Okay so I've decided I want a new kitchen, current on in house is original from about 12 years ago. It's horrible, rotting flesh walls, tiles with some random floral basket arrangement and beige manky cabinets. So where do I get a good kitchen from? I want to go somewhere who will install it for me?
So homebase are coming around on thursday night to measure up then do their computer generated image thing and give us a price. So do people have good/bad stories about Homebase or recommend other companies? I am in Oxfordshire and don't want to spend crazy money but just want a reasonable new kitchen.
cheers.

think all homebase, magnet etc are alright, from there adverts they appear to have lots of styles, mod cons. I'm sure the usual suspects will tell you about there 'hand carved sink made from giant redwood' but full bespoke kitchen costs so much.

Wickes are suprisingly good. In my family we've had a total of 3 kitchens and 5 bathrooms done from Wickes and its been pretty painless. Fitters are self employed but pretty good and Wickes are pretty hot on keeping tabs on them to make sure they do a good job.

Second wickes, as above.
I fit kitchens and use magnet trade all the time. Prices are very good and cannot fault the quality. Retail however are obscenely expensive in comparison.
Avoid homebase and b an q, quality is not good and you'll have a nightmare with the fitters.
Get a few locals in first of all. They'll likely use better quality suppliers and won't bend you over on the fitting.
Howdens are dear btw and not that good imo.
Call into your local magnet trade and ask for fitters, might be a bit reluctant at first due to thier retail side. Bacon butty usually sorts that though

freestanding beech top units from habitat have stood the test here theyre really solid no fitting charge just put them where you want / move them around and even take them with you if you move house and the whole lot cost less than a fitted kitchen

I can't comment about Homebase.

But I would recommend getting some expert advice on layout etc. When we had ours done it was amazing what they could fit into the available space.

Also the quality of fitting is important. The guy we had spotted (and fixed) numerous problems with the wiring, heating etc as he went along.

I've heard good things about Ikea cabinets but you will need a fitter. Do you know anyone local who's had a kitchen fitted?

delt with magnet, got some good deals in a sale and the guy knew what he was talking about, fitting good and on time. good kitchen that works. on the otherhand my grandparents spent 40k on a kitchen/diner in london, was a bespoke design. an all in nightmare that went on and on. mind you, their kitchen is flipping lush with detail so good and the quality is top notch.

Just finished fitting an ikea one, shopped around and they were good value and available off the shelf. Although much of a muchness these days if you can wade through the discounts and sales guff.

A friend recently got theirs fitted by someone local who also bought it from Magnet, they had a trade catalogue with trade prices and basically just charged for the fitting. Which still worked out twice the price I paid, but had to take two weeks off work to do it.

If you know anyone in the building trade they maybe able to get a magnet kitchen for you at cost price, you then pay them to fit it…a cheek I know but if your friends with someone like that they will probably be helpful like that, I have a m8 like that, handy as my mrs wants new kitchen doors.

Or these people http://www.theusedkitchencompany.com/#/kitchens-for-sale-2/4536858762

Like my Ikea one ( it`s the red one ) but they have computer image lay out on website to play with

Wickes are great. The joiner who fitted my last one had never fitted a Wickes one but he was v impressed with the quality. Their planning and ordering service was very good as well.

Fitted lots of kitchens from all the above^,i would take a look at ikea as they are good kitchens and good value for money

Hmmm Kitchens

we've had 2 done in two separate houses- does anyone ever have 2 kitchens in one house?

Anyhow we went to sigma 3 first ( south wales firm) Neanderthal salesman with mum and dad tattoood on his knuckles told us we couldnt afford it(wrong!!!) you lose tosser!

Magnet salesman turned up in ferrari ( tosser) smelling of mint and stale booze took a look at the kitchen for 1 minute took no measurements and quoted £25 K. exactly how he worked that out i have no idea!

Anyway we called up keller next. genuine likeable bloke turns up takes detailed requests and measurements goes away does some sums and comes back to explain sums with plans and quoted significantly less than magnet.

If you have a local Keller Kitchens sales office then I would highly reccomend them- they have supplied both of ours and we havent had anyting fall aprt yet!

Got an IKEA one – spent two days putting the carcasses together myself and paid a good chippy to fit them/doors/work surface.

Chippy was impressed with the cabinet quality – solid beech doors, but thought the laminate work surface was no better than the rest – Next time I'd go for solid wood work surface too.

IKEA staff helped with layout – on their computer model.

Including experienced chippy (£150 x 3days) worked out much cheaper than DIY stores or kitchen companies.

Can't comment on any particular supplier (we went local) but a gopping great big pan drawer is definitely worth while for putting all the big wonky awkward shaped stuff (er pans) in.

don't go anywhere near Moben. Had a complete nightmare that would take too long to recount here. Utter bunch of t0ss3rs. My boss had one fitted around the same time and also had nothing but problems. Turns out they'd an injunction against Watchdog that ended whilst we were in the middle of trying to sort things out – if we'd known then we'd not have gone anywhere near them.

We've just put in an Ikea kitchen and the chippie was very impressed – worth noting that their cabinets don't have quite as much allowance for oddly shaped walls as Wickes et al – their backs sit quite close to the wall where I think a lot of others give you a few more cm of clearance.

Got a friend who's put in a few kitchens and he also recommends Wickes…

I got a howdens kitchen and got a mate to fit it, saved me thousands.

They are what the trade fit and good value

howdens clicky

I went to a good local firm (used by most members of my family)

Can't beat going local IMHO, far better service than I received from any chain store I went to (Homebase, Wickes, B&Q…)

£7500 later and one new kitchen with everything included tiles, appliances, rewiring, the lot (barring the washing machine) even the kitchen sink in lovely black granite!

Nightmare 😯

Replaced two kitchens/utility room in same house – around 15 years apart though.

First time used County Kitchens who were brilliant.

Second time used Magnet and they were rubbish. Got the Manager out to look at the fitters' work, shoddy was putting it mildly.

If I was doing it again, would buy units myself and then find a fitter by personal recommendation. Alternatively for household stuff, I now use http://www.checkatrade.com – customers leave feedback and so far have been happy.

magnet screwfix and wickes are all meant to be good quality, i think homebase is meant to be poor quality. Screwfix kitchens are supposed to be reasonble, but you would need to find a kitchen fitter. This would definitely work out cheaper than paying homebase etc to supply and fit. If you need any electrical work doing, feel free to give me a shout, and i can come to give you a qoute. It would probably be cheaper than using someone through a company as they would want to take their cut…

Andy

+1 on the ikea had 3 myself in my slum landlord role, and one of my landlord mates with 35 houses prefers ikea over howdens for quality, but howdnes is nearby so can sometimes be useful.

I fitted a howdens one to one of my houses last year – doesnt seem as good as ikea and already I've got doors falling apart problems..

The yawn with ikea is that you have to go there and collect, might not be near to you…

Magnet is good quality, their subcontractors are not.

Some of the laminate foils don't like heat. Even from the companies own fitted ovens.

Wee sis's from Ikea delaminated at some corners but they sorted it straight away with guarantee.

Ikea can be a bit of a faff if there are bits missing and you are doing it yourself. You can always take extra and take it back. Ikea carry replacements for their stock for about 3 years.

Magnet once came and quoted £4000 for my galley kitchen. My poverty spec from ikea came to £1100 – Luxury spec is £1300 so not really much difference just changing the look.

I fitted a B&Q one in our house last year – really easy if your reasonably handy – just get a chippy in to do the worktops and a plumber for the gas hob. B&Q basically wanted £5500 for the full thing fitted – I paid £1900 for the kitchen alone, sso god knows where they get their fitting ccosts from -I certainly couldn't earn that money in the time it too me to put it in….

Quality seems okay TBH, I think the detailing is where you can tell and expensive kitchen, but my house does not justfiy a big spend on such things.

I fitted my own kitchen last year, bought it supply only from B&Q. It was pretty straight forward putting the units together. I had to get a mate in whose a chippie to hang and fix the units, mitre the worktop and cut out the inserts, but apart from that it was pretty straight forward.

I'm a pro kitchen fitter. Some observations…..

You're almost always better to get a local tradesman in to do the fit even if you buy the cabinets yourself, a lot of the big retail places charge like wounded bulls for fitting as they all want commision on top of the installers cut.

I personally like the quality of Howdens and Wickes as 1st choice, Ikea and Magnet would be 2nd and B&Q/homebase a distant 3rd. This is based on quality of units but also ease of dealing with the store.

Get a fitter in to look before you buy anything because they may be able to offer discounts and the like from certain outlets.

Don't be afraid to ask for references, I always offer them for any of my jobs.

A little tip on IKEA kitchens there is a big promo coming end of feb and a new planner tool to go with it at the same time.

+1 for IKEA

Didn't DIY it and did go for alternative worktops mainly because we knew a good tiler/fitter already and simply collected the bits for him. We had a plan but IKEA people very good at sorting it out within their software. As above, it depends how near they are – they do deliver ( or their agent does ) and they will provide a fitting service – again they contract it out.

we've had 2 done in two separate houses- does anyone ever have 2 kitchens in one house

I'm on my third in 22 years in this house, but I'm in the trade, my brother-in-law is on his eighth in 30 years in his house, he also is in the trade.

I've fitted loads loads of kitchens over the years, the nastiest ones are Homebase & Ikea.
Steer clear of all the national direct sales companies, find a local fitter & deal direct with him, he will either supply & fit it for you, or just plan it then advise you where & what to buy, then fit it for you.
Your B&Q's & the rest all use S/E guys who get about half of what they actually charge for fitting, so just cut them out. Problem is knowing a good fitter from a poor one, best to go by recommendation.

Have a look here,some of the areas are for registered fitters only, but a fair bit is accessible for joe bloggs & you will get help.

Here is free software (30)hrs to do your own plans or at least give you an idea, it has 3D & walk-through facilities. It will probably take you about 4 hrs to figure it out & do a drawing the first time.

DONT get a smeg fridge ours is sh*t.
ta.

ARgh so many things! Well I will use Homebase for measurements and comptuer design thing … could give me some ideas then I'll look around. Anyone know any good kitchen fitters in and around Oxford maybe my next option. I'd rather give small companies my business but it's finding the people that are good!!
Cheers I'll get looking at some others too.

If you're going design+fitted service then definitely get more than one company to quote you.

We got in three:

– one guy (from a large national company) asked for around £25k for our relatively small kitchen. Than after a week he offered reductions. After a month he did the "I spoke to my boss. 50% off special reduction this week only" routine.

– the next bloke (small company) wouldn't listen to us and tried to sell us shiny black marble and glossy cabinets – which would look great in a city pad but totally out of character in a little country terraced house. Told us there was nothing he could do to cover the boiler and that we'd have to ditch the vintage ceramic belfast sink and put in an aluminium one.

– the last guys, Kitchen Centre (smallish company), listened to us properly and designed a cabinet to support the sink and a put a cover round the boiler. Plus it was all good quality materials with proper traceability for the wood.

I can recommend a building from Oxford that you shouldn't use! Best not go public on that though just in case – I can do that off line!

I'd go to more than kitchen designer as you'll get different ideas on how to use your space.

Macgyver

I know a few good kitchen fitters in the Oxford area, if you're interested let me know and I'll put you in touch.

Southern Yeti I went to send you a message but you don't have your e-mail in profile. Could you drop me a line! thanks.

Don't have an integrated fridge.

Do check doors all close correctly and are fitted correctly.

Have soft shut draws.

Integrate a bin.

Don't pay all the money to the fitters before they've finished the job.

Cool don't have integrated fridge or washing machine .. .about the only thing I will be keeping! Integrated bin sounds good, were you suggesting one of those ones on the door which opens as you open the door?
Paying fitters … up would definately do it on a 50/50 or whatever it may be! Oh and soft shut draws like the sound of that!!

Soft shut drawers are just so passé. We have soft shut cabinets as well 😀

Don't have an integrated fridge.

We went for an integrated fridge, and squeezed in an integrated (slim) dishwasher.
Mainly because I wanted a more traditional look without loads of modern white goods on display.