FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
These are some of the most frequently asked questions by our clients.
You can also see our tips on the News page which provides answers to a lot of questions asked by our clients to our designers. Should you have other queries you wish answered please feel free to contact us.
All storage solutions installed by Fox Wardrobes are warranted for 10 years.
We manufacture all our wardrobes in Warriewood on the Northern Beaches of Sydney – you can have a tour of our factory at 6/7 Jubilee Ave, Warriewood. Our hardware and raw materials come from Polytec, Hafele, Blum, Ullrich and Viridian Glass. All reputable Australian and European suppliers. We are focused on building our wardrobes tough.
At Fox we only use inhouse installers (employees of the company) with significant experience installing. We also provide each installer with a support Fox who is learning the trade. We spare no expense in ensuring that you get the best possible experience from end to end and the best possible product because we know that your home is one of the biggest investments you will ever make and our team will treat it with pride. By having two Foxes onsite we ensure that our installers have the energy and manpower to do the job properly. They don’t rush and they take pride in the detail including cleanliness.
We believe that our success is due to our people. Every person that works at Fox is an employee. We are not in business for fast quick growth we are here for the long haul. There is a great African proverb which we love which says “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” we want to go far with pride and integrity. It is more than just wardrobes for us we believe we are changing peoples lives one wardrobes at a time!
We create space in our clients minds and hearts by helping them to becoming more organised in a chaotic and busy world so that they can have more peace and joy in there lives… and HAVE MORE FUN! When your house is tidy you can entertain with pride and we show up to work every day to achieve this mission.
We don’t have a showroom but we do have a factory display which exhibits a whole range of wardrobes, handles and different door options. If you have received a measure and quote, you may book an appointment to visit our factory display by calling (02) 9971 8802 or with your wardrobe designer. As our display is based in our manufacturing facility, we require you to make an appointment to ensure your safety and the safety of our team. Thank you for understanding!
By only using employees not contractors we teach our staff to take pride in our clients homes. Every installer has blankets, vacumn cleaner, waste bags and protective equipment to ensure your home is clean from start to finish. If you feel that your house is untidy you can call the business owner directly on 0410 218 699 (Chris Volpe) because we pride ourselves in being the cleanest trade you’ve experienced.
At Fox we take massive pride in the wardrobes we manufacture and install for you. However, we know that sometimes things go wrong. If something does go wrong, please call your direct contact and let them know. We will do EVERYTHING within our power to make sure that your project is finished the best we can in the quickest timeframe possible. If you want to talk to someone else, please call 9971 8802 and ask for Vic Volpe aka Waterfox or Baptiste Jojot aka Frenchie Fox. They will be able to resolve the issue for you. Trust us, we care more about you being happy than we do about making money.
Wardrobe should go first because you won’t be able to change the carpet easily if wardrobe goes in after the carpet. If the Wardrobe goes in first the carpet layer will put a cut out of carpet inside the wardrobe which can be changed if you change your carpet down the track.
If you are installing timber flooring or floating flooring then you should install that prior to the Wardrobe being installed. This is because laying the flooring up to the wardrobe won’t look ideal if the layer needs to put beading around the edge of the flooring to hide expansion joints. It is also very difficult to lay flooring inside a newly installed wardrobe. We recommend flooring first in this instance. Carpet is a different story!
The first thing to consider when choosing doors is your budget. Hinged doors are generally more expensive than sliding doors because they take a lot longer to fit that sliding doors. Plus the maximum size that we will guarantee a hinged door is 600mm wide whereas a sliding door can be 1200mm wide. This means less doors which means less cost to fit. Hinged are approx 20% more expensive than sliding doors depending on finish and style chosen. The second thing to consider between sliding and hinged doors is whether you have the space in the bedroom. There is nothing worse than trying to access a hinged door wardrobe and there is a bed right next to it and you struggle to get access. You really want to consider the purpose of the room long term and whether you will always have a single bed or you may want a double or queen in there. Sliding doors are great for preserving the space in the bedroom. However, you don’t get quite the same visibility into the wardrobe as a hinged door configuration.
Polyurethane Doors:
The polyurethane painting process is an undercoat then two coats of 2pac polyurethane. It’s a spray painted finish so comes out looking smooth not streaky like when a roller or paint brush is used. With these wardrobe doors you can choose any colour in the Dulux range and you can choose from a massive range of routering profiles (shaker styles) that suit your home and decor. E.g. Beachie V-groove or two panel provincial shaker just to name a few.
Thermolaminate Doors:
Thermolaminated doors and panels are made from profiled moisture resistant E-Zero MDF, constructed with a durable and decorative thermoformed surface on the face and edges. The result is a stylish, fully profiled door. Its thermoformed surface makes it resistant to the usual knocks and bumps of a busy household,
Difference between the two:
Polyurethane painted finish is the most expensive finish and has a greater variety of colours and shaker profiles to choose from. However, it can chip if knocked but is more moisture resistant than thermolamiante.
Thermolaminate on the other hand is very durable and doesn’t chip like the polyurethane finish but is less moisture resistant with the thermoform being possible to peel back over time in areas that have moisture and has a limited range of colours and profiles to choose from. Thermolaminate is approx 10% cheaper than the polyurethane painted finish. The finished doors of the thermolaminate and the polyurethane finishes look quite similar and it takes a more trained eye to tell the difference.
Often after a wardrobe is removed there maybe some damage to the existing gyprock, masonry or paint work. If we are removing the wardrobe we will come in a couple of days prior to the installation to remove the wardrobe giving you time to patch and paint the walls. You can pay extra to get backing and side panels in your wardrobe to hide the existing walls if you want to have it all installed in one go at the same time without the need to patch and paint. Just ask one of Foxy Wardrobe Specialists!
If you have a powerpoint in the way of where the new wardrobe is going you will need to organise to have this disconnected or removed prior to installation of your new wardrobe. Our Foxes don’t like to get fried so they will not touch an active powerpoint! If you need a good local electrician, just let one of our team know and we can recommend a couple of great ones for you to use.
Built-in robes are our specialty. We can help you with the position and design of your built-in wardrobe for maximum functionality.
Yes we do fit out new homes. You are welcome to bring your final set of plans in for one of our designers to review.
A free measure and quote is all part of our personal service to you.
We only use quality suppliers who have tested their shelving systems to a 40kg per linear metre rate, which is more than adequate for normal use.
When installing if there is a picture rail at 2000mm from the floor then we may need to remove it. Alternatively, we will leave the picture rail in place however we will take a notch out of the picture rail in the places where the end panel goes and the wall jamb. This means we will remove a small portion of the picture rail however the majority of it will stay in place. Picture rails are generally only in older houses with a more ornate look and feel. Your Foxy Wardrobe Specialist can help with this when on site designing the robe with you.
You will notice in the example image above that this client had a 90mm cornice (top left and right of the image). We took a small cut out of the cornice on the top left (bulkhead) and top right (end panel) of the image we then fit the wardrobe into the cornice and gap fill it so it looks really neat and clean. If you would like more explanation of how we install the wardrobe, please call us on 9971 8802 and ask for one of our Foxy Wardrobe Specialists!
At Fox we are focused on providing our clients with the best quality at an affordable price point. Our standard wardrobes have a Metabox full metal side drawer runner with soft closing functionality as standard. We also use full 16mm white carcass bottoms to ensure none of your drawer bottoms sag or fall out over time.
We work with Polytec for our board product using a high quality moisture resistant particle board for the internals of all our wardrobes and a high grade mdf for the doors in 18mm-25mm thick depending on the door finish chosen. We find Polytec the most reliable supplier on the market and believe that there product is far superior to other competitors especially those sourcing board from China.
We include a set of strong metal door straighteners from Hafele in all our sliding polyurethane painted doors and extra hinges on all our polyurethane painted hinged doors. These 21mm thick doors with straighteners are highly unlikely to move. Although it costs us more in labour and material cost we take pride in having an extremely high quality product that will last the test of time. We build it tough!
If you would like to get a white carcass floor in your wardrobe which is moisture resistant, please let your Wardrobe Specialist know. They usually cost around $150 – $250 for a floor in the wardrobe.
Yes, we do a whole range of coloured walk in wardrobes. An example image is above. You can expect to pay approximately 25-40% more for a coloured walk in wardrobe than a standard white wardrobe. The price depends on the colour board chosen. Polytec has three ranges – standard melamine ($), ravine ($$) and woodmatt ($$$) – the more $ signs the more expensive the finish.
Our vision is to create a manufacturing business that is totally sustainable with no waste going to landfill and powered fully by solar energy. Even our food scraps are being used for compost in the factory garden! As at the start of 2020, we are running the business off approximately 96% solar power and send 40% of our offcuts back to the manufacturer to be re-purposed and recycled into new particle board. We also recycle 100% of our soft plastics and cardboard waste diverting this away from landfill to be re-purposed and re-used. We’ve replaced all lighting with energy efficient LED lighting. Our goal for 2030 is to find a solution to recycling MDF board or use a different substrate which can be recycled safely (we believe this is an industry wide issue because it isn’t currently able to be recycled safely) and to find a cost efficient solution to change our fleet from petrol/gas to electricity. Stay tuned for progress updates on our sustainability mission during 2020.
Our process is to attend your home once the builder reaches the gyprocking stage so we can quote accurately and provide current pricing. At this stage of your project we can fully design and measure your space to suit your needs. For budgeting you will be able to utilise your builder to come up with a PC item estimate for your wardrobes. If you require early support around idea generation, our Fox design team are happy to have a conversation over the phone to discuss your project however, formal quoting will need to be at gyprocking stage.