We bought from Howdens and got a local joiner to fit it. He had all the correct routing tools and was a far quicker worker than I would have been. All integrated appliances bought online and self fitted (apart from gas connection to hob). Saved several thousands over an all in one service.
Another Howdens here. My brother's BiL fitted it. Happy with it all and their own appliances (Lamona) are decent enough.
Howden's designer fella came round after I'd done the initial design with the fitter and made some useful suggestions.
(Except one - the "hidden" cutlery drawer: DO NOT get this!)
Our Ikea kitchen hasn't been trouble free:
- The shelves and doors have already started to delaminate where they are exposed to heat and steam from the oven door
- The worktops also do not cope with either water or stains. Water has soaked into the wood and it's started to delaminate as well.
In both cases Ikea's warranty was useless. They send out someone to inspect, then tell you it's not covered. Have a google...
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/jul/05/ikea-25-year-guarantee-kitchen-faulty
We have coated the worktop in "Rustins plastic coating" iirc, which has worked really well.
Also worth nothing that Ikea units have very little space at the back and we found them tricky to fit to an old house with wonky walls.
Some friends of mine were advised by there local chippy to buy from Howdens as saves on day rates not having to build flat pack units and where we are located they have a good local depot with lots of stock and a quick turn around.
They didnt listen, went B&Q, when stuff arrived damaged and pieces were missing they are now waiting a few weeks for the new stuff to arrive because the local B&Q doesn't carry stock.
IKEA had a great kitchen at a good price, but were hopeless at customer service. When it finally was sorted out and ordered they discontinued it, making spares only available mail order (we'd chosen one built and demoed in the store). Stopped the order - their fitting by the way was 6x what we eventually paid by getting individual local trades and doing a bit ourselves (Dad is a sparky, and we ran the last few M of HEP and connected appliances.
Bought a Cooke & Lewis (B&Q) in the end and can't fault it - spares are on the shelves off the big stores (kids used a cantilever door as a swing ^^), bought the worktops from worktop express online, an AO.com for appliances who are excellent. Got a 1200 electric range up a flight of stairs and a steep drive with far more than deserved cheeriness, took all the packaging away etc. - great service for nothing extra on a cheap price.
We did our last place with B&Q cabinets. No issues with quality, however, we weren't there long enough to comment on longevity.
Appliances sourced by ourselves. Mixture of new from assorted online sources & seconds from the bay.
£2k
...but small kitchen.
Fitting was astronomical when B&Q quoted.
I fit kitchens as my job. Self employed.
I’ve prob fitted nearly every mainstream brand in the U.K.
I’ve fitted Howdons showrooms and probably over 200 of their kitchens.
My house has a DIY kitchen in it.
I deal with their parent company as a trade customer tho, I use a different website to order, the diy site is a pain to use.
Once again, thanks everyone for your replies and advice. At the moment, DIY kitchens and Howdens appear to be at the top of the list, coupled with using local tradesmen for the fitting / plastering / flooring and electrics. Guess I had better start ringing round everyone to get the ducks in a row...!
Late to the party but i cannot reccomend diy kitchens higher. I fitted.my man room out with them. Excellent quality, come built and reasonable prices.
\hijack So how do you go about finding a good kitchen fitter then? (Any recommendations for one in Oxford?)
Used DIY kitchens, it's not hard to measure up a kitchen, most are just a rectangular room.
Then used a local fitter, found on checkatrade, I think the kitchen was around £1500 and the fitting was anther £1000 so 2.5k all in.
All this talk of £7500 - £10,000 kitchens reminds me of when I had Dolphin Bathrooms round to quote...the house was a small 2 up/2 down terrace with a tiny bathroom...the price was 20k+....the salesman then did that 'classic' thing of saying "today for one day only I can ring my boss and get a discount"...he finished the call by giving me a new price of £14,000 there and then, lol.
I had to remind him I was only 24yrs old, single, in my first little starter home and it had only cost £130,000 anyway....i asked him what he thought the chances of me spending 14k on a bathroom were?...he realised he was on a hiding to nothing commission-wise and left.
Did the same as above, went to B&Q and put a bathroom together for about £750 then had a local plumber fit it for a grand on top of that.
I'll be doing the same in the new year for our current house when we plan to do the bathroom.
Don't use B&Q. Our cupboards all started delaminating after a few years.
I've just fitted a big kitchen in our house (8mx7m, 21 units including a couple of full height larder units.) The units were 10k, with quartz, slate flooring, big range, american FF, and furniture bringing the total to 20k. It is solid wood frames/doors on oak veneered mdf carcasses, which I fitted/hand painted. For a bespoke, made to measure kitchen, it came in at half the prices quoted by Harvey Jones or Smallbone.
A photo of it nearly finished
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Alpha1653 - Member
Guess I had better start ringing round everyone to get the ducks in a row...!
I'm in north Bristol and if you want I'll pass you the details of the local guy who did my plastering, electrics, plumbing and fitting. He's done my bathroom and kitchen now and I rate his work and I seem to recall he was a competitive price).
Mintman - MemberAlpha1653 - Member
Guess I had better start ringing round everyone to get the ducks in a row...!I'm in north Bristol and if you want I'll pass you the details of the local guy who did my plastering, electrics, plumbing and fitting. He's done my bathroom and kitchen now and I rate his work and I seem to recall he was a competitive price).
That would be great, thanks! Could you drop the details to al_cave@hotmail.co.uk? Thanks a lot. 😀
Dantsw13 - amazing looking kitchen! I would love to get all hands on and everything but I've simply not got the time or the skill.
Thanks- I just posted up to show that it is possible to get the really high end kitchens without the 40k price tag! The in-frame units and solid carcasses are lovely, and really don't take that much to fit. As the units are solid, I reckon they are even easier than standard flat pack stuff to fit. As they are bespoke sizes, you don't need filler panels either. Solid kick panels and architrave really finish it off, and because it's hand painted, very easy to fill/sand/paint to match in.
Things like solid oak drawers (1m wide units on the island) are brilliant - all soft close 30kg capacity too.
Shopping around for handles is an eye opener, as is the prices kitchen shops charge for granite/quartz worktops. I've got 9m of carrrera quartz, which was £3k. Harvey Jones was double that.
I also sanded down all my old knackered oak worktops, cut them down to make chunky shelves and dresser tops. I've finished them in Matt OSMO to keep them looking rustic.
Other top tips, having fitted my last 3 kitchens:
Deep pan drawers much better than cupboards
Having always cooked on gas, I'm completely sold on induction
You can't have too many sockets! Get some USB ones too for charging
Pullout larders are great for all your dry food storage
May be good at DIY, but you didn't get the "Don't use Photobucket" memo eh? 😉
I am just south of Bristol outside of WSM and have just used a company called Better Kitchens, they have small showroom, can order all online and came built very solid units and they will do a design for you. Very reasonable price compared to the high street names
Dez - no, I moved from Flikr to photobucket last year, but as my wife loves to tell me I'm a techno Luddite!! What is the stw free hosting site these days? (It worked last night anyhow, butgone this morning 🙁 )
We're getting a U shaped layout of basically 3 metres each length. We've already got a fridge but are spaffing a bit on mid-range Neff appliances (2 ovens, extractor, 80cm induction hob & dishwasher), tall larder unit, integrated bin then one and a half lengths of wall units is coming in at 10k as well as a few extra units and laminate worktop for a utility room. The quartz worktop is 2.5k. Flooring is going to spread in to another area so not really included but we're budgeting £50 per sqm inc. fitting (hopefully).
So for what we think is a reasonable sized kitchen, with mid-range appliances and fittings we're looking at £12.5k, however all plastering and wiring is all part of a building project.
For tiling (slate) 40m2 floor area- not under cupboards and around island cost me £900 for oyster quartzite tiles, £400 for ufh boards, 500 for electric ufh and £1300 to fit, including self levelling the floor
Pieface - £50m/2 is a bit nett for tiling but ballpark. £30-£35 m2 labour is going rate at mo, plus tiles. If it's going onto a clean smoothish slab. Extra for underfloor heating or massive tiles or timber floor etc.
