Viewing 29 posts - 41 through 69 (of 69 total)
  • Kitchens – how much?!
  • poolman
    Free Member

    My ikea kitchen is still good after 5 years. All units from ikea but worktops granite, handles from john lewis i think, sink from plumbers merchant. I didnt like the whole ikea look.

    I was in howdens last year and said i was a private landlord so they offered me an account, maybe a builder will get better discounts though.

    Get a few people to look at the design.

    stevied
    Free Member

    We’re in a similar boat and have just finished the design for our new kitchen.
    Similar sort of size to the OP, u-shaped with a breakfast bar.
    We’ve managed to get some of the cupboards/appliances as an ex-display from the local showroom.
    Saved a good few £k and costing £9.5k with 2 x Neff ovens, 5 burner hob, dishwasher, fridge-freezer, granite worktops etc. The Howden design was about £7.5k with basic range appliances.

    simonbea
    Free Member

    We are having a Howdens kitchen fitted as we speak and have used them through work for a few years. Just don’t accept the first quotes. I think someone else mentioned that they apply a ‘discount’ on each item in the quotation (not that you would ever pay their 100% price). On ours some items started at 45%-65%, after we had mentioned we were getting other quotes and still deciding the quote kept coming down each week. In the end our discounts ended up around 85% for a lot of it.

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    Larry_Lamb
    Free Member

    Just had our kitchen done completely from Magnet – fitted by them as well, £850 for that, just haggle. Magnet use contractors who pay Magnet for the job and dont get that deposit paid back till the job is done when you sign, this gives them an incentive to do it and do it well.

    Oh and just purchase the kitchen when they have their “rare” sales on. 🙄

    Job took two weeks to do.

    All in all it was £10k, this included:

    Removal of old kitchen and floor tiles
    Fitting new units (15), ceramic sink and tap, worktops, upstands, decoglaze splashback
    Electrics redone & new lights
    Artex plastered over and walls re-plastered after old tiles removed
    Karndean flooring
    All appliances which included a range cooker (dont buy from magnet – they were half the price at places like ao.com) and fitting
    Painted walls & ceiling
    New skirting and window board
    New blinds

    olly2097
    Free Member

    Floor dug out and new insulation and concrete laid.
    Florida tiled.
    New windows and new door put in.
    Boarded all round and skimmed.
    Plumbing moved about.
    Electrics sorted.
    New downlights.
    IKEA kitchen built and fitted.
    Walls tiled.

    7k.

    All appliances from IKEA (5 year warranty; fridge, freezer, oven, dishwasher and induction hob)
    Worktops from elsewhere. As stated IKEA think your room is 100 % square. I needed at lot more worktop on my gable end as the wall was about 6″ out.

    Did it all myself apart from capping off the gas. Went for an induction hob and luckily I had removed the electric shower from the bathroom and left the wire isolated in a junction box in the kitchen ceiling. Perfect and it’s on its own fuse.

    downshep
    Full Member

    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.

    DezB
    Free Member

    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!)

    HoratioHufnagel
    Free Member

    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.

    oikeith
    Full Member

    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.

    brassneck
    Full Member

    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.

    mrmonkfinger
    Free Member

    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.

    russ295
    Free Member

    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.

    Alpha1653
    Full Member

    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…!

    stevemuzzy
    Free Member

    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.

    gray
    Full Member

    \hijack So how do you go about finding a good kitchen fitter then? (Any recommendations for one in Oxford?)

    deviant
    Free Member

    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.

    ransos
    Free Member

    Don’t use B&Q. Our cupboards all started delaminating after a few years.

    dantsw13
    Full Member

    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

    Mintman
    Free Member

    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).

    Alpha1653
    Full Member

    Mintman – Member

    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).[/quote]

    That would be great, thanks! Could you drop the details to al_cave@hotmail.co.uk? Thanks a lot. 😀

    Alpha1653
    Full Member

    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.

    dantsw13
    Full Member

    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.

    dantsw13
    Full Member

    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

    DezB
    Free Member

    May be good at DIY, but you didn’t get the “Don’t use Photobucket” memo eh? 😉

    ifra
    Free Member

    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

    dantsw13
    Full Member

    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 🙁 )

    Pieface
    Full Member

    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.

    dantsw13
    Full Member

    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

    Blazin-saddles
    Free Member

    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.

Viewing 29 posts - 41 through 69 (of 69 total)

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