultimate Kitchens and bathrooms renovated a bathroom, laundry and office. Our designer, Beata guided us through the design process including meeting us at the tile shop. She was brilliant and a joy to work with. The Covid lockdowns interrupted our renovation and when everything re-opened the building industry was under enormous pressure but our Project Manager, Trent, was fantastic. He kept us updated as to what was happening and when. All the tradesmen without exception were terrific to work with and any problems that arose, which were few, were quickly resolved by Trent. We are delighted with the end result of the renovation and would wholeheartedly recommend Ultimate Kitchens and Bathrooms to anyone contemplating a renovation.

Our goal was for a multi-room renovation reflecting elegance that would not date and providing spaces with great organisation and functionality. This was a large project that included the kitchen, powder room, ensuite, bathroom, laundry, fireplace, study cabinetry and downstairs parquetry. UKB’s designer Beata and technical detailer Rosie helped achieve a layout that provided better use of space and practical storage to make our life easier and look beautiful. Whilst the project implementation could have run more smoothly and was affected by the various Covid lockdowns, UKB’s operations manager John personally managed the final stage of the project to complete the transformation. Thanks UKB.