Kitchens

[rosinante]

Hi All ,not welding but with a new kitchen fitted my liesure time will be freed up for more tool time ,Q where does one get a kitchen at an affordable price with reliable delivery, I will fit it myself,had one quote for £6K and the the kitchen is 2m by 2.5m so only 4 base units and 5 wall units,this excluded things like fridge/dishwasher/freezer,so has anyone got any recommendations for suppliers in the Medway/mid Kent areas,cheers fellas

Chris

 

[Windy Miller]

I get all my kitchen stuff from Howdens in Gillingham, but you need a trade account. You could try and convince them you're a pro...

Failing that, Magnets in Strood are pretty good, and they seem to be quite easy going about giving trade discounts. If you go there covered in paint and sawdust, with a pencil behind your ear and a tape measure clipped to your belt, you will probably get away with it!

 

[rosinante]

I get all my kitchen stuff from Howdens in Gillingham, but you need a trade account. You could try and convince them you're a pro...

Failing that, Magnets in Strood are pretty good, and they seem to be quite easy going about giving trade discounts. If you go there covered in paint and sawdust, with a pencil behind your ear and a tape measure clipped to your belt, you will probably get away with it!

Thems my best clothes!!

 

[Windy Miller]

Thems my best clothes!!

You must use the same tailor as me then!

 

[Shox Dr]

6k I hope you coughed your tea all over them.

Ikea do very well made kitchens at very keen prices. Howdens are very very expensive unless as stated you have an account. I would not buy a MFI/Hygena type as the quality control is a joke.

 

[Robotstar5]

Have you looked at the big chains, B&Q, Homebase, Wickes?. I fitted a B&Q one into my similar sized kitchen in '93, was still OK when I sold house 12 years later.

 

[tigler]

Never ceases to astonish me how much some people will willingly allow themselves to be robbed for kitchens !! Most people can't cook to save their lives, the most ambitious thing they will probably ever produce is a roast and yet their kitchen is better equipped than my workshop, where far more productive and worthwhile things are created !!

One set of next door neighbours moved out last November after only having been in the place for 16 months, yet when they moved in they stripped out the kitchen which their predecessor had only installed 6 months before, totally gutted it and fitted a new one !!The day they moved out the bloke collared me for a natter, something I had avoided all the time they were there as he was a complete twonk, and almost tripped over himself to tell me that they had spent £22,000 on that kitchen !!!

That would have built the 6 car garage I wanted but couldn't due to the conservation police, and they blew it on a mucking kitchen !!

 

[Andy from Workshopshed]

Fitting is not cheap, got an estimate of £1k for an equivalent sized kitchen then again if you do it yourself you could spend a lot on a decent router, bits and a template to get those smooth corners

 

[kingkenny]

One word of warning about Ikea kitchens,They tend not to have the void at the rear of the base units like uk made units,So pipe work is either chased into wall or run at plinth level,Other than that good quality kitchen units.Speaking from experience having fitted several over the years.

 

[hareng]

Shopped around for weeks looking at a lot of kitchens. Prices vary astonishingly for apparent same or similar build quality.
Sink and fittings came mail order bargain around £300, saved around £300 on B&Q price alone plus they dont do anything as good. Or in other words what B&Q sell for £300 got for about £70 gives you some idea.
Even slapped in a soap dispenser.

What really annoys me with ALL these kitchen planners, is wasted space and 'it cannot be done' plus leave too much wasted useable space at the end of the runs.

After reasonable build settled on Focus with conti carcass, soft close drawers and real maple fronts not veneer, dont do it any more approx £2k. B&Q less units and not as good build was just over £3k without sink, hob etc. Did order work surface it came on time but returned no problem with instant credit to account.
Went elsewhere to a local kitchen specialist and had a better work surface wider, cut to lengths, mitred and jointed for same price. Even done the workshop in the cheapy sell offs and it all matches, so do some searching.

Biggest money spinner is the taps and sinks.
Had a new not a reject De Dietric induction hob and Bosch oven from Northampton £725 delivered they did have a web site 5 years ago. Nationally the Dedietric are over £900 alone, cooker over £600 but total was around £3100 plus £300 for drill.
Do your research probably saved £5k

 

[mike os]

£1k is about right for an "average" fitting... ie 15 ish units 6-8m worktop etc.

Although you can buy the kit, some of it needs a little experience to get right & some people never get it.... worktop joints in particular.

Easy enough job to do OK, but if you want spot on usually better paying someone who knows whats what.... at least for the tops & mitres

As to the kitchen... well how much do you want to spend? you could blow 15-50k on the worktops if you want to

Used to fit full time & seriously thinking of going back to it... weather is seriously peeing me off

edit:-
after my last experience with Ikea kitchens I will not fit them other than on daywork & will not give a timeframe....

 

[rosinante]

Hi Fellas thanks for all replys fitting will be done by me ,[im a better joiner of wood than metal] and can mitre the worktops etc myself 9 already have the routers etc, it was just supplly I was after, the quote I had didnt include fitting,it looks like howdens for me using my nephews trade account,hanks Dusty,the doors that SWMBO wants are just flat slab with no dirt traps,the ones we have seen are 18 mm MDF and the profit margins must be huge!!just wish I could paint them as well as a factory and make em meself ,cheers again fellas

Chris

 

[rtcosic]

Have you checked out eBay for second hand ones?
Stunning number of people's first step when buying a house is to rip out relatively new and perfectly servicable kitchens to replace with a new one in a different style.

this one

or this

Or look at the various replacement door companies (Google is your friend there) - plain slab doors are relatively cheap even when made to measure.

one

two

three

four

five


SWMBO wanted a new (horribly expensive) kitchen - don't know why, original was only fitted in 1989 and none of doors had fallen off yet. Quote for doing the utility room to match was over £5k, so I modified the old carcasses and bought replacement doors to (nearly) match the new kitchen. Even got handles that very nearly matched too.
Built some carcasses myself - from DIY shed's veneered chipboard - to fit awkward shapes/sizes, such as boxing in the hot water cylinder and boiler.
Everyone thought we had the utility room done by same company as the kitchen.
Still cost over £1k though by the time you add in modified electrics and plumbing, wall and floor tiles, worktops sinks/taps etc.

 

[rtcosic]

Found the supplier I used:

clicky

 

[rkde]

We got a B&Q job on one of their discount days and saved loads, its all very well put together, we installed it and its on par with the very expensive ones. We only have a small kitchen but it looks stunning and I would recommend at least getting a b&q guy round to quote you free. Ikea seam to be doing some good stuff too

We went to a seconds shop for the dish washer, sink, fridge and got them for a steel with a year warranty and all the dents are on the side in the cupboards, so we don't care about them. Sink wasn't dented and also we got the extractor in b&q it was £200 we got it for £45 and it was just an opened box. The seconds shop had loads of stuff in like a cave. Oven was the best comet made a pricing error and we got £150 off for hob and oven

 

[rosinante]

Cheers for all the help fellas

Chris

 

[clueless77]

just fitted my kitchen from wren kitchens. chose them because the units come fully assembled. all you have to do is fit the feet and the handles. that's the theory anyway, one of my wall units came without doors so still waiting for them, with all the usual bull from the customer fob off squad, soon to be resolved, hopefully. otherwise a nice kitchen with soft closing doors and drawers. got the quartz worktops, so they got fitted by the worktop manufacturer, all i did was fit the feet and screw the units to the wall. (apart from plumbing, electrics, plastering, laminate floor and skirtings) .howdens used to be part of m.f.i. they used hygena base units and schreiber doors so you couldn't get a like for like quote from m.f.i. wren kitchens is owned by the bloke who started hygena.

 

[Pulsarbebb]

we made our kitchen our selves, brick walls round the outside and oak sleepers cut into 3's then I sanded them down and screwed them into the top of the brick very basic but looks excellant in an old house

 

[Dune]

How fancy do you want it? If your just after basic look at Wickes.

 

[Slim Shady]

why not make it out of stainless steel and tig it all.