[Closed] Naked Ladies in Kitchens

Ha ha, good effort. I've no opinion on your actual question though

My dad just installed a B&Q one even though I told him how much better quality an Ikea one would be. The B&Q one really is shoddy compared to the Ikea componentry and carcasses. Im betting that Homebase may well be as bad but I have no evidence. I can, however, recommend Ikea ones for value for money and really good quality. Obviously you have to factor in the graft of designing and speccing, picking and delivering it yourself, but I reckon it's worthwhile.

Id go for ikea as well, I am building my ikea kitchen from the bargain bit in the store its amazing what you can pick up over time!! 🙂

even though I told him how much better quality an Ikea one would be

Id go for ikea as well

I wouldn't - the carrcasses have no space behind for routing cables/pipes etc so you end up spending more time rerouting stuff*.

Of course you could move all the units out by about 80mm, but then you need a bespoke work-surface making.

*Unless they have changed this recently

We bought an MFI kitchen 6yrs ago and it still looks good. The trick seems to be to get someone other than the shops (B&Q etc) fitting team to fit it. Get a chippy in to do it and it should last for years as they normally get business from word or mouth etc so have to do a good job.

Thats what we were told when we got ours done and it proved to be right.

IIRC the carcases of 95% of kitchens are the same in terms of quality unless you go for handmade so it shouldn't really matter if you get them from B&Q or IKEA, its things like the doors, worktops, draws that make the difference.

We bought an MFI kitchen 6yrs ago and it still looks good

same here, we've had 2 MFI kitchens now and think they are excellent. Although seeing they've gone bust maybe we are the only 2 who thought that?

Just had a B&Q kitchen fitted last week and have to say I'm very impressed with both the build quality of the units and the standard of work the guys did. I'm pretty fussy and the snagging list is miniscule. Its one of thsoe cook & lewis kitchens. Wood used in the carcass is much thicker than ikea stuff. But I suppose it is their more expensive range.

check out ikea flat pack design

sketch out what you want on an envalope,

work out how to make it form standard plywood/MDF/chipboard sheets

buy wood, get B&Q to cut up for free (mostly)

assemble

we made loads of stuff this way at uni, works out cheeper 90% of the time, and you know it'll fit in that awquard gap.

[i]We bought an MFI kitchen 6yrs ago and it still looks good[/i]

Try Howden Joinery- they were profitable production side of MFI that was sold off before MFI was cast adrift.

Forget Howdens, I've had a few quotes off them, Magnet are always at least 20-25% cheaper and better stuff too.

What is your budget excluding fitting?

If it's good quality but cheap, get your carcasses from Selco or Magnet, both come ready assembled and are excellent quality, 25yr guarantee from Magnet. Then put the cheaper IT range doors on from B&Q.

Get your appliances from ebay shop sellers.

If you're near manchester, i'll get you a quote from Magnet if you want

Our homebase kitchen was good, although we paid someone else to install it. Apparently it was all straight forward though. FInish looked good and it helped us to sell our house later on.

Thanks for advice and The FunkyMonkey for your offer. I live in Kent so think will check out Ikea and I think our local Magnet have a sale on at the mo.

BTW when you say 'installed by B&Q' then it isn't their own installation team. It's a team seperate company sub-contracted by B&Q. Now the firm that did ours are working on 14 different kitchens every week, if they did as bad a job as people say then B&Q would go elsewhere. Remember people generally only post bad reviews on the internet.

The secret with MFI kitchens was to install extra dowels in the holes specified for the most expensive ranges when buying a cheap one. Made them quite bomb-proof the only difference then was the lack of adjustable feet and easy remove plinth boards.
B&Q kitchens may be similar.

Adjustable feet and easily removeable plinth boards here.

I thought this was going to be a thread about Amy Winehouses pasta generated burns (allegedly)....

I bought a Homebase one. Single reason - Homebase do 1000mm base units that you can fit draws in above the cupboard. With B&Q you had to buy two 500mm units or expensive Select units. They both had buy one get one free type offers on doors/units etc which helped with the cost 🙂

And I saved about £80 by buying my handles from Screwfix rather than Homebase, and thats for a pretty small kitchen! (4 wall cupboards, 4 base cupboards and four drawers)

Just had an ikea one fitted by the builder who did the extension. I built the units and he fitted them. Then got a local granite company to do the work top. All looks really good. The builder did say the units (wall ones) were a pain to fit as there is limited adjustment so if your wall isn't perfect they may need little packers etc to square up correctly.

Very happy with the quality but it's early days.

db

Unless they have changed the type of units they sell B@Q and MFI use identical carcasses.
When it comes to fitting a kitchen there are only a few things you really need to know 💡
A) Only use 18mm carcasses.
B) When putting the units together always use extra screws and glue.
C) Always put extra fittings into the wall units/never use less than a 60mm x 10s screw for mounting brackets.
D) If you are fitting them yourself take your time and download instructions from various DIY sites to help you along.
E) If getting someone to fit the units ask them to show you previous work they have done (if they are good workmen then previous clients are usually more than happy to endorse their work)

Another vote for Ikea here - we did the design ourselves online, really easy - you then just trundle along to the store and they just double check everything. Then we had a local carpenter / plumber fit it - took about a week. It's been in two years and no complaints thus far.

Nice and reasonably priced too. They also have a list of recommended fitters in your area who they pass the work onto if you want to go down that route. They take a small commission and all the plans, units etc get delivered to the fitter rather than your house.

Previously in our flat we shelled out £££ to Moben (we were young and stupid). A complete and utter farce, I could fill pages with the various and complete botch jobs and pathetic attempts at resolving issues from all areas of that POS business. From the outset we were actually lucky to have a flat left standing after they'd been (electrical fire caused by illegal and shoddy workmanship) and it went downhill from there...

Another happy Ikea customer. And I like the fact that there's no gap at the back. That means extra storage space. We got an idea of fitting cost, but that was as much s the units themselves cost. I fitted them all and got the solid oak worktops too.

As above, avoid Moben/Kitchens Direct. I'll say no more to avoid possible legal repercussions.

We've got an Ikea kitchen which I'm more than happy with BUT be aware that they source their components from multiple countries. We had door and panels made in Italy and Romania (I think) and the dye colours didn't always match. I noticed the mis-match and I'm colour blind!

So we had to take some panels back to the store with a correct colour sample and get them to un-pack ALL the other panels of the same type they had til we found a match. Luckily we got a match eventually (and this could be expensive if you are paying your installer by the hour like we were...)

One thing with Howdens is their carcasses are built complete, not flat packed, so I have found this makes them much better than the Ikea/B&Q ones

Havent MFI gone bust ?

andyfla - Member

One thing with Howdens is their carcasses are built complete, not flat packed, so I have found this makes them much better than the Ikea/B&Q ones

You mean they assemble the flatpack before they deliver it to you?

I was just about to say that druidh. The assemble it, charge you for it and people think that makes it a better quality unit.