Our Guarantee

We guarantee the structure of every piece we make for as long as you own it. The frame, the carcase and the joints are covered for life. Drawer and door fitting, ironmongery and finish are covered for ten years from delivery.

That is a longer commitment than this trade usually makes. One workshop designs, makes, polishes and delivers every piece, so there is no supply chain to disappear into and one number to ring.

The lifetime structural guarantee

For as long as you own the piece, we guarantee against defects in materials and workmanship in:

• the frame — legs, rails, stiles, muntins, stretchers, posts and bearers
• the carcase — the ends, back, top, bottom and shelves of a cabinet, chest, dresser or wardrobe, and the structural elements of a bed
• the joints — the mortice and tenon, dovetail, dowel and housed joints that hold the piece together, and the glue lines in a jointed top

If a structural joint fails or a structural component proves defective, we put it right, in your home where that can be done properly on site and back at the workshop where it cannot. There is no charge for labour, materials or transport on a valid structural claim.

We can offer that because of how these pieces are built. A dresser base is a frame with panels floating inside it, not a box of boards glued edge to edge. A drawer is dovetailed. A table top is fixed so it moves with the seasons instead of splitting.

Ten years on fitting, ironmongery and finish

For ten years from the date of delivery we also guarantee:

• the fitting of drawers and doors — a drawer that binds or drops, a door that will not hang square, a failed runner or stop
• the ironmongery — hinges, knobs, handles, locks, catches, stays and draw-leaf mechanisms supplied by us
• the finish — the polish, paint, lime or rub-through applied in our own shop, against flaking, lifting or premature breakdown

These are the working parts, used every day, so ten years is the honest term rather than a permanent one. Beyond ten years we will still put things right, as a quoted repair.

Who it covers

The guarantee covers the original client, at the address the piece was delivered to. It is not transferable to a subsequent owner. The piece must be in domestic use.

What is not covered

• Accidental damage — knocks, dents, burns, scratches, tears and spillages
• Misuse — standing on a piece not made to take it, overloading a shelf or drawer, dragging rather than lifting
• Commercial use
• Alterations, repairs or refinishing carried out by anyone else
• Damage caused by unsuitable environmental conditions — a radiator, extreme swings in heating, standing water, prolonged direct sunlight, or damp
• Normal wear — a leather top that has patinated, brass that has dulled

This guarantee sits alongside your legal rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and does not replace them. Our full terms apply.

What timber does naturally, which is not a defect

Solid timber is not an inert material. It responds to the air around it for the whole of its life, and a piece that did not move at all would be a piece that was not made of wood. The following are characteristics of the material, not faults in the making.

Movement. Solid boards expand across their width in damp conditions and shrink in dry ones, and a well-made piece is built to allow it. In a dry winter a hairline gap may open at the edge of a fielded panel, showing a narrow line of unpolished timber. It closes again. That is the construction working as intended.

Colour change. Every timber we use changes colour. Oak warms and deepens. Cherry darkens noticeably in its first year or two, moving from pinkish to a deep reddish brown. Mahogany deepens. Walnut lightens and mellows. A piece delivered this year will not exactly match one delivered two years ago in the same timber and finish until the newer one has caught up.

Small shakes in character oak. Character oak is specified precisely because it shows the life of the tree: knots, medullary ray flecking, colour variation and fine shakes, which are small splits following the grain. They are stabilised and filled where the piece requires it, and left where they belong. If you want none of them, we can supply clean timber with no knots at all, priced on application.

Grain and figure variation. Boards from the same tree differ, and pippy oak varies enormously between grades. Samples are indicative of type and colour rather than an exact reproduction of the boards in your piece.

Handmade tolerances. These pieces are cut, fitted and polished by hand, and small variations between one and another are part of what you are buying.

Leather. A natural hide carries its own markings and patinates with use.

Looking after it matters

Timber furniture kept in sensible conditions lasts for generations. The common causes of avoidable trouble are all environmental: a radiator, a room that swings between fierce heating and none, standing water, strong sun on half a surface for months. Our care guide explains what to do about each.

Damage from unsuitable conditions is not a manufacturing defect, and we would rather help you avoid it than argue about it afterwards.

If something is not right

Ring 01449 710500 or email sales@brynhall.co.uk. Tell us what the piece is, roughly when it was delivered and what has happened, and send photographs taken in daylight if you can.

We will tell you honestly whether what you are seeing is a defect or the timber behaving as timber does. If it is ours to put right, we put it right. Because the drawings stay with us, we can also remake a component years later, or make the matching piece you did not order the first time.

Enquire · How commissioning works · Care guide · Call 01449 710500