Alexander Observatories

[stephen_usher]

For the record, I bought a 6'x6' observatory from this company, which was delivered in April 2011 (after ordering it in September the previous year).

Pros:

Nick is a nice bloke.

He works hard when he's on site.

Cons:

He's a one-man-band and admits that he's not as good as he might be at communication.

He takes on way too much work.

The combination of the two above makes his estimated delivery times fantasy and contacting him is very difficult.

As for the observatory,

Pros:

It's very sturdy and resistant to gales.

The roof works well, though automating it would be difficult.

Cons:

There are a couple of design flaws, such as the door opening inwards (making much of the space unusable) and some of the struts for the rolling roof make entry difficult in certain circumstances (which was easily fixed the weekend after the observatory arrived.

The floor is made of in-door grade chipboard flooring but is exposed to the weather. If some sort of waterproof paint or other covering isn't applied the chipboard will begin to degrade quite quickly. I used spray-on bituminous paint in the end after several other different treatments. Adding guttering helped as well.

It's impossible to fully seal the walls due to the way the inner plywood panels are installs before the walls were put together. The best I could do was to use bathroom sealant on the wall joints and between the walls and the floor.

[bingevader]

I heard he'd had a major problem with the sub-contractor that supplies the windows!

Cheers

[phcjpp]

Just thought I would post - another happy customer. I added full automation to Nick's build - completely robotic observatory now. Lots of photos in the links below to my website www.wimbledonastro.com

Cheers

Chris

http://www.wimbledonastro.com/build-day-is-here/

http://www.wimbledonastro.com/sunday-observatory-cables/

http://www.wimbledonastro.com/bank-holiday-goings-on/

http://www.wimbledonastro.com/inside-photos/

http://www.wimbledonastro.com/observatory-all-done/

[phcjpp]

Oh and if you want to pop by to have a look @ Nicks work just let me know.

Chris

[dwc]

I'm glad to hear that people who have sheds from Nick are pleased with them, and was particularly interested in the build photos.

Doesn't really help being 20 weeks since paying a deposit, having no idea even of a target delivery date, and not having replies to emails for the past 10 weeks.

[dph1nm]

I have one which was installed nearly two years ago now. The main problems I have encountered are:

(1) make sure the roof rails slope very slightly away from the shed - mine didn't, and everytime it rained the shed filled with water. I rapidly fixed this with some wooden wedges.

(2) the door has always leaked like a sieve at the bottom (mine faces West, hence gets the prevailing wind when it rains). I put a rainbar on the bottom which has helped a lot, but water still gets in.

(3) the door sticks and is very difficult to shut, and the lock is difficult to turn because of this. I had to plane some wood off to get it to shut at all at one stage.

(4) There is now a spilt in one corner of the felt roof which is causing water ingress onto the roof panels.

Other than that, it is built like a tank and I am very happy with it. Definitely worth the wait (yes, I had a long delay in delivery too). It also looks quite at home in a garden.

NigelM

p.s. I am fairly sure Nick said the flooring was weatherproofed chipboard when he built mine.

[phcjpp]

I have one which was installed nearly two years ago now. The main problems I have encountered are:

(1) make sure the roof rails slope very slightly away from the shed - mine didn't, and everytime it rained the shed filled with water. I rapidly fixed this with some wooden wedges.

(2) the door has always leaked like a sieve at the bottom (mine faces West, hence gets the prevailing wind when it rains). I put a rainbar on the bottom which has helped a lot, but water still gets in.

(3) the door sticks and is very difficult to shut, and the lock is difficult to turn because of this. I had to plane some wood off to get it to shut at all at one stage.

(4) There is now a spilt in one corner of the felt roof which is causing water ingress onto the roof panels.

Other than that, it is built like a tank and I am very happy with it. Definitely worth the wait (yes, I had a long delay in delivery too). It also looks quite at home in a garden.

NigelM

p.s. I am fairly sure Nick said the flooring was weatherproofed chipboard when he built mine.

Yes

1: I drilled holes in the rails - same issue different solution

2: Yep - added the rainbar

3: Yes it does - and I did plane it

4. Not seen any issues with the roof - my last shed went overnight like you describe - sometimes just bad luck.

Chris

[Astrobug]

I have the same problems. The order is placed but i get no contact anymore with him. No answers on mails or phone.

It is frustrating getting no answer at all.

If he could at least tell me it is taking longer to get build ect... but here i get nothing .....nothing ....

[stephen_usher]

I have one which was installed nearly two years ago now. The main problems I have encountered are:

(1) make sure the roof rails slope very slightly away from the shed - mine didn't, and everytime it rained the shed filled with water. I rapidly fixed this with some wooden wedges.

(2) the door has always leaked like a sieve at the bottom (mine faces West, hence gets the prevailing wind when it rains). I put a rainbar on the bottom which has helped a lot, but water still gets in.

(3) the door sticks and is very difficult to shut, and the lock is difficult to turn because of this. I had to plane some wood off to get it to shut at all at one stage.

(4) There is now a spilt in one corner of the felt roof which is causing water ingress onto the roof panels.

Other than that, it is built like a tank and I am very happy with it. Definitely worth the wait (yes, I had a long delay in delivery too). It also looks quite at home in a garden.

NigelM

p.s. I am fairly sure Nick said the flooring was weatherproofed chipboard when he built mine.

1. I drilled holes in the sides of the rails close to the observatory and that fixed the issue.

2. I never had problems with rain ingress through the door, though it is in a sheltered position.

3. I've modified the door so that it swings outwards, allowing me to use more of the space so I've not had that problem.

4. No issues with the felt so far.

As for the chipboard. The labels were left on the floorboards and I checked the specification with the manufacturer. They're weather resistant in that they can be stored outside for (from memory) up to 15 days but they are for use in-doors only. In other words, they're designed to be able to cope with being on a building site before installation inside a house.

dwc: You can find my build photos here.

[dwc]

Thanks Stephen - he certainly seems to do a solid job.

[dph1nm]

As for the chipboard. The labels were left on the floorboards and I checked the specification with the manufacturer. They're weather resistant in that they can be stored outside for (from memory) up to 15 days but they are for use in-doors only. In other words, they're designed to be able to cope with being on a building site before installation inside a house.

During my rather protracted installation (don't ask), mine sat outside, in situ, under about a foot of snow for a month. I asked Nick if they would be OK and he said yes they were weatherproofed. I guess weather resistant is what he really meant! They seem to have survived OK though, apart from under the door, where they are getting a bit ropey, but these do get soaked whenever it rains hard.

1. I drilled holes in the sides of the rails close to the observatory and that fixed the issue.

Did that as well. Fine until we had a monsoon and the holes couldn't cope! Changing the angle has meant that even the rain we had in the North East this week hasn't caused a problem.

NigelM

[Pinpoint]

Thanks for the responses all, I live in hope...

[Astrobug]

What is the time you all have been waiting between payment and delivery?

[Spanishfly]

Wow, I am so envious - wish I had the space for one of these !!

[Pinpoint]

Ah yes empty space. (Looks whistfully out of window at back garden, makes a wish on a shooting star).

[HD-AP]

What is the time you all have been waiting between payment and delivery?

This all sounds very familiar to me I had a 10ft grp observatory built and installed by superscopes of luton run by philip stone a clever engineer and he made some superb telescopes mounts and observatories .But he became a victim of his own success ,in that the install lead times got longer and longer ,mine took over a year from start to finish ,made shorter by me doing some base install work for him to free him up to finish mine .

He eventually went out of buisness as his one man band operation could not complete the orders taken in a reasonable time frame.

At the end the modus operandi was to install a customers concrete base ring so they had something to show for the long wait ,and gave hope (a false one )that the rest of the observatory would soon follow .

At one point i knew of several of these installs and sadly not everyone who ordered an observatory got one .And contact by phone or e-mail was impossible he used his mothers home number to fend off enquires and had a secret moblie phone that he gave to a select few .I don't think that the randomness of the geographical locations of the customer installs helped as travelling to locations hundreds of miles apart is time consuming in itself add to that the customer dictating when they are free for you to install ,you begin to see the logistical difficulties .Also bearing in mind that when not installing he had to make everything himself ,it's no wonder he couldn't continue .He should have outsourced some of the fabrication work but understandably wanted to control everything ,and was fearful that someone would copy his design's .

I,m sure the chap of alexanders does an exellent job as previous posters have said , but all of the above shows what can happen if you become a victim of your own success, and the need for more workers as the buisness expands or it gets to where there arn't enough hours in the day to get the job done.

[Peter Drew]

I, too, was a "one man band" for over 30 years (Bedford Astronomical Supplies) and delivery times were always the biggest headache, often for circumstances beyond control. One phonecall can leave you snowed under and things like a customer deciding to add a mount to his OTA order can have serious knock on effects. Long lead times are not the monopoly of the OMB, try ordering an Astrophysics refractor in time for Christmas!

[HD-AP]

I, too, was a "one man band" for over 30 years (Bedford Astronomical Supplies) and delivery times were always the biggest headache, often for circumstances beyond control. One phonecall can leave you snowed under and things like a customer deciding to add a mount to his OTA order can have serious knock on effects. Long lead times are not the monopoly of the OMB, try ordering an Astrophysics refractor in time for Christmas!

HI peter

I'm not knocking the omb many small companies like yourself lasted many year's barry watts of beacon hill does very well,just that you can be a victim of your own success and lead to increasingly longer and longer lead times .And you arn't making anything whilst talking on the phone as you say.

Astrophysics refractor for christmas luckily i have one ,although i've been on the waiting list since 2001 ,as for christmas delivery you didn't say which year or century

[Davey-T]

Not particularly about Alexanders, but why does everyone faff about with wooden sheds ?. I made my obs'y using a Keter plastic shed, been using it for three years with no problems and no leaks.

Constuction is childs play, like Lego, the whole thing is a complete sealed plastic box , including floor, and is completely weatherproof, having survived rain, wind, hail, sleet and two foot of snow on the roof with

not a sign of a leak.

The whole thing can be constructed by one person in a day and then modded at your leisure, you need something solid to stand it on, mines on an existing patio, and when its up you can build a pier

inside in the dry.

There's usually a few on EBay, one currently up to £100.00 and the rest of the bits are easily sourced and mine cost less than £200.00 to convert to roll off roof and electrify lights etc.

Don't see why you need a ton off concrete for the pier to sit in but thats another subject.

Dave

[phcjpp]

Not particularly about Alexanders, but why does everyone faff about with wooden sheds ?. I made my obs'y using a Keter plastic shed, been using it for three years with no problems and no leaks.

Constuction is childs play, like Lego, the whole thing is a complete sealed plastic box , including floor, and is completely weatherproof, having survived rain, wind, hail, sleet and two foot of snow on the roof with

not a sign of a leak.

The whole thing can be constructed by one person in a day and then modded at your leisure, you need something solid to stand it on, mines on an existing patio, and when its up you can build a pier

inside in the dry.

There's usually a few on EBay, one currently up to £100.00 and the rest of the bits are easily sourced and mine cost less than £200.00 to convert to roll off roof and electrify lights etc.

Don't see why you need a ton off concrete for the pier to sit in but thats another subject.

Dave

Um - one reason is because a wooden shed can look nice ?

http://www.wimbledonastro.com/outside-mostly-done/

Chris

[Astrobug]

Got the infomation Nick was ill and he is back on duty!

[mrgadget]

I had an obseravatoy installed by Nick in August, it was well worth the wait.

I've also managed to speak to him today and found out that he is recovering from an accident, but is working through his backlog.

[phcjpp]

Spoke to Nick too today. All good.

Chris

[dwc]

My shed was finally installed Friday. A long wait, but worth it. Now the fitting out fun starts.

[Pinpoint]

Congrats Dave - hoping for a phone call from Nick to say when my obs is coming...