Viewing 24 posts - 1 through 24 (of 24 total)
  • Do kitchen companies pluck estimates from thin air?
  • grubbish
    Free Member

    Just been to get a quote on my first kitchen told them how much I had to spend which was probably the wrong thing to do but it’s my first quote so wanted to know what I could get for that money. Looking at the breakdown and I’m saving a massive £10,500, seems to me they just make the prices up. Any advice on the best way to get a low quote? £2,400 for labour to fit, plumb and electrics for a 10 unit kitchen, really??

    gobuchul
    Free Member

    Yes they make the prices up. That’s while they routinely have 3 or 4 “half price” sales every year.

    If I was you I would get a recommended local independent joiner and have a look at Howdens stuff. Howdens won’t sell to non-trade or give you a price list but the tradesman will give you the price.

    Also, a lot of people recommend Ikea, at least the pricing is straight forward.

    alanl
    Free Member

    Prices – yes.
    I used to deal with Howdens. No longer. Their RRP is something like 900% more than you’ll pay – e.g. a door at £75 has a list price of £750 (sounds an exaggaration, but some of their stuff really is listed at that price).
    I was quoting for a job once, and told the Rep from Howdens that it must come to less than £10k for the units. They gave me a price of £13k.
    I never used them again.
    I use Magnet now, who do list their prices at rather more than you’ll actually pay, but the Branch I deal with seem to be pretty decent and give the full discount whenever I buy.
    £2.4k to fit -that sounds expensive. 10 units, would be 4 days work at the most for me on my own, does it include anything else like tiling/flooring/eletrics?

    nickjb
    Free Member

    One of many reasons why we went for IKEA

    grubbish
    Free Member

    Includes plumbing and electrics. No tiling or flooring and quotes from magnet. But apparently I’m saving £6,000 on units and they’ve given me my worktop for free.

    grubbish
    Free Member

    Whole quote is £7,900 and that’s using my hob and cooker, they’re providing dishwasher and microwave

    switchbacktrog
    Free Member

    I’ve just had 2 quotes for a 12 unit kitchen including hob, double oven and extractor. £6500 from Wren(discounted from £13000) and £5500 from a local kitchen manufacturer. Both supply only. £1000 to fit by a local tradesman.

    parkesie
    Free Member

    4300 for tiled floor plumbing electrics units cooker hob hood dishwasher and tiled splash backs. Diy ikea kitchen. Kitchens are ridiculously expensive.

    alanl
    Free Member

    The Fitter recommended by Magnet are quite expensive IMO. I’ve worked with one before, and he did do a good job, but he was expensive,a nd would not do anything extra than the work he quoted for, I asked him to connect up the cooker for me to save me a 30 miles round trip, he wouldnt do it as he wasnt being paid for it.
    Maybe others are different.
    I’d be getting other quotes to fit, ask around to see who is recommended.

    suburbanreuben
    Free Member

    , I asked him to connect up the cooker for me to save me a 30 miles round trip, he wouldnt do it as he wasnt being paid for it.

    so did you offer to pay him for doing extra work, saving you a 30 mile round trip?

    cp
    Full Member

    If you have a local IKEA I’d go there and get one costed. We did ours last year and I’m very impressed with construction and quality.

    IKEA don’t install themselves directly but they have people they sub the install work to. I’ve heard good things about their installers. We didn’t use them though as I installed myself, just got a recommended fella in for electrics and a plumber in for gas hob.

    Came to about 3k for 9 cabinets, wooden work top, oven, hob, sknk, taps, lighting and including tiles and laminate flooring and electrics/plumbing.

    alanl
    Free Member

    so did you offer to pay him for doing extra work, saving you a 30 mile round trip?

    No, he wasnt a particularly nice bloke, he said from the start he only did what he’d quoted, yet when I’d finished, and he wasnt ready for the oven, I thought he’d do it for me, but he said he wouldnt, even though I’d been giving him a hand lifting etc for the last 3 days whilst I did my sparking work.

    Singlespeed_Shep
    Free Member

    I work for a small firm that hand makes kitchens, (amongst other things) People are always surprised how competitive our prices are. Have a look local and see what small firms are doing.

    I never get how the likes of wren etc get away with what they sell at those prices for mass produced.

    Also speak to a local tradesman you trust and see what he likes to work with. I know joiners that can make an Ikea/wickes mash-up bargin look like a kitchen ten times its prices with a few extras and good workmanship.

    squealer
    Free Member

    i renovate houses for profit (or if you listen to the tv programmes i am a “property developer”) and i’ve always found B and Q kitchens are the most reasonably priced – current project had a quote of £6,800 from Howdens on a trade account and B&Q came in at just under £3,000 with the only difference being i have to assemble the units.

    tjagain
    Full Member

    Way over priced on both parts and labour to me

    squirrelking
    Free Member

    DIY kitchens gave us 13 units (8 base and 5 cupboards) for about £5k including sink. IIRC we paid our joiner £800 to fit it.

    Blazin-saddles
    Free Member

    10 unit kitchen would be around a grand for fitting plus whatever electrics and plumbing requirements are. Magnets and b&q skim 50% of the fitting price off so the fitter will only be seeing half of what’s quoted.

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    Sorry to hijack – anyone know where I can buy a cheap worktop? It’s for my workshop so I don’t care about colour/design as long as it’s strong enough not to flex.

    I’ve got an off-cut already, but it’s not really big enough.

    pocketrocket
    Free Member

    P-Jay – Member
    Sorry to hijack – anyone know where I can buy a cheap worktop? It’s for my workshop so I don’t care about colour/design as long as it’s strong enough not to flex.

    Picked up a 3m worktop from Selco today on special offer for £22.
    You will need an account though.

    ajantom
    Full Member

    As someone who has worked in the kitchen industry (ha!) as a younger man I can indeed confirm that it is mostly a massive con.

    They bank on you dismissing the first quote, and then they gradually whittle away until it ‘seems’ a good deal in comparison, but is still massively overpriced. They will then hassle you to sign up there and then and try to convince you to put it on credit – their commission will almost double if you do.

    The ‘designers’ aren’t, they’re just salesmen. They will rush the design, and problems are then sorted out by a surveyor who visits later on. Or you discover the problems come fitting time when nothing fits.

    When you bear in mind that most kitchen units are plastic veneered chipboard, and worktops are similar (unless you go for wood, granite, or a manmade alternative), you aren’t getting much for your money.

    Find a look you like, design your own layout, buy the units and bits from the cheapest source. Get friends and family to recommend a fitter or builder. Fitting shouldn’t cost more than a grand or take more than 4 days, unless it’s huge.

    Over a 4 year period I worked for Magnet, Howdens, and Moben. This was in the late 90’s and early 00’s btw. But I expect things haven’t changed much.

    Moben were the worst shysters of the lot. I’d never, ever even touch their stuff with a s**** bargepole.
    Magnet were pretty decent, and most staff actually knew their stuff. Expensive though.
    Howdens were at that point the trade arm of MFI. If you were a builder, or friends with a builder you could get a pretty good deal.

    PeterPoddy
    Free Member

    We got a bloke to come round from Moben who said he wasn’t trying to give us hard sell, he waltzed around the kitchen, didn’t really listen then came up with £12k out of nowhere, this WASN’T including plastering, flooring, a small wall to remove, electrics, gas, appliances, just some chipboard units screwed to the wall.
    We did it for about that same price including a complete rewire, replastering, removing the wall, quartz worktops, Neff appliances, real wood units (well, doors at least) designed to fit some odd spaces we have, USA style plumbed in fridge, professionally tiled floor, new doors and decorating.
    His price was an utter rip off
    (I fitted it myself)

    Had the same in our last house with central heating. Got 3 quotes from small local firms who all came round in overalls or company polo shirts, measured the rooms, went away and sent us a written quote a few days later. They were £3600 – £4200. I’d have been happy with any them. Someone kept going on about British Gas, so I got them round too. Young bloke with a briefcase in a shiny suit arrives, has literally a 2 minute look round and said “How does £6500 sound?”
    So I showed him the lowest of the written quotes and he couldn’t get out quickly enough!

    Kitchen looks like this…. 🙂
    (Fridge fits next to patio doors, it hadn’t arrived when I took these pics)

    [url=https://flic.kr/p/91mwYE]IMG_0705[/url]
    by Peter Atkin, on Flickr

    [url=https://flic.kr/p/91mAeW]IMG_0710[/url]
    by Peter Atkin, on Flickr

    badllama
    Free Member

    OP
    Try wicks they have a set fitting price £1500.00 regardless of the size of kitchen we were told, but I fitted it myself with a mate without issue as it was only a small kitchen.

    Units have been great and had no issues.

    wrightyson
    Free Member

    Where you at? Just used our local kitchen firm to supply and fit 4 kitchens with dishwasher only as it’s industrial use. Quality carcassing and nice doors, simple 100mm upstand above matching laminate worktop. All in 10k.

    esselgruntfuttock
    Free Member

    Sounds like conservatory companies! We got 3 quotes from local companies which were all similar then Anglian come in one with for 9K (nine K) more!
    For basically the same bloody thing!

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