We bought a fire grate 12 months ago to replace one fitted some 15 years earlier and used over…read moreChristmas for a few months. We came to light a fire this year and found three of the slats had disintegrated. Sent a photo to Ray Graham's pointing this out and was told that this was expected of cast iron grates if you burnt wood and coal on them. We had subjected the new grate to exactly the same treatment as our old grate which had lasted 15 years plus. Ray Grahams insisted that there was no fault with their product and would not replace it. I posted a negative review at their website but it has never appeared - they clearly only 'allow' postive reviews that score 4/5 and 5/5. As a consequence, one wonders if you can trust any of the reviews you find there .....

Got all my stuff to build my Garden Bar and terrace, good quality products and price and very Covid…read moreaware well done Ray Graham's the place to go

Everything you could need for any building project, I bought corrugated plastic sheeting from here…read moreto make a car port roof, the sheets were bigger than I expected with eight feet of them hanging out the back of my mums ford escort. They do a delivery service too and I got a ton of garden stones delivered to top up my mums garden, it saves a fortune over buying from garden centres. Ideal for garden projects. Small selection of tools and accessories inside too.

Tile Works is an easy place to miss even though it sits on the main road through Balloo Industrial…read moreEstate. From the outside, the building looks small and gives the impression that they don't have a large range of stock. However, once inside you quickly realise that they carry and extensive range of tiles, from cheap as chips basics to posh as you like. They gave made very good use of the space available to them and have loads on display without making the place feel claustrophobic. The staff are pleasant, cheerful and very helpful. My only real complaint is that going on the measurements I gave them for my tiling needs (which were accurate) they over supplied me but said that it was OK cos I could return what wasn't used. The Tiler we employed, (recommended by Tile Works) took a good few weeks to start the job and when he was finished we were left with quite a lot extra. When we tried to return them for a refund we were told that they couldn't take them back because the batch number had changed in between. So I have been left with a few hundred pounds worth of extra tiles. All I all, I would still recommend them for the range that they carry but would warn people be wary of over buying.

I have probably driven past this business many times and didn't even know it existed. We were…read moretrying to source some extra tiles that we had purchased a while back and TileWorks was recommended. Easy to find when you know where to look, good parking at the front doors. I went in and two men looked up from behind a high counter, at first I thought I was in the wrong place, even though everywhere was Tiled, but then I told them what I was looking for and one went off to have a look out in the stock room. From looking around the reception seems they do lots of variety of bespoke tiles for anywhere you would like to tile. I paid for my tiles and the guy insisted on lifting them out to the car for me. I'm sure my purchase was one of the smallest that they would get, but still great customer service.

When I was younger my dad was always a bit handy round the house, if anything needed doing, the…read moreidea of calling someone in to do it was always an alien concept. He always did it himself, and it always required a visit to Andy's Stores to get the items needed to complete the job. It looks small from the outside, but inside, it is the untimate hardware store, they have a good selection of pretty much everything you need to get the job done. They have everything from tools, plumbing odds and ends, paints and painting equipment, gardening supplies, electrical supplies, house ware items, locks, key cutting.. you name it. They also seem to be able to compete with the larger DIY stores, which is no big surprise, as they have been in business for years, so they are obviously doing something right. Parking is a bit hit and miss. If you are getting bulky/heavy items, you would want to be parked out the front, but they are on a busy road, so it can be a bit hit and miss as to whether this is possible, but if not, there is a filling station with plenty of parking next door.

Andy's stores is well known in the area for being a great…read more (and cheap to boot!) hardware shop. It's here that you can pick up any number of various electrical / household goods or even find the parts for that item you've just taken apart and tried to put back together (which never works does it?) Well, Andy and his great employees can, more often that not, help you out with whatever DIY problem you may have. I'm not the best minded in that regard and when something breaks I usually run to my dad begging him to help me, though sometimes even Daddy's can't fix everything (Shock I know) and in that event, dad comes to Andy's to solve the problem. If you can't fix it here, then it can't be fixed!

I am very sad to hear that this fantastic shop is now closing. I will miss the owners expertise…read moreand dry humour. What many people didn't know, was that there was a third floor which was dedicated to Haberdashery (known as "Threads & Whimsy"). It held an extensive collection of Lumberjack shirts and suspenders (all very manly, apart from the high heels section). Run by a guy called Bevis (who was always very pleasant).

Back to Briterome I found this Hardware shop a little bit on the feminine side, when someone says…read moreto me hardware shop I picture hammers, tool belts and lumberjack shirts. But in Briterome they sold kettles, irons and mops. This is called a hardware store but it is more of a speciality kitchen shop. This makes it all the more useful and allows it to tap into a niche market. If you do need something for your kitchen, they will stock it. Just the other day I purchased 5 temperature gauges, random you might say but these were easy to locate in the expansive store and they were cheap to boot. At £1.99 each you can not go far wrong. The service was also really good, they shop was clean and well organised and this made it easy to navigate the shop. Hardware shops are notoriously cluttered but this to my surprise was perfect.